Ahhh the humble seagull. I don't know if I love them or hate them. On one hand they remind me of the ocean and the soothing sounds of the crashing waves. On the other, they are loud and really pester you if you want to eat something while at the beach. Hmmm.
Well, I guess it doesn't matter, because I love painting them. This one is standing on a bit of a piling, or other piece of old wood.
He was a lot of fun to paint, and I would encourage anyone who has an interest to go ahead and give it a shot. If you need a tutorial on how to do it.... I've got you covered.
A little Monday watercolor practice. Fist is this nice little lighthouse. I see this as just sitting on the edge of a quaint ocean inlet. In this picture the lighthouse is on a concret jetty of some sort. On the other side of the bay are lush green trees.
The second painting as you can see is painted on the same sheet of paper, but lower down. This one looks to be kind of a high desert scene. There is a tree that has fallen to the left and some scrubby little pine trees behind.
I tried to work in a few more wet in wet steps with these paintings and I think it paid off though it may not be obvious at first glance. The sky and the trees on the lighthouse painting were done all at once. and the sky actually extends down into the trees. If you look, there is just a tiny bit of green that bled into the blue (but just a bit). Each time I went back for a different brush full of green paint, I altered the color of green. I think the end result is fantastic.
In the desert painting the sky and distant trees were done at once. (perhaps the mountains should have been just a bit bluer) If I could do this one over I think i would make the foreground value much stronger to really pull it forward. I think it shows pretty good on the paper, but in this picture the foreground and midground are the same strength and I'd like to change that.
Feeling a little nautical this morning. With the weather turning warm and my wanting to be outdoors I thought I might as well get in the mood for spring and summer.
I hope you all like this. I'll probably be doing more nautical paintings in the days and weeks to come.
Thought I would do a quick painting this morning. This is what I came up with. A cute little tree frog.
I guess I could do more to finish the painting, and I might go back and do more. My intent for this was to get a quick painting done before starting work. Since that is all this little guy is for, I'm totally happy with how he turned out.
I'm hoping to be able to do a few more 'before work' paintings in the future.
Ahhh... one of my favorites. I love little turtles. In fact, I used to have one. His name was Tucker, and he was the funniest little guy. We don't really think of turtles as having a personality, but I kid you not, Tucker had one. Tucker was by far the most social turtle I have ever been around. Instead of diving in the tank to get away from you, he would try to swim towards you. And when I took him out of the tank, he would follow me around my apartment wherever I went. When I sat down, he would stop right by my feet, and when I walked away, he got up and followed me, albeit at a slightly slower pace.
Well, here I've painted a red eared slider. I think it turned out really nice, and this guy looks totally at home sitting there among the grasses sunning himself.
Anyone wishing to try this out will find it fun and rewarding (and it was easier than I thought it would be). Check out the video below to see how I did it. Thanks.
Ahhh the lovely camellia. Such a nice flower. I wanted to paint one and and thought this would be a good time to do some graded washes. Well, I accomplished both of those things with this painting, but I don't think I did either really well.
The painting is OK. There really isn't anything wrong with it, though its a bit banal. I could really have punched this up by doing a couple of things.
See, in watercolor to make a dramatic painting you need to have lights next to darks, and darks next to lights. Well, I've got lights next to darks with the petals. you can see how the center is lighter and the tips darker. This makes for a nice petal (here its a bit bland, but nice). But Ive also got a background that is the same intensity as the petals. There is no room for light and dark to touch, both edges are dark. Hmmmm what to do...
Well, I could just as easily put on another row of petals (this would have made the flower look fuller too. Right now its a bit small). The outside row of petals would have been all light. That lightness would have served two purposes. First, it would have ensured that they looked as though they were behind the petals in front, then it would have allowed me to make my background as dark as I wanted.
Well, there is always next time. I think its a good project for tonight, paint this one again.
If you have interest in seeing how I did this one, watch the video below. Thank you.
