French Townscape, a Fun Exercise

French Townscape, watercolor on paper, 9" x 12"

This French townscape is the second of Allan Kirk's free tutorials. It was quite a bit more challenging than the window one I did last week, but I really enjoyed doing it.

I was feeling guilty for all the copying, but then I remembered that all the great painters started out by copying the great masters. The important thing is to only copy good stuff, I feel, and so I'm going to stay away from overly simplified beginners' lessons, lest I acquire bad habits.

Yesterday, I ordered a mat, just to have it around when I look at my finished paintings. It makes such a difference, don't you think? The only problem is that I can't scan the pictures, I have to photograph them. But that's okay, I've been having trouble getting the scanner to render the colours and the sharpness, lately.

The fellow cut the mat too big, so he made me a second one, and threw the first one in for free. He charged me $5. It seemed like a lot for just one, just right for two I think.

When I get good enough to show my paintings, I'll get a mat cutter and cut my own mats. A big sheet of mat board costs $14 and you get six single mats of this size out of it.

New York Skyline Beyond the Cornfield

Beyond The Cornfield, watercolor on paper, 9" x 12"

There are several things wrong with this picture, but I like it anyway. I like it because there's something of me in it.

 It started out as this exercise, from The Complete Book of Watercolors in a Weekend, like most of the others. The exercise is called "Cornfield".

But I thought, no way am I painting those dinky trees and shrubs in the distance again! That perfect blue sky deserved something better.

But what exciting scene could there be beyond a cornfield? A city skyline, of course! And what city has a more exciting skyline than New York City? Finding a picture of the New York skyline on the web was an easy task.

But there had to be a transition between the cornfield and the buildings. I found the answer in David Dewey's book, The Watercolor Book. It was this sketch.

It's a view of New York City from Central Park.

I had my transition.

Apart from the fact that my painting looks amateurish, the things that are wrong with it are:

•  When transferring the skyline to my picture, my stencil moved up a bit, which made all the buildings list to the left. I didn't notice it till I had applied the color. Serves me right for not stepping back often enough.
• I'm not sure if the line between the vegetation and the buildings should be so defined. Perhaps it should be wavy, like Mr. Dewey's.
• Perhaps I should have simplified the skyline.

Aside from that, there's something wrong with my scanner. It doesn't pick up the colors correctly. Those yellow windows -- another idea I picked up from Mr. Dewey -- are a lot yellower in my original. And my cornfield isn't that orange. It's raw sienna with a bit of burnt sienna. I tried fixing this with Photoshop but I couldn't figure it out.

I long for a good teacher these days, someone to guide me in these experiments.

Fenêtre en Provence

Fenêtre en Provence, watercolor on Arches paper, 9" x 12"

I painted Fenêtre en Provence from a free tutorial on the Web.

The original, whose title is Blue Window, is by Allan Kirk, a British painter who lives in the South of France.

My first wash was somewhat darker than the example, so I had to up all the other tones as well. But I'm quite happy with the result.

Other exercises are for sale on Allan Kirk's own website. At $4.50 each, they are very reasonable, and a fine way to learn to paint in this impressionist style. I plan to get a few.

A Winter Tree Exercise

This winter tree was mostly an exercise in using masking fluid.

I usually don't like the way everyone seems to paint their skies with ultramarine blue but for once I felt it was justified. It gives the right feeling of a cold winter day. Brrrr!

If I were into making my own christmas cards, this would be a good subject, and the result is good enough for that. Not my cup of tea, though.

But I'm getting better at painting naked trees.

Practise, Practise, Practise

Project 10 Exercise

There are a couple of things I like about this exercise:

• The sky, which I did differently from the instructions. I applied the blue dry in wet, then added some water to create some blossoms. This works particularly well on the Curry's 140-lb cold press paper (I tried it on rough paper and it didn't work.)
• The grass, which I painted with the same technique. I like the way the yellow separated from the blue to create interesting effects.
• The puddle really looks like a puddle even though my reflection is a bit off.

With this painting, I really felt I was making progress – taking off on my own for the first time.

My Favourite Park Bench

Park Bench, watercolor on paper, 9" x 12"

This park is a 10-minute walk from my place. I often take my breakfast or lunch there, and sit on that bench that has a view on water every way you look.

I did the painting from this photo which I took earlier this year. I wanted to show how majestic those trees are by including the bench. (In case you can't find the bench, it's near the lower right corner.)

Even people from around here think I shot this in BC! I'm glad that as a photographer and aspiring painter I really "see" what I'm looking at.

I'm not entirely happy with the painting but it's my first independent project, not just an exercise devised by somebody else – and it shows that I can get over my fear of the blank paper if I set my mind to it.

And I have a computer full of photos to copy!

Project 8 Painting Assignment

Tunisian Scene, watercolor on 140-lb cold press paper, 9" x 12"

Project 8 painting assignment contains so many techniques I didn't think it would come out, but it's not bad at all.

I had to use two kinds of wax resist (plain wax and oil pastel), masking fluid, masking tape, and spattering! I never would have dared include all those things in one painting, yet because the eye is drawn to the plain white wall and the red door, you don't tend to linger on all the "busyness" going on in the foreground.

In fact, this Tunisian street scene reminds me of Mexico, where those kinds of textures and colours are very common.

This time, I used one of my new Curry's blocks. It was really nice not to have to worry about buckling. Another nice thing about that size is that it fits in my scanner, so I don't have to take photos of my work in order to upload the images to the computer.

Lots of New Papers to Test

Thanks to Curry's shipping department's lousy handling of my watercolor paper order, I find myself with tons of new papers to test.

I had ordered a 5-sheet package of their 200-lb, 100% cotton paper – a good deal at the sale price of only $4 a sheet – and two 9 x 12 pads and two 9 x 12 blocks of their 140-lb, cold-pressed 100% cotton paper, also a good deal at only $3.69 per pad of 12 sheets.

However, all the sheets arrived with one smashed corner, and one of the blocks had smudges and dents. Not good, for a first order with a new supplier.

So I wrote Customer Service, and got a huge apology and a free replacement order. Next time, I'll be sure and ask for extra careful packing.

While looking for how to paint footsteps in the sand for my next painting, I came upon Susie Short's website, Susie's Watercolor Tips. She did have a demo on footprints in the sand, but also a short demo called "Painting the Beach, Rocks, and Reflections in Wet Sand", and wet sand being another one of my projects, I decided to try doing this painting on both papers.

First the 140-lb cold-pressed paper from the pad:

Reflections I, Watercolor on Curry's 140-lb cold-pressed paper, 9" x 12"

I like this paper a lot. The texture is quite nice, I like the way the paints perform on it, and it's ever so economical. You can see the texture by clicking on the picture to enlarge it.

And here's the 200-lb paper version:

Reflections II, Watercolor on Curry's 200-lb paper, 7.5" x 11"

I like this paper too, though I don't agree with their description of it as "cold press"; I find it quite rough, somewhere between cold press and rough. But that's okay, I like rough paper, I love the stiffness, which makes it possible to work without a board – and the price is right. (Click on the picture to see the texture.)

I'll keep testing both papers and report my findings here.

SUSIE'S DEMO

About Susie's demo, instead of just following the free one, I decided to buy the PDF download. I figured that for $6 I would get what the free demo was missing: which colours to use, some techniques, and especially, a copy of the finished painting.

This is the free demo from Susie's website:

Not bad for free stuff... however, after paying $6, guess what I got? Exactly the same thing, plus this lousy photo:

Oh, and there was also a larger version of the sketch in the first square, which I had already enlarged for free by taking a screen shot.

This is like a chef who gives you the recipe but leaves some ingredients out! Totally unethical.

Needless, to say, I have written and asked for a refund. If the famous Susie Short ignores my request, I'm stuck because last I heard PayPal won't refund you for downloads.

And if she does refund me, I'll let you know.

P.S. I had to ask for it twice, but I did get the refund from Susie Short.

A Nice Sky

Cloudy Sky, Watercolor on Curry's 200-lb paper

This painting started out as a test for my new watercolor paper from Curry's, but I was so happy with the nice sky that I put a landscape under it.

In case you're wondering what size it is, here's another scan:

Cloudy Sky, Watercolor on Curry's 200-lb paper, 6" x 2" (15 cm x 5 cm)

It's 6 inches by 2 inches!

Cirrus Exercise

Cirrus Exercise, Fabriano Artistico paper, 9" x 12"

On to Project No. 2.

Each project in this book starts with a series of exercises, and culminates in a painting.

Exercise No. 1 is about lifting cirrus clouds off a wet wash, using the points of a paper towel. Mine don't look anything like the example, but if there's one thing I've noticed about cirrus clouds – and we get our fair share of them around here – is that anything goes!

Rain Cloud Exercise, Arches rough paper, 7" x 11"

Exercise No. 2 is about trying to create rain clouds by letting the paint drip down, working wet in wet. I tried it with Fabriano Artistico paper first, but it wasn't rough enough. It's a bit better on Arches rough paper but not perfect, though I think the sky looks scary enough.

I enjoyed doing it anyway, and I realized that I use my fingers quite often, though I never read about that anywhere. 

This is not easy! -- no wonder the book says to keep practising. I may come back to this later.

First Painting: "Summer Landscape"

Summer Landscape, watercolor on Fabriano Artistico paper, 9" x 12"

"Summer Landscape" is the first project from The Complete Book of Watercolors in a Weekend by Hazel Harrison and Frank Halliday, one of four watercolor books I got from Amazon last week.

The other three books are:

• Watercolor School;
• Watercolors Made Easy; and
• The Watercolor Book

The first two are by also by Hazel Harrison. The Watercolor Book is by David Dewey. Both authors are recommended for beginners by Bruce MacEvoy in his website, www.handprint.com

The fact that I post my pictures here doesn't mean I'm happy with them. I'm just using this blog as a storage space.

But if you want to leave a comment, you can do it here or on my Facebook page, where I will be using some of my experiments as my profile picture.