It was a good day at the painting studio, but then, when isn't it a good day there? Sharon was as always most kind and enthusiastic about my first five attempts at the lake scene in watercolors. She did agree that my last two were the best and even claimed she could see progress from the first to the last!
Then, as the excellent teacher she is, she asked me if there was anything in particular I would like help with, any part of the paintings that I felt gave me the most trouble. Of course, I said the cliff face. So she told me to take out a large sheet of watercolor paper, divide it into sections, and work on just that section of the painting.
At the end of class, this is what I had:
These look quite odd seen in isolation. I guess you'd have to look back at yesterday's entry and see where this chunk of cliff should fit in the painting. It's difficult to get a sense of what I did so I'll just say that I view these four studies as a big step forward. Nothing about any of the four is perfect, but they're all better than what I had (including some blank spaces in the first few paintings that you did not see). In each one, I tried something different including using colors, shapes, and then masking fluid for the first time. That's rather like rubber cement that you paint on, let dry, and then paint around or over it. When your paint is dry, you can rub off the masking fluid and find mostly clean paper. I used it in the bottom two studies.
So that was it for today. Tomorrow I'll try to find the time to do another quick painting using what I learned today.
Wow! I can see progress from the first to the last. Way to go. Hey, you might get to liking water colors after all !!
ReplyDeleteYou have the patience to try, try again. Maybe it comes from your expertise as a quilter, but I admire that in people. It is the way to learn. Unfortunately, I'm not a very patient (exacting?) person. The one note of caution I would have about the masking fluid, I would be cautious about using it. When overdone, it can make watercolor paintings less spontaneous. I have been trapped by overuse at times. It helps keep my wayward brush from flying where it should not. But I see when Christine (my instructor) paints, she rarely uses it. When I watch her paint, she seems to randomly through down colors at times, but she's got it all when the painting is done.
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