its been a quiet week
I'm slowly getting reacquainted with things I was working on before going north
a lot of fabric was painted during the spring and early summer and it was good to look through the stacks and see a few favourites with fresh eyes
I still like them though the "preciousness" of them has eased off so I'll be working with them soon
the first two images show lightweight linen cloth that was painted with watercolours
watercolour is a wonderful medium for painting fabric - the cloth seems to remain as light as ever though the watercolour adds the slightest touch of substance to it, altering the feel but not really the hand
I suppose that seems a bit contradictory but its so, at least for me
the larger piece below is my favourite - the mucky drab colour with the hint of blue-grey has me thinking of flats near a shoreline, with a late, pale, sinking light reflecting on water... I know that kind of day
languid
desultory
a lazy half-hearted attempt at colour and light
just needs shore birds and driftwood
the next one is from the earth pigment cloth painting
a random chunk of linen
a kind of "clean-up cloth", brushes from painting other cloth were wiped on it to use up the last of the paint
splodges of colour
only at the end was anything done with intention but that still had its limitations - there is only so much you can do when using the dregs
I love the randomness of it
in between the tidying and sorting I've decided to try a focused effort at improving a few skills - watercolour painting and drawing
this week was mostly watercolour, and that was mostly spent working on paint and water ratios
I've learned a lot already about controlling the amount of water and I've learned even more about brush quality
my flat brush is not good quality
not even a little bit
not at all
I've also learned a bit about the differences between working with paint pans vs tubes
these two value scales were done with the not good brush
(pretty obvious I think!)
and with paint pans
they're serviceable but a bit splotchy so when I do get a good quality brush I'll be re-doing them
and as the pans of colour are used up they'll be replaced with tubes
but for now I'm using what I have and figuring it out and its getting better as I go
slowly...
3 comments:
Lovely samples... pure alchemy! I have come to prefer tubes to pans in watercolour over the years. I have both but as pans get used I refill from the tube or just use a little from the tube on a pallet. You can't beat a half pan paint box for sketching on the hoof though... but I am using mostly tiny boxes with just half a dozen colours these days mostly as I get better at mixing (and for portability). The more we use what we have, the better we get to know them and their pros and cons....It's taken me years to realise I don't need to buy every colour under the sun! Very liberating!
A good brush makes a huge difference, and if you can already tell your current one isn't good, you'll really notice the improvement when you have a better one!
I've always thought good tools are so important but having said that I often cheap out and go for the lesser degree of good because I can't convince myself that I'm worth the extra expense. Must be my Scotch blood!
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