Well, I picked up my pen and paint brush and dashed off a few sketches this week.
First, is an Eastern Bluebird. It is just a sketch, of which I am thinking how to finish the background. I think I'll use some Blue Ridge mountains and an early morning sky. Stay tuned for more to come!
The second sketch is a representation of the small partial walls that you often see at entrances to various neighborhoods. These are not gated communities. It's just a way to show how sturdy and substantial the neighborhood is.
Nothing really spectacular. But that was not my intent. I just wanted to see if I could now better capture the look of real stone and how it varies from block to block. My brush is much looser and more impressionistic than it used to be. I make progress.
The final sketch is a quick sketch of a fountain near one of my doctor's offices. The flame-like structure is a steel sculpture in the center of the fountain.
My hope was to capture the feeling of the fountain. I think I did fairly well for a quick sketch.
Hope you enjoy and remember to keep on looking for the beauty that surrounds us.
Well, as promised, I completed a larger (11 x 14 inch) painting of the bluebird. I might make a few more tweaks to the colors. But on the whole, I'm pretty pleased with this one. Unfortunately, the brilliance of the colors do note really come through on this picture. My phone (which I used to take this picture) tends to emphasize the blue more than the warmer colors. Perhaps tomorrow I will have it scanned at the copy shop.
After several eventful weeks that have kept me too busy to do any painting, I decided to try to tackle something a bit more complicated than normal. Believe it or not, this Blue Bird painting is a Pen & Ink with watercolor painting. The tree, flower and foliage as well as the blue bird are done in Pen & Ink. However, the blue bird and flowers had some water color to add additional depth to the painting. The limb and foliage are exclusively done with ink.
This painting is not an ideal painting. For a very bright and busy foreground it would be better to use a simple background. While I could have painted a much simpler sky, I wanted to try some techniques. This includes the sunburst effect and a more complex cloud scene.
The sunburst effect would have been better had I used a simple spray bottle to add some dark patches headed toward the sun. Tom Jones recorded (for Jerry's Artarama) an example of how to do this. The following video shows one technique.
To create the sun burst on my painting, I would have had to use a masking fluid and paint in the background first, remove the masking fluid and then do the foreground painting. I actually did it in reverse order, since I was more interested in the foreground painting.
Unlike my previous version of a bird (gold finch) in a red bud tree, I played around with the color of the blossoms a bit by adding some orange to the blossoms. I also backlit the limbs, flowers, foliage and bird with the yellow of the setting sun. That combined with the orange tint of the flowers - which often appears toward sunset - helps set the stage for Bluebird out at sunset. And that would not be correct for bluebirds. Should I claim "Artistic License"? .. Not really. It would have been better with a simpler sky. If I needed it backlit then a early morning sky / sun would be a better choice.
Why that choice? It's both more accurate to the bird and would provide a simpler background.
Again, I should have done the background first. That would allow me to add in the detail to make it fairly convincing, yet keep it .. well .. in the background!
You will note that there is a good deal of detail in this painting. I post this in a larger format on the blog because I am fairly pleased of that. The field of mown grass feels more natural than others I've done in the past. The detail of the limbs. Shoot, even the feet of the bird have a lot of detail.
Still, it's too busy. I created an 11 x 15 inch, stretched watercolor paper canvas this past Friday. I will probably use it to paint this subject .. But this time, I will use a simpler background. I will set it as a mid-day painting.
Well, painting the Cardinal Pair took much less time than I expected.
That's the advantage of snow scenes. There's less of the paper that needs to be painted.
Of course, the flip side is that you must believably cover enough of the paper to KNOW that it's a snow scene.
In effect, you have to think in an opposite direction to how we normally think. Normally we start with an empty scene in our mind and add color (including white) to create the scene. However, with watercolor painting it's necessary to create a NEGATIVE painting. I don't paint the trees. I paint the parts of the limbs NOT covered with paint and the sky above them. Do that properly and the tree suddenly pops out when you look at the painting.
In this case, making it a little more difficult is the need to provide enough detail so it is believable, but not too much. Too much detail would make the trees appear closer.
Also, by using cooler (bluer) colors it helps the trees recede. Warmer (redder) colors make objects appear closer. For example, even though the male cardinal is a bluer color, I added a orange glaze over the cooler blue-red. This helps it pop out of the painting and appear much closer.
So, here's hoping you enjoy the result. I know my wife likes it.
Yesterday, a friend (Sandra) posted a photo of a cardinal pair. My wife also loves cardinals. So, I decided this would be a perfect Valentine's Day present for her (in addition to what I had already gotten for her).
As you can see, it's a perfect subject (the pair of cardinals). In addition it has an interesting perspective that I enjoy painting. Plus the cardinals both have "personality".
So, I decided this would be a good pen and ink subject. For the ink work, I used Noodler's 54th Massachusetts (a blue black ink) for the railing and the snow. And of course, I used Noodler's Black ink for the birds and shadows.
A trick of color to keep in mind is that we naturally think that white is even whiter if it is tinged blue. Remember women with their slightly blue tinged hair? So, why do we associate a brighter, cleaner white if it is tinged blue? Perhaps it's because when we see ice and snow it seems to be tinged blue.
Today I will work on the coloring of this painting. I may add a bit more shading to the railing. But it's just about read to add the watercolor paint. I will probably change the background to an evergreen color to increase the contrast and interest in the cardinals.
Those of you that have followed the link to my blog know that I see my blog as a way to "learn perspective". Over the years, I learned and relearned that one of the best ways to master any skill is to take the time to teach others those skills. It reinforces what you know. And it often gives you the chance to expand your knowledge.
And that's just what happened when I posted my Gold Finch painting from a couple days ago. I knew it was almost there, but it just did not "feel" right. There was something jarring about the painting that I could not quite clarify.
Some people suggested that the background (the field) was too dark. That wasn't quite it. I knew the dark field at sunset was both natural and provided a startling backdrop for the bird and red bud tree.
I continued to struggle at articulating what was not quite right. I was very pleased with some of the contrasts. Light versus dark. Yellow-orange versus blue-green. Left slanting limbs versus right slanting bird and sky. Lots of interest for the eye. Still, something needed improvement.
decrease of the size of objects proportionally with distance
muting of colors with distance
decrease of the precision of details with distance
As I look at it, he is spot on. All three of those rules were not in play in my painting. I missed the fact that size of the "plants" needed to decrease with distance. I missed the fact that distance between the rows needed to decrease with distance. I missed that the detail needed to be greater closer and less pronounced further away. And finally, the problem with the background color was not that it was too dark, but rather that the color did not become more muted (greyed) with distance.
Once again, taking the time to teach others paid off for me. I learned an invaluable lesson in a way that will maximize that I will really employ it. (The greatest acceptance of knowledge comes when you are ready for the lesson. I've known about perspective. I just was not ready to internalize it with one of my own paintings. Now I see what I was missing. Lesson learned ... Now to practice what I've learned).
So, can you now see what I found this painting both a delight and jarring at the same time?
This time, I decided to try to do the Gold Finch as a traditional watercolor with pen & ink. To complete the painting, I did the painting in several stages.
First, I sketched the painting in pen & ink. I used Noodler's Black Ink on the limbs and bird. For this, I used a Noodler's Ink Brush Pen to paint the lines of the limbs and bird. This allows a varied line based on the subject. I also used Noodler's Black Ink for the black feathering of the Gold Finch. I used Noodler's 54th Massachusetts Ink (a blue black ink) for the Red Bud flowers. I used a traditional fountain pen to draw these lines. This kept the lines much lighter. However, I used a Pentel Aquash waterbrush to spread the ink to provide the blue shading in the flowers. I also used the waterbrush to create the shading of the limbs. I am pretty pleased with that overall effect. Oh, and I used Noodler's Yellow Ink to "paint" the yellow feathering of the Gold Finch.
Second, I spent a good bit of time applying masking fluid to all the exposed inked portions of the painting. This allowed me to paint over the previously inked portions and create the background for the painting. I decided to create a field heading off toward a hedge row (typically separating fields) in the background. And I wanted the sky to be a setting sun.
You will note that for the composition of this piece, I placed the Gold Finch in the center. Then the tree limbs reach from bottom right to top left. The field due to perspective switches from an up and down appearance on the left side of the painting to one that follows the tree limbs on the right hand side of the painting. And the sky runs counter to the tree. All of these thinks set eye in motion as it scans the painting, but draws the eye back toward the center.
As you might imagine, this painting took longer than my normal paintings. I hope you enjoy the results as much as I enjoyed painting this.
Today I decided to do a pure watercolor painting. Need to keep those skills as sharp as possible! :-) Today's subject is another cardinal. It's a good winter subject, but as you can see, this cardinal is sitting in a dogwood tree. So there's the promise of spring in the painting.
With this painting, I tried several different techniques.
First, as you can see, you can see the sky in the background. But as you know any sky through a tree has leaves and/or flowers that break up the blue of the sky. I tried to paint a mottled sky to represent that. The green and brown faded quite a bit once I added the foreground colors. So, I will need to be bolder in this technique in the future.
Second, I attempted to vary the colors of branches, with the closer objects being warmer or have more red in the color .. than objects that are farther away, which are cooler or have more blue in the color. It worked fairly well, though I see a couple branches that should have been a bit cooler in color following that pattern. I'll remember to keep it a bit more consistent.
To paint the dogwood flowers, I masked them initially with masking fluid. Once the rest of the painting was completed, I removed the masking and painted the flowers. I really only tried to suggest the flowers, rather than attempting to get all the details.
So, here's hoping this cheerful cardinal brightens your day!
Well, I decided to try the Gold Finch on an Aquaboard. This is essentially a masonite board with a clay surface that can be painted:
It provides a smooth surface that is lightly textured, rather like hot press paper. Since it is a clay surface, it is not as absorbent as paper. But unlike paper, I found that the ink tended to not keep as sharp a line as I would prefer. As a result, I'm not as pleased with this painting as I am of the gold finch on the rice paper. It will do, but just doesn't have quite the punch without the fine lines. It will work well for more traditional watercolor painting.
An additional issue is that the surface is not as bright a white as paper. This tends to dull the painting quite a bit. Well, lessons learned. Hope you enjoy it.
Using similar techniques as I used with the cardinal, I painted this gold finch on a branch. As we brace for winter weather, it helps to have something cheerful to brighten the day. I hope you enjoy the results.
In case you are wondering, the black in the painting is Noodler's Black Ink, which is one of the "eternal" Noodler's Inks. It does not fade, even in direct sunlight. The yellow of the gold finch is Noodler's Yellow ink. It is supposedly an "eternal" ink, but testing by others has shown that it does fade in direct sunlight. So, this painting will need to be put behind UV protecting glass or acrylic. The remaining colors are watercolors.
Here's a cardinal sitting on a snowy fir tree branches. I decided to take what I've learned with the Chinese Brush Painting (the little that I've done) and mix it into more western style pen & ink with watercolor painting. I hope you enjoy the results.
On this wonderfully sunny day (as I painted this), it seemed appropriate to use the chinese brush painting to paint an Oriole! Hopefully it will help brighten your day.
This brush painting is done with three different inks. Of course, I used Noodler's Black. the red and yellow are also Noodler's Ink.
The only downside of the yellow is that it will need to be mounted behind a sheet of UV protecting glass or acrylic. It tends to fade with exposure to UV light. Still both the yellow and red are very rich in tone and saturation.
You might wonder how I go about doing these paintings. I'm using Jane Dwight's The Chinese Brush Painting Bible. It is chock full of examples of various animals, fish, birds, plants, and flowers. I use it as a reference to learn how to do the painting. I then add the twist of using Noodler's inks instead of chinese watercolors. And I use my M. Graham watercolors, not the chinese watercolors. The difference is that the chinese watercolors tend to be made with a shellac type agent to help keep the watercolor pigment in place when it is wetted during the mounting process. I find a gentle touch with the brushes during the mounting process minimizes the amount of bleeding of the watercolors.
