Monday Practice

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.  

Hope you enjoyed these.  Don't forget to check out my Youtube Channel - Watercolors With Michael and If you didn't know, I now have a gofundme campaign.

A boat for the weekned

Here is the same boat as yesterday, but this one has a little different perspective.  Enjoy it.

Catching up with some things

I haven't done much painting lately because work has been so busy.  I am desperately trying to  reclaim my lunch hour and painting.  I thought I would step back and do something simple to start back up, so I did the orange door.  It, of course, didn't turn out like I wanted.  But I still like it, there are some good elements there.  Then I did the little boat, and again, good and bad.  I've been wanting to do some different kinds of paintings for some time, and my friend Carrie was nice enough to volunteer for this painting.  Let me know what you think of these.

Boat at Dock

Well, a few things.  This one was really fun to paint, but I made like a million mistakes in doing it.  The clouds are almost non existant, the reeds in the front are there because I painted the underside of the dock poorly.  The antenna on the boat is really supposed to be the mast of a ship behind the boat.

But its all good, I had a great time painting this picture and for all its faults, think it turned out great.

Return to Catalina

Well, I wanted to do a little bit different with this.  I wanted to simplify the boats, lighten the water and move the horizon down just a bit.  I think I managed to do those.  What I am not sure of is if I painted a better picture or not.

26 miles across the sea, Santa Catalina is waiting for me

This is the first painting of the Casino on Catalina Island. The building is an historic landmark. Built in the 20's and home to the worlds largest ballroom dance floor. I've wanted to paint it for quite a while, but have been afraid to do it. This is my first attempt, but it wont be my last. The good? Well, I think it is that I really captured the essence of the building; The isthmus that it sits on, with the palm trees around it. The rest of the picture is questionable. The building itself is almost smack in the middle, the boats in Avalon harbor look terrible. But like i say, its my first attempt. My second will be much better.

Moored Sailboat

Before

After

Just a quick one.  I wanted to make some killer reflections on the water, but, while I got some reflections they didn't quite turn out like I had hoped. I think I should have used a bigger brush for the water.  And the picture I took this form had almost no detail in the background and upon reflection, I should have put a little more.    Well, just wanted you all to see what I was working on.

So I have done just a bit of extra work on this one. I still have to go in and fix the trees in the distance, but I think just the changes I made make it look much better.

Another one From Montana de Oro

This is another one from Montana De Oro State Park near where I live. This one looks north toward Spooners Cove. I really think I am making progress. The last two pictures I've painted, I've felt like I knew what I was doing while painting. I know its not the most technical painting in the world but I finally feel like I could reproduce this with consistency and an nearly ready to tackle something more difficult.   I would like to do something a little different with the grass in the foreground, but I need to figure something different out.  Still one of my favorites.

final dock

I like this one better than all the others.  The dock looks better, the water looks better, the sky looks better, even the boats look better.  I got some advice on painting water.  I think it really helped.  I'm just really pleased with the way this one turned out.

3rd times a charm?

The dock seems to have shrunk, though I think its the best one I've done.  The land around the lake I like, but the boats didn't come out as planned and the water seems a bit dark.  Not sure if I should try a fourth time.

dock 2

Not sure I really got any better with the one today.  I do like the reflections in the water, and I think i got the deck on the dock better, but I'm not sure the whole thing is any better.

Sittin on the Dock of the Bay

Ahhh, another nice relaxing venue.  A  little dock over the water and a few sailboats.

You may see this one repeated several times until I get it the  way I want.

Windmill Just North of Morro Bay

This is the first sky done with a new method. I think the sky turned out AWESOME. I just need to bring up my level of work on the rest of everything.

Good Ole Morro Bay Rock

And finally I had to do it. I had to paint Morro Bay Rock. Admittedly, this doesn't do the rock full justice, but its a start. I do think that I did a great job on the sailboats and on the water. It's all a learning process. I do rather like this picture, and it may be on my wall for a long time.

If You're Going To San Francisco

There isn't a lot of detail in this one, but I still think it is a nice picture. I tried to get some nice reflection from the bridge. I think I am getting better at mixing colors. I also think I am getting better at clouds and skie in general. I may revisit this one and add some more detail later.

quick lighthouse

Trying to do some "loose" painting. In order to do it, I need to work with slightly wet paper. I did this entire painting in about 20 minutes. I'm don't think it's the best thing I've done, but I think that given the amount of painting I get to do, I think it turned out great. It takes time to learn the technique and I have incorporated some of these techniques into some of the paintings I have done, but this is perhaps the first one I've done that i did the whole thing "loose." Im really happy that it actually looks like there are 3 outcroppings of rocks. Was worried how that would look when I started.