PORTLAND DEMOS DAY 3: LINE!!! AND A SLIDE SHOW!!!!!

As luck would have it, my draw paired TEXTURE as a secondary element with LINE as the primary element.  These just happen to be my two favorite elements.  Here are my demos for the day.

The first painting is done on YUPO.  I used watercolor crayons, watercolor sticks and Dr. Martin Hydrus liquid water color straight from the dropper full strength.  Then I spritzed and sprayed with water and alcohol.  I am very pleased with the results.  I will work with this idea again!

The second painting was drawn on top of  an old painting that had been collaged with different hand painted tissue papers.  I used a Daniel Smith watercolor stick, a Stabilo watercolor crayon and acrylic inks.   I will be developing this combination of materials more in the coming months.

The class did some exciting work today.  Everyone is very engaged in the process.  I love when everyone gets into the spirit of experimenting and trying new things.  Sometimes what doesn't turn out is the best lesson.

I finally found a new place to create a slide show.  Thank you, Photobucket!!!!  Here are the paintings from day two dealing with shape and texture.

CHEAP JOE'S NEW WATERCOLOR STICKS TRY OUT!

My order for the compete set of Watercolor Sticks from Cheap Joe's has been on backorder for about 6 months!  They finally arrived today along with an order from Daniel Smith for these plastic cases to store them in.  They get sticky and messy when wet.  These cases are a great solution and solve the problem nicely.    I have about 8 colors from Daniel Smith's watercolor sticks.  I was excited to try them out today and compare the two lines.  Daniel Smith's sticks are very pricey....$12 each!  Cheap Joe's were about $4 each, at least when you bought them as a set.  This particular painting had my gesso transfer over an old painting.  This is a very rough surface to paint on but produces great texture.  DON'T USE GOOD BRUSHES as they will wear away quickly.  I drew with ink using a new stick I found at Michael's.  I bought an entire package (should last awhile!) and they look sort of like fat, flat, large toothpicks.  After the ink dried, I wet the watercolor stick by dipping it into water and started using it like a crayon, then took a wet brush and blended out the color.  I need to try the Cheap Joe's sticks on a more traditional watercolor surface before coming to any permanent conclusion, but the new sticks seem to have a serious wax coating on them and do not have the richness of color I find in the Daniel Smith brand.  This may be a case of "you get what you pay for"  

BLEEDING HEART: FINAL VERSION COMPLETED!

I think this painting is finished.  At least I am finished messing with it.  I was surprised I was able to make some major changes, repositioning the eye on the left significantly.  Gesso is magic stuff!  I have posted the finished painting along with the previously published start to show the difference.  I struggled with the eyes on this one.  I don't think they are perfect but are close enough,  I was able to shorten the nose and change the mouth so that all the features seem to work together in a natural way. I also had to enlarge  the dangling hand and lengthen the finger on the supporting hand.  

I do like how the patterned paper comes through in different areas.  I attempted to have a looser feel to the painting by leaving some of the drips.  Overall, I like this painting.  I was ready to cover it up and totally start over, but the encouragement from many of the comments helped me to work through the problems.  I want the next one to be in a much looser style.  I have it planned in my mind's eye.  It will be fun to see how close I get to my intention.

IT'S FINISHED!

It was a wild weather day here in the SF Bay Area.  High winds and driving rains kept me from going to the critique group I lead, so I spent the day finishing this painting.  It is 30" x 30" which presented it's own set of problems.  The head is at an unusual angle creating foreshortened forms plus drawing the head this size was a new challenge.  I truly had to use all the skills I teach in my workshops carefully observing shapes, checking where things lined up, etc.  Painting in a vertical position helped a lot.  At lease I didn't have a distorted perspective.  All the color was from the Daniel Smith Watercolor Sticks.  I like that you can draw with them and I like the intensity and density of the pigment when used in a fully saturated way.  I just held the color stick in one hand and brushed it with a wet brush and applied the color.  They get sticky when wet, so I laid them down on a piece of plastic to dry.  I realized I could use the plastic as a makeshift palette, wetting the patches of paint that came off the wet sticks when I set them down.   I am pleased with the final result of this piece.

This will be the painting I submit to California Watercolor Society rather than the homeless dude in the voting.  The other painting will be submitted to the National Watercolor Society.  Here are some facts to keep in mind if you work like I do in mixed media and like to enter these shows.  Many of the national watercolor societies do not allow collage as part of the painting.  With certain restrictions, CWA does.  So, my latest painting will meet the requirements.  NWS does not allow an entry that has been shown in another national show.  They want to be the first to exhibit a painting!  So, I enter my best work there first.  I am not aware of any other society having that restriction.  It can get to be a juggling act, but I find it rewarding to participate in these excellent shows.  It is always an honor to get in and disappointing when I don't, but considering the limited space they have to hang these shows, it is not a black mark against my work if I don't make the cut.  There are many more excellent paintings entered than can be accepted.

2 DOWN, 18 TO GO!

Continuing with my series, here is the final result of today's work. I created a slide show of the steps. I included some details as well. I am really enjoying working in a vertical position. I can see accurately and can step back periodically and take a better look. I also like letting gravity do it's job. I made some changes in this collage. I started with the printed instruction and then drew the image with a fine brush and Venetian Brown Hydrus liquid paint. I was surprised it didn't run and stuck to the surface well. Since I had used undiluted mat medium to stick the paper down, I wasn't sure the watercolor would take. The next step was adding some of the tissue pattern. While I was doing this, the idea of paper dolls popped into my head, so I cut a doll chain from tissue paper and stuck some of those down. I liked how this looked. In the end, you really don't see them. I did do some negative painting around them with the Venetian brown but it all pretty much disappeared in the end. I decided to do an overall wash of diluted gesso to push back the importance of the printed paper. While the paper was still damp, I redrew the lines with a Daniel Smith watercolor stick and then started painting. I think I have found the perfect way of working with these paint sticks. I can draw and paint at the same time. I really loved being able to work this way! The line quality was interesting because it dragged in places that were dry. I could also wet it and blot to lift back if I got too much color on because of the mat medium coated paper. I decided not to use a black line this time. I am happier with the more colorful version. Not much evidence of a grid. I will emphasis that more in future pieces. Overall, I think this was a successful days work.

GONE WITH A PUSH OF THE WRONG BUTTON!

This was the demo I did for the workshop. Our old friend "Morris" on Tyvek utilizing the new Daniel Smith Watercolor Sticks. No additional paint was used. I have a few more surfaces to try out this new paint format. The jury is still out but I am having fun experimenting.

Sadly, this is the only photo I have left from the Valley Watercolor Society workshop! I had photographed everyone with their paintings, even taking several shots each to ensure that I would have a good one.

Sunday the entire family went to Long Beach to the Aquarium and the Queen Mary to celebrate, birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day, end of school, graduations etc. Took over 200 photos there.

We drove home yesterday and, in a tired state, I downloaded the photos from my camera, cleared the card in the camera, edited the photos deleting the blurry, redundant ones, and then emptied the "trash". Somehow I managed to delete EVERYTHING!!!!!!!! Its gone, all gone. Arghhhh!

Lots of people were taking photos during the critique, so I am hoping my S.O.S. to the group will yield most, if not all, of the paintings by e-mail. Hopefully I will be able to make a slideshow. Everyone did such a fabulous job, I wanted to share their success with everyone.

If anyone knows how to retrieve permanently deleted photos, please share.

'MY BROTHER'S KEEPER"

Here is the second painting I have done using the new Daniel Smith Watercolor Sticks. This is a full sheet of watercolor paper. I coated the paper with thick gesso and impressed a texture sheet into it while the gesso was still wet. Some of the gesso had dried so the impressions varied throughout the rectangle. I think you can see the textured surface in the detail image. I will describe my process and try to address some of the questions from the comment section of my last post.

I drew the basic shapes onto the paper with a dry watercolor stick. Then I blocked in the shadow shapes with a thin wash using a wet brush on the cobalt stick. This helped me get a better sense of accuracy of my drawing and the general composition. I could easily make changes at this stage because this surface is very liftable. I then started to complete the heads from left to right. The far left head was done entirely with the sticks. I decided that it would be more economical to use regular watercolor paint for the washes and then draw and scribble into the image where I wanted richer, more saturated color or spots of color or lines drawn into the image. I could scumble one color over the other and then blend them with a wet brush. I had to be careful not to lift the color off entirely with this surface. The texturizing created ridges on the surface that the stick skimmed over. When I moisten the sticks, they will deposit quite a bit of color. Layering these colors in this manner creates a highly saturated dense concentration of pigment resembling other media, giving an unusual appearance to a "watercolor" image. They will also give the transparent light washes most often associated with watercolor by using a wet brush stroked across the stick or sharpening the stick and dissolving the shavings into water for a larger wash mixture. Very versatile.

The difference in these new paints and Caran D'ache is subtle but significant. The watercolor crayons will lay down creamy color when dry much easier. The watercolor sticks won't do that unless you dip them in water or work on a wet surface. When you wet the deposited pigment, the watercolor crayons turn milky and unpleasant (to me) but the new watercolor sticks dilute to beautiful watercolor washes. I have not tried these new sticks on traditional untreated watercolor paper yet, so I am going to try that next.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to post a comment on my last post. Be sure and share your own experiences with this new product.