Painting (Raking Hay 1) and Practice (Raking Hay 2)

Drawing is a good thing to practice, but what I really need to do is practice with watercolors.  It's so very different from oil paints that I find that something that I seem to have a grip on one week slips away from me the next.  And I had resolved to practice.

So I did.

Here is the first wash on another version of Raking Hay.  This is where I have difficulty - the notion of making a wet surface and then just dropping in color . . . I want to have control; I want to manipulate the washes and guide where the color goes.  As you can see, I did that here.  This is an example of wet in wet. I brushed the surface of the paper with a large wet paint brush (called a "mop" appropriately enough).  Then I used different brushes, though still wet with water and still largish, dipped in paint diluted with water.  So the paper was wet and the paint was too.  

You can see an area in the lower third on the left that was left dry and untouched.  Old habits die hard; I could have and should have used a light wash there also, but it's where the farmer on his tractor with the hay rake will go.  Oil paint habits led me to leave this area pristine.  I may go back in an put down a pale wash to see how that does or does not affect the farmer.  It will also be a truer use of this technique.  Guess I've talked myself into it!

The next step is wet (brush is wet, dipped into paint diluted with water) on a dry surface.  It will be another layer of washes going over this undercoat and will be loose and without detail.  That will come later and will be dry on dry.  Damp brush into wet (but not diluted) watercolor paint is considered "dry".

Here are the two versions side by side (remember, the one on the left is not finished).  You'll notice that I've changed the proportions in the second one.  The foreground area is bigger as it is the focal point of my composition.  Not only do I have to make sure the hills in the distance and the trees on the other side of the hay field are less demanding of attention than they are now, I also have to draw the viewer's notice with larger, more dramatic details in the foreground.

My plan is to work on both before Tuesday, but the weekend is going to be busy.  We'll see what I accomplish.