Many things can shape a city—its culture, history, social life, or food scene. But perhaps the most distinctive feature would be architecture. Some buildings can completely fascinate you with their astonishing design and pure aesthetics. Through careful urban planning and understanding of the cultural background, the structure of a city can carry you through time while still leaving you in a very particular place.
I've had requests to include a page showing my process step by step for people who want to start in gouache but just aren't quite sure how to go about it. Check out the link to Paint, Paper and Brushes (above) to get started. Here is my newest step-by-step demo, North 14, painted on white Pastelmat. As you will see in the next demo (Spring, below) this paper allows me to use washes easily, but can hold fine details, too. Pencil sketch. Blue washes, light and darker. One color layer in place. You can see how the flowers are painted wet-in-wet. More flowers, and some grassy details, as well as on the hills. The white cloud is painted in, too. Last highlights on the flowers; softened the cloud edges. Spring was done on white Pastelmat paper, which is quite absorbent and holds water for a long time. It means I can use washy techniques at first, then let it dry and build up more detail, painting over dried paint. Pencil sketch. I usually start with the sky. It's easier to work top to bottom. You can see the washy effect that I've used in the grasses, giving a lot of color to it. Then I added 'gray', a color derived from using mixtures of the colors on the palette in use already. I continued to develop the grays using a dry brush on the mountains, and started adding more to the trees. I darkened and blued the mid-ground, shaped the clouds, and began dashing in the lights in the foreground. In this finished image you can see that I added some small details in the middle distance, and developed the grasses and flowering weeds in the foreground, as well as completing the trees. I added some light to complete the mountains. The next one, Curve, is on Bristol paper, much smoother and with no texture to speak of at all. It's hard and doesn't absorb water, so it's a great contrast to the first one. Pencil sketch. Again, beginning at the top I painted in blocks of loose, washy color. For some subjects it's necessary to paint from the back to the front. The water needed to be established before the rocks. I began to develop the sky and the details on the distant hillside, as well as working on the trees and establishing the rocks. To finish I added color into the rocks and detailed the moving water in shadow, along with detailing the nearer trees.
"Drawing makes invention more accessible for me. Faster. Immediate. I start a drawing and I start to invent. I am always destroying the drawing’s status quo. I guess you could say I practice my own form of larceny. I sabotage reality, otherwise its like kissing without using your tongue. I can’t even cook a hamburger without messing with it… Before, often I lay down everything in a realistic way, but now, I have less patience for realism, my heart is too full. I need to release more emotion. I want more emotion and that gets in the way of realism. I want to cut the realism. Now, I’m letting off a lot of firecrackers, and I’m putting down a lot of ideas as though I was building with ideas. Things are coming up. Things are coming up and I have no way to speak about what the things are, but things are coming up that wouldn’t ordinarily grow next to each other. The depiction of physical energy on the paper and the disturbing of the paper’s surface are other ways to bring the drawing to life." Jim Dine 3.1.2015 3.1.2015A 3.15.2015 3.21.2015 3.22.2015B 3.29.2015 3.7.2015 3.8.2015A 4.11.2015 4.12.2015 4.18.2015 4.26.2015 4.5.2015 5.2.2015 5.3.2015 5.3.2015A
I Worried I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers flow in the right direction, will the earth turn as it was taught, and if not how shall I correct it? Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven, can I do better? Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows can do it and I am, well, hopeless. Is my eyesight fading or am I just imaging it, am I going to get rheumatism, lockjaw, dementia? Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing. And gave it up. And took my old body and went out into the morning, and sang. ~ Mary Oliver It is unusually difficult for me to write in these increasingly complex and uncertain times we are all living in. My thoughts are messy. Emotions are messy. The truth is messy. I worry. I worry about my health, the safety of those I love, am I a good enough mom, friend, wife, daughter, citizen... Am I able to keep my ego in check? How is the world facing the challenges most of which we humans have created by ourselves? I worry about the flawed human reasoning and the growing lack of basic critical thinking. What kind of Earth will our children inherit? But then, I breathe out. Breathing out is calming. It encourages peace and insight. It helps me pay attention to my surrounding, reminding me that even in troubling times, there is beauty, kindness and joy in the world. I step outside and a tapestry of beautiful autumnal leaves hugs my walking feet. I walk forward with each footfall placing distance between me and the world of news stream, social media and phone calls. The seasons are changing. And the more I contemplate the changes, the more I grow appreciative of all the autumnal wisdom and generosity that pour unrestrictedly through me. Light. Darkness. A balance. Letting go. Fleeting nature of all things... Autumn tucks acorns in my pockets and faded hydrangeas in my arms. Autumn blows a fresh breeze in my eyes and puts a pumpkin-carved-like smile on my face. Autumn fills my kitchen with the smell of baked pears and my heart with a desire to create. The calming power of the natural world makes me tune in to my senses, slow down and pause. I am fully in this moment. The clutter of my mind begins to withdraw. The negative inner conversations switch off. There is nothing but the sounds of the season, the bounty of autumn, the simple beauty of small things, the whisper of simple everyday rituals, the comfort of home, the awakening of hope... I am at home. I arrange a foraged bouquet in a vase, cook pumpkin soup and take a long warm bath. I light a candle, turn up the music, drift away in the calmness of dolche far niente to find my own STILL in the chaos of life. I am breathing out. share this post: IN: autumn, being YOU, food Older Post Newer Post Related Posts
Watercolor Painting Practice : Basic Landscape Elements Hi everyone! After practicing just “landscapes” in general - going from simple black and white value studies to color - I thought that it would be helpful to tackle individual elements. If you haven’t, please check out my very first “study
These are my two most recent paintings, excepting failures that is! The first is of a Kickapoo warrior. A Kickapoo Warrior - 16" x 12" Centenaire. The head band colours are purely imaginary and his complexion seems quite light, this because the guide photo was like this. Other photos I've seen of Kickapoos show them somewhat - not all - darker. The Kickapoos are one of the lesser known and least numerous tribes of Amerindians and today there are about 5000, with three or so locations in the Southern USA and one in North Mexico, this latter group remaining true to their original culture. There is a book called `The Mexican Kickapoos'. They originated in the North East of America but were inclined to migrate and this plus the pressure exerted by white settlers, over the course of many years, drove then far South.In the 1870s some were located in Texas and clashed with the US Army. They were regarded as great warriors and although never very numerous, feared and respected by other tribes. I was interested in them and eventually obtained a used ex library copy from an American bookseller of `The Kickapoos' by A.M Gibson. This is in the fantastic Civilisation of the American Indian Series published by the University of Oklahoma Press with more than 100 titles. Many of my books like this are ex library copies, some rather battered like this one, but as I'm more interested in the content rather than condition I'm pleased to own them. This next one was painted last Thursday at my AVA weekly session. The subject was `reflections` and as usual we are allowed considerable leeway in interpretation. Reflections in an Eye - 16" x 12" Centenaire. I sometimes paint unusual subjects and was attracted to the many subtle shades and interesting colours. Colours used vary from Ultramarine Violet, Transparent Brown, Quinacridone Gold, Quinacridone Coral, Cerulean. Turquoise, Burnt Umber and others., often heavily diluted and allowed to mix on the paper. I used just two brushes, both Isabey, a 6 travel brush and a 6 round in the normal Kolinsky series.
Want to paint beautiful portraits in color? DO NOT DO IT! Not until you have lots (and I mean LOTS) of experience painting portraits in mono-color. I like to do my mono-color portraits in glorious payne's grey (Winsor Newton). You first need to develop your painting style, knowledge of head and facial structures, value control, and soft, found, and lost edges. Only then can you graduate to color. Well...at least that's my advice.
Little 2.5 x 3.5 inch watercolour
Learn how to paint faces with an in-depth look at how to paint eyes, noses and mouths in watercolour with Hazel Soan. Discover what to look for, what to include and what to leave out.
Have you ever been caught off-guard by a visual tangent in your art? When creating a composition there are so many different things to juggle that it's easy to miss even the obvious flaws - and that’s when tangents sneak in.
San Francisco-born artist Karl Martens creates beautiful paintings of birds using materials not often paired together - Japanese and Chinese calligraphy
The same idea, applied to tree bark...
