Art Every Day Month - November 14

Layers - Graded Washes

Graded washes create areas of paint that move gradually from dark to light, or from one color to another.


In today's painting, I applied an underpainting of permanent yellow with a touch of alizarin crimson.
After that had dried, I painted the blocks in graded washes of either yellow or alizarin, and after that had dried, I painted graded washes of prussian blue, going in a different direction.

In some places, the new color pooled or bled into already painted areas that were still damp.
I didn't really mind - that saved me from having a painting that would have looked like 16 industrial paint chips from the hardware store!


Graded washes are among the hardest techniques to carry off well in watercolor, and they are also among the most useful techniques to know how to do.
I will have the chance to do more of them during this Art Every Day for the Month of November challenge.

Art Every Day Month - November 13

Flat Wash, Overpaint and Scrub

I began this painting with an overall flat wash of viridian, covering the entire surface of the quarter-sheet of paper.
A flat wash requires a steady hand and good timing in applying the wet paint: excellent practice for me!


After the wash was thoroughly dry, I started painting the sequence of today's 16 blocks with varying dilutions of prussian blue, using a wet brush to remove the underpainting or simply painting over it.


I discovered that a sufficiently wet brush and enough pressure would remove two layers of dried paint, so there are several areas where I have scrubbed back to the white surface.

This effect is similar to Day 6 in Layers: Transparent Washes, but this time it's not an accident, and the brushstrokes make it a lot more lively.

Art Every Day Month - November 12

Two colors, two brushes

I loaded up my watercolor palette with ultramarine blue and burnt sienna, knowing that when these pigments mix, they give a rich range of browns and grays.

I used two paintbrushes, for the ultramarine a 1/2 inch flat synthetic sable which gives lovely full washes, and for the burnt sienna a #1 round which gives fine detailed strokes.

What did I learn?

First, the little spaces I have been allowing myself are barely big enough to swirl large brushstrokes of color around the way I wanted to.
Next, the paints straight from the tubes can be blindingly bright contrasted to their near-complementary color.
Finally, I could have used several more sheets of paper today to keep experimenting with the way these two colors worked together.

Art Every Day Month - November 11

Pebble

This granite pebble came from a gravel quarry over a hundred miles inland from the ocean. Obviously it had been a beach rock at some time, but it probably hasn't been near the salt water for thousands of years.
I picked it up because I was intrigued by its two-tone pinks and grays and its banded pattern. I was also taken by the shattered crystal look under its smooth surface. I laid the rock in the sunlight and turned it different ways to get the sketches in this matrix.

Originally, I was planning to paint a dry brush scumble over the wash, but I got fascinated by the way the watercolor paint was doing its own job on the pebble's texture, so I left it alone. I will do the dry brush scumbling another time.

It is obvious to me that I have not exhausted the possibilities in this rock.

Art Every Day Month - November 10

Brushstrokes and stretching

Chinese brush painting is a difficult discipline.
For a skilled Chinese brush painter, the brush just touches the paper, and the strokes make beautiful pictures.
For someone unfamiliar with it, you start working on the art piece in a different way.
You hold the brush in a different way, and you make brushstrokes in a different way than you are used to doing.

Today I made 16 attempts of the hundreds of brushstrokes that I will need to render a credible leaf or blossom in this technique.

My process in this Art Every Day for the Month challenge is to push myself beyond what I know. So I experimented, I improvised and I tested.

And that's how I stretched myself today.

Art Every Day Month - November 9

Working in from the Frame: Islands

My method for today's painting is was working in from the frame. I started each of the 16 blocks with a rough rectangular outline and I worked the watercolor paint in toward the center with wet-in-wet washes and drybrush application of color. I worked quickly and left each separate block as an individual composition, part of the total Matrix (and thanks to Margaret Ryall of Painting On for this description!)

Earlier today I was looking at satellite photos of islands .

Now that I have finished these watercolor arrangements, I am struck at how remarkably similar they appear to each other. I guess both sets - islands and paintings - show things that were shaped by fluid movement and pressure from different directions.

Interesting.

Art Every Day Month - November 8

Transparent wet in wet washes






I did today's painting in transparent washes, wet into wet, with three primary colors, magenta, prussian blue and permanent yellow.

As I progressed from one block to the next, I began to see the painting as a whole. So, instead of accepting each little arrangement on its own terms, I did a final overall retouching to balance the entire composition.

It still reminds me of a Hawaiian shirt fabric, so perhaps it's time to get out the silkscreens and do some yardage!