BACK TO PAINTING

Finally, I had some time to paint today. I found a few images on the sports page and did a few football ink with brush on phonebook warmup drawings. Then I continued working on my Charles Reid practice painting I had started in Las Vegas. I took all I needed to paint with me but I was distracted with family business so I didn't do much. I did sketch during the time I was sitting around waiting and on the plane coming home. I am getting better at utilizing those wasted moments by having a small sketch book with me.

I'm not that thrilled with the Charles Reid attempt but I did concentrate on focusing on the light shapes and preserving them and linking shapes of common value together. Also, I decided to leave a lot more white space than I normally do, as this is also part of his style. I realized that I am going to have trouble with alot of these images because I treated the paper with a diluted clear gesso. Reid's style (and that of many others I like) depend on an untreated surface so that the colors will mingle in a particular way. I am doing my practice pieces on untreated paper but I will have to just do the best I can on the big sheet. I really didn't think that one through!

While I was visiting my sister in Israel in September, I came across an old watercolor magazine printed in England. There was a woman featured in the magazine who just grabbed my attention. When I got home, I "Googled" her. What did we do before the internet? Her name is Shirley Trevena - and Amazon has a book by her called "Taking Risks with Watercolour" published by Collins. It was waiting for me when I got home! I absolutely love this woman's work. I read it in bed in two nights. Today, I decided to try some of her techniques on a practice sheet. I was trying everything I could think of so, naturally, things got out of hand. It didn't matter, because I was just testing and messing. She is into lines, texture, COLOR, value and composition. Everyone is turned on by different elements and different artists, but for me Shirley has the incredible blend of abstraction and realism that I am working towards. It is interesting challenge to translate what she does with flowers and still lifes into figures and faces . Anyway, I had a lot of fun playing around. I am posting a detail of a great technique described in the book. I have never come across this idea before, so I wanted to share. Using a piece of coarse sandpaper, hold it over a wet wash (or wet a section of the watercolor paper). Rub a watercolor pencil on the sandpaper and the granules will fall into the wet area and not stick to the dry paper. It makes a great texture and creates a nicely sharpened pencil as well!