Pages

Monday, May 31, 2010

More From The Watercolor Workshop on Saturday

Towards the end of the day I had some paper and paint left over so I quickly sketched David Peterson (our artist instructor for the day) and painted him painting a picture himself. I just used the colors I had on my brush and liked his green skin tones! Not sure what he thought of them. I think he said something like "Am I really that tan?" He did tell me that my other art teacher at the community college had drawn a portrait of him looking quite surprised, and that he liked mine better! (that was fun to hear!) I learned this style of drawing from that other teacher! ;-) A few more shots of David doing a quick sketch on his watercolor paper from his smaller sketch using a dry erase marker...for which he told us all the benefits...I remember that it does not bleed through the watercolor paper as a regular Sharpie might.
And then he adds his paints...telling us about the Elements and Principles of design: shape, value, color, line, space, edge, texture; and variety, exaggeration (which can mean making windows smaller than they are); alternation, repetition, scale, gradation, unity and movement.
Not sure I actually thought of much of this while I was making my paintings.
Two more participants in our art class. This guy who was a walking work of art himself gave me permission to photograph and blog him. He is a talented tattoo artist in town.
One more of my larger pieces...I just kept going when I finished the first two. When I am painting I sort of go "into a zone" so I have no memory
of THINKING about what I am doing, should be doing, etc.
I just DO IT.
Does anyone else paint like this?
I think if I were to think my way through I'd freak myself out with fear and self doubt and not put anything down on paper. Let me know if you see any of those Elements and/or Principles having snuck in here.
The painting on the easel is one of David Peterson's.
David's art has won many awards. Reading from his newsletter I see
Merit Award, 2nd and 3rd places.
He also got the City of Vacaville Purchase Award, and at our recent juried art show
he was awarded "Jurors Award" for the same painting. ("The Sound of Brushes II").
(inside the gallery)
This is my first original sketch which I later painted.
4" X 6"
And this my second sketch design also painted quickly
4" X 6" The sun umbrellas are actually white, but I enjoyed making them more colorful.
And one more shot of the whole of the painting I did of David.
He very cleverly made an easel for himself using an old photo tripod
and a ruler holding laminated foam board for the board to hold his paper
using two large clips.
As the legs on the tripod extend and contract its good for table or
standing up on the ground. I am so glad I went to that workshop.
&&&&
Happy Cactus Monday
(photos taken by me a few Saturdays ago of local cacti!)
HCM

13 comments:

  1. I really like your art here...you are such a wonderful painter also!!! All we see (mostly) on your blog is fiber art, but wow...you are blowing me away with your painting/sketching. Interesting to use the dry erase marker for the sketching. Happy Cactus Monday to you too!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're really branching out!
    These are all wonderful. I said it before...I love your vibrant, bold colors!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Lynniskynni! So glad you took this class, everything looks very spontaneous and wonderful. For me, this special "Zone" is something, I can get into even if I have thought about what I want to do before. The thing is, think then just do, or so...
    I love the portrait you painted of the teacher!
    love
    Andrea

    ReplyDelete
  4. I can see you had a good time at the workshop. I do all my thinking before putting my brush to paper. When I start painting all thought goes out. It is a good feeling. HCM too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. your paintings very Matisse-like. Sounds like you got a lot out of that workshop! What me think??? Are you kidding.

    Actually I am a huge thinker in many areas of my life. However, when doing visual art (for want of a better word) esp painting i do not think and that is what I love about it. I just plunge my brush into the paint and swish around on the paper or canvas and see what happens.

    Sigh. Wish I could plunge in in some of the other areas of my life.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your paintings are wonderful. I love the lose style and Suki is right.. Mattise-like. I can see those on peoples walls and hotels .. Very sellable art. I hope you keep it up as you are very good alread.Thanks for sharing all this. So glad you did get to do the class.

    ReplyDelete
  7. oh lynn! i LOVE watercolors so this is a total treat for me to see! you are VERY good!

    i use micron pens for sketching. now i'm thinking about a dry eraser and guess what, i don't even know what it is! (i have a long way to go)

    i zone out when i write. i could be in midair for all i know. sometimes when i read back what i've written, i don't even know it's me who wrote it.

    when i sketch, i cane handle distractions better. i don't know why.

    i hope you keep doing watercolors, lynn, because this is a joy to see. vibrant colors, great simple lines, total success with tone and mood!

    yay!

    love
    kj

    ReplyDelete
  8. oh lynn! i LOVE watercolors so this is a total treat for me to see! you are VERY good!

    i use micron pens for sketching. now i'm thinking about a dry eraser and guess what, i don't even know what it is! (i have a long way to go)

    i zone out when i write. i could be in midair for all i know. sometimes when i read back what i've written, i don't even know it's me who wrote it.

    when i sketch, i cane handle distractions better. i don't know why.

    i hope you keep doing watercolors, lynn, because this is a joy to see. vibrant colors, great simple lines, total success with tone and mood!

    yay!

    love
    kj

    ReplyDelete
  9. KJ dry eraser pens are the pens used on white boards. They look like Sharpie markers but they must be made with different chemicals as they erase easily off of the slick white board. I found them at Win Co and a bit more expensive at Michael's. They come in black and in colors too.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hey there - catching up on posts and these are so interesting to see. I really like your watercolors - the colors are cheerful and bright. I don't really understand how you can sketch with a dry marker (and then paint over it?) - but I believe you.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lynn, your watercolour paintings are fantastic! As soon as I saw the one of your teacher I thought "Children's storybook". You could easily be doing illustrations for writers of children's books. The Café painting is excellent - also very 'illustratory'. If you had a solo exhibition of watercolour paintings it would be a success.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your reactions to my watercolors are simply mind blowing to me. Thank you so much. I cannot tell you ALL how much your encouraging words inspire me to keep practicing and trying new things.
    You are the best "parents" a gal could ever ask for. I say that as I never felt I got this kind of encouragement growing up, but I sure am making up for that a million fold now!
    Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love your loose sketchy watercolors! And in answer to your question, no, I don't paint like that although I would love to be able to. I guess I just need to practice! I lay awake at night sometimes planning all my layers of color out in my head and deciding which color I will use here and there......it's very constricting at times! I want to be loose!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for leaving your comments as I love hearing from you. Your words of encouragement are why I continue to draw!