its been some weeks now, that I've been working with a more limited focus than usual
sketching and painting and painting and yet more sketching
improvements come in small increments, most would probably be recognizable only to me, but I feel I'm better able to:
consistently mix watery, juicy and pasty watercolour paint
manage the water and work wet in wet
sketch marks are more deliberate, less hesitant
the need to rub out "incorrect" marks is mostly gone
and so on
I suppose it would seem that with those improvements the outcomes must surely have also improved but I don't know about that
I do know I'm happier with the work now and as I gain better control over the method I can begin to focus more on the brush-strokes and composition
I've been taking a watercolour course by Anita Lehmann, an artist who, among other things, paints abstract landscapes
one of the lessons is on painting tree-shapes and this past week I've been practicing
some I keep to refer back to, thinking about what's good and what needs working on
the bad ones get tossed... move on
the fifth one I did is the first one I kept
this is the latest version - sort of
I did two, one had better trees and the other a better ground so I tore off the good ground and glued it to the better trees
I'm struggling with fine lines for the branches though, they're way too thick so yesterday I bought a much finer brush, with very long bristles and tomorrow I'll start practicing with it
and just because I'm itching to get back to my Yukon work, I'm gathering photos of scenery and things I gathered whilst there and am going to make a few collages
a reader of this blog suggested I use some of the combinations I showed a few posts back in collage and I though it a great idea - below is the start of the first collection
busy, busy days...
of the best kind
3 comments:
I love the blockiness of the tree foliage. Placing the paintings on created papers and ephemera provides an inspirational environment to spark possible ideas for further development.
I wish I could be a fly on the wall and watch your creative process. I don't know if you realize that you're not only an artist but also a wordsmith. I love seeing your art but sometimes it's your words that grab me even more. I also was thinking as I read this post in particular that I hope you are backing your blog up somehow because it would be a tragedy to lose it. I know some people have theirs printed into a book form each year to keep as a reference. Just a thought!
Doing a lot, very quickly, is a good way to get to grips with the skills needed - then when you know what you want to do, you can relax and just do it. This is going well, I feel. Control over the paint is so hard to achieve!
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