roses are not easy!

. . . at least, not the old-fashioned red roses growing next to our back door. I’ve seen such lovely direct-watercolor renditions of roses posted in the #30x30DirectWatercolor2018 Facebook group, seemingly painted with ease with only a few brushstrokes. Mine, not so much.

Another challenge: getting a bright red color using perylene maroon and pyrrol orange! But I’m still having fun so it’s all good.

more from Mustang Island

A couple of years ago we went camping with some of our kids and grandkids on Mustang Island on the Gulf of Mexico. I took a lot of photos thinking that someday I would turn them into paintings. I also did lots of sketches onsite . . . and got my first vintage Prang box sandblasted by the high winds and sand blowing everywhere!

This fisherman sitting on one of the rock jetties seemed like a ready-made composition but this is the first time I actually tried to paint him. Maybe this #30x30DirectWatercolor2018 challenge has boosted my confidence a smidgen?

a persistent wildflower

This single blanket flower has been blooming a long time in the surface of a side road in Somerville, right next to where we usually park when we go to church. Temperatures have been as high as 100°, rain has been scarce lately, and yet the flower continues.

a stormy verse and random sketch

This morning I was reading a book and a quote caught my eye . . . which gave me the inspiration for this watercolor sketch. I did the sky quickly, wet-on-wet, and tipped the sketchbook to allow the storm clouds to run — but it did not turn out like I envisioned in my head.

The quote is hard to read against the water (it dried darker than expected); it says:
“Furious winds often drive the vessel more swiftly into port.” -- Charles Spurgeon

And just because I am missing my fountain pens, I did these bluebell ‘doodles’ in my small Field Notes memo book.

keeping it simple

 

Today was a busy day with several errands and appointments, so I kept today’s direct watercolor sketch simple: I painted what was directly in front of me! These are the paint colors I’ve been using for the #30x30DirectWatercolor2018 challenge, loosely based on Marc Taro Holmes’ absolute minimum choices. I keep a pocket palette of the same in my bag but so far I’ve been painting these at home, using this slightly larger palette.

Bardie was very interested in my sketchbook as I took the above photo. Or possibly he was wondering when I would finish this silliness and feed him?

log cabin at Old Baylor

For today’s direct watercolor painting, I used a photo taken at Old Baylor University’s Women’s Campus located in Independence, Texas . . . just across the road from the home of Sam Houston. This original log cabin has been moved onto the site, just east of the ruins of the women’s buildings. Every spring the meadow next to the cabin is filled with wild bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, and coreopsis.

I did use a very few pencil lines to ensure the cabin’s proportions were correct, and dots of masking fluid for where the wildflowers go. But I don’t feel that either of these tools were overdone; it was still painted directly in watercolor. That sky is nothing like I aimed for, but it worked!

some garden tomatoes

I think my number one goal for the #30x30DirectWatercolor2018 challenge is to let go of my niggling ways. I get too caught up in trying to capture exactly what I see rather than produce a work of art that represents what is there.

My first lesson learned: I need to give up my expectation of how a painting will turn out, and just allow the watercolor to do what it wants.

I also tweaked the palette I’m using, loosely based on one that Marc Taro Holmes uses. I prefer the redder Transparent Pyrrol Orange but quickly learned that this selection of colors really needs the brightness of regular Pyrrol Orange, so I switched it back.

I also prefer Quinacridone Burnt Orange over Marc’s choice of Quinacridone Deep Gold. Both use PO48 pigment but the deep gold adds PY150. I get brown tones easier without the additional yellow.

At church yesterday, I returned to my favorite Kaweco Liliput fountain pen, drawing my current bag and iPad as I followed along with the lesson in discipleship class. Sometimes I just need to draw some lines! (Color wash added later at home.) This bag is actually not a purse; it’s made by LIHIT LAB to hold computer tablets inside a briefcase. I found it on Amazon and thought it would work well for art supplies with room for my journal as well.

another sunrise

This 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor challenge is proving much harder for me than expected. Today’s painting is from a photo I once took as we drove south at sunrise. Details of the land were indistinguishable but the sky was brilliant. There were beams of light radiating up into the sky which were captured in the digital photo . . . but turned out hard to replicate on paper!

I have not been happy with any of my attempts so far but it’s only the third day. I can only improve with practice, right? At least that’s my hope . . .

30 x 30, day 2

Today I tried a watercolor sketch of some red lilies that bloomed against our log cabin a few weeks ago. We took down the small fenced yard recently, no longer owning a dog, but I didn’t want to get rid of this gate Bill had built — so I leaned it against the cabin to let roses climb on it. Roses that may or may not have made it through the colder-than-usual winter.

I can see right off that I need to be more careful with tonal values. The leaves had a yellow-green for highlights but the deeper green bled into the lighter, overwhelming it.

30x30DirectWatercolor2018 - day 1

Today begins the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor challenge . . . and we were traveling to Pflugerville for the day, attending our grandson Quen’s 5th grade graduation event. Even after returning home, I couldn’t seem to focus on painting. Procrastination, perhaps? Or more likely that old fear of the first page. We get such lovely images in our heads of perfectly executed paintings, so perfect that our actual efforts never measure up.

Tonight I set up my paints and found a photo of Quen and his dog Scout walking on Mustang Island beach at sunrise . . . and simply dove in, painting directly in watercolor. Maybe a bit overworked here and there, but so begins a full month of practicing direct watercolor sketches.