Urban sketching in Barcelona

Cooper in Watercolor

This is my favorite painting I've done so far. This is the first piece I've done using all professional grade paints.  My little sister sent me some Japanese artist quality paints for Christmas.  Although the pigment isn't as dramatic as others like Windor and Newton, I immediately noticed a huge difference in control with washes and their ability to glaze transparently over other colors.  This means I can use less paint, and underpainting is way more effective.  I will never do another painting with student grade paints again. I actually framed this one and hung it up.  

Small Castle

Practiced a quick painting to work on NOT overworking things.  Focused on abstracting objects and using either a single wash or wet on wet and mixing colors on the paper.  Tried using pen and ink for the castle detail.  Just an excercise rather than a painting so didn't care much about the outcome.

Bridge in Bruges

Painted this bridge from a photo from my recent trip to Bruges.  I felt that the painting looked great up until I started using my rigger to add detail.  There's a fine balance between suggestive detail and plain overkill.  Had some issues with establishing dark value as well.  I took 2 days on this painting, opting to take my time.  Although my paintings are consistently looking better, there are still many challenges to break through.  Some of my biggest challenges as a beginner with Watercolor:

1). Water and reflections

2). Expressing fine, realistic detail

3). Knowing when to stop

4). Abstracting shapes in the distance

5). Confidence with glazes

Overall, I'm happy with this painting but I see a lot of room for improvement.  With each piece that I do, I learn something.  I ended up going back to this painting several times and tweaking it.  At first, I had to add some very dark green to the water.  This created a nice contrast with the bridge and the building.  After that, something was still wrong with it and I thought a lot about what I could do to improve it.  I ended up working in some black in the tree on the far right in order to frame the bridge and buildings and to create additional contrast.

I feel like I may be overworking my paintings.  I'd love to take a class and get some feedback.  Here's an animated gif of the above painting.  Notice that it looks better prior to adding lots of detail. There seems to be a delicate balance between the need to add some darks to create value across the painting and allowing the paints to tell the story.  :

Cooper in pencil

Started off with the intention of a light sketch to use in a Watercolor painting but really liked the way it was turning out and decided to keep it simple with pencil.  Will follow this one up with a watercolor painting.  

Winter mountains

I like this one.  Followed a step by step instruction from David Bellamy's Winter Landscapes in Watercolour.   It lacks the resolution of his finished painting, but was excellent practice nonetheless.  

Snowy Cabin #2

My first attempt at something completely imaginary.  Meaning not painted from looking at a photograph or painting.  At first I hated the outcome but the next day I went back and added some value and darker colours in the foreground which dramatically changed the painting for the better.  This forced me to recap all that I've learned thus far about Watercolor:

1) lighter colors in the background.  

2) the more distant an object, the more blue it becomes

3) wet on wet is great for skies and ethereal backgrounds 

4) more detail in the foreground

5) more local color in the foreground 

6) Darker colors in the foreground

More Feng style

Wet on wet Feng Style

Tried to mimic the style of famous Chinese watercolor artist Feng.  Extreme ethereal in background with a very wet on wet technique with more value and detail in the foreground.  I want to continue playing with this style.  

Painting Loose, Quick, and Wet

My natural tendency is to load up the paint and attempt to make the scene look photorealistic.  This might be good when working with acrylics or oils but not so much with watercolor.  I'm learning that Watercolor is more about suggestion and subtely.  The beauty in the medium comes from the soft suggestion of reality.    It's better to allow the brain of the viewer to create the scene and their own sense of atmosphere. 

I was able to paint these fairly quickly - painted all four in a night.  I like the way most turned out.  Will continue to try this style of loose and suggestive painting.  

Practice with Reflections on Water

Found an excercise online to practice different ways of painting reflections.  On the left, I painted the windmill reflection first, then ran a blue wash over the top.  The middle windmill reflection was painted using horizontal strokes - the windmill colours laid down first followed by the water.  The reflection on the right was done with a wet on wet technique.  I think I like the middle method best although the wet on wet has the potential to look very realistic.   

The Matterhorn

I recently spent 4 days in Zermatt, Switzerland and took a lot of photos so that I could paint one.  I'm happy with this painting although I need to do some work with water and reflections to really get a feel for how to paint it.  I think an initial wash would be good and then add local colours on top.  Not sure and haven't found any good YouTube videos about it.  I accidently added the local color first and tried to fix the water by adding the sky blue and blended and softened edges.  I suppose it looks alright anyway.  Learning to paint Boss Ross style and accept happy little mistakes.  

Bruges Urban Sketch

This was fun to sketch and paint.  Working on 3 phase sketching.  First pass is the scribble, then the calligraphic ink line drawing, then either adding the blacks or in this case, watercolor.  

Hot chick with Tats #1

Sushi

Snowy Cabin at Night

My effort for today.  I used salt on the sky wash to create texture and dripped color on top in an attempt to create a galaxy effect.  Splattered white paint on for the stars.  The cabin looks cartoonish.  I've noticed that I tend to paint things that way.  Not sure how to improve that - maybe just a lot of sketching with the intent on realism.  

Snowy Pines #3

I'm happy with this one.  Tried something different and I know some would say taboo but I added the snow on top with white paint.  I'm learning that it's often more about suggestion and subtlety than trying to strong-arm photo realism.  For the closest pine, I used a #1 brush and some black paint to add a few lines here and there to reinforce the outline of the snow and branches.  This added a sense of detail that really made it pop.  I'm learning that foreground objects are darker and have more detail while stuff in the distance fades to an ambiguous blue-gray blob.  I also flicked white paint off my brush to create the look of snowflakes falling.  

Original Watercolor by Johan Lootens

This weekend I was in Bruges for my birthday and I was able to purchase an original watercolor by Belgian artist Johan Lootens.  It's beautiful and I'm looking forward to framing it and using it as something to aspire to for years to come. Here's a link to his fb page where you can see more of his work:  https://m.facebook.com/Johanlootenswatercolour/

Here's one of his prints that his girlfriend gave me for free for purchasing an original:  

Snowy Pines #2

A little more realistic.  Used a purple gray as underpaint for the snow shadows.  Then added a dull yellow for highlights on the branch tips.  Followed with successively darker green layers to create a sense of depth.  Tweaked the snow with some gentle purple shadows. Could use a bigger brush for my sky but I actually like the effect of a small brush.  Makes it looks like coloured pencil.  

Snowy pines #1

I love the look and feel of snow on trees.  I want to really focus on winter landscapes in the future.  Painting snow covered pines is fairly easy.  Here's my first attempt.  Will keep practicing.

Series #1 - Attempts to paint loose

Brace yourself for some really crappy landscapes.  I did a series of three and went progressively more loose with the painting.  The main thing I learned is that I suck at landscapes and I need some hardcore practice.  I have no problems painting up close objects like apples but when it comes to the finese and delicacy of washes and stuff then I'm screwed.  I suppose mastery will come with time but for now it's frustrating.  Here's the series.  I apologise for the crapiness:

Landscape Watercolor #2 - Pitztaler Glacier

I'm happy with the way the sky turned out but what I'm really struggling with is the ability to accurately represent shadows.  Need to find some YouTube videos on that.  Also, I feel like I might be using too much paint, layering it on too thick instead of relying on loose washes.  It's a delicate medium that requires a lot of finese.  Every piece I do makes me happy because I feel like I'm learning more and becoming more comfortable with the nuances of the medium.  

Apple Watercolor #2

Studied an apple again and played with under painting to create value coming through the local color on top. I think this one looks more realistic.  Don't be afraid to go heavy with the under painting is the lesson I learned.

If you look close you can see the bluish gray under painting.

My Sketchbook

I started a sketchbook with the purpose of documenting my travels and studying some urban scenes in and around Europe.  There's so many beautiful cities here and I'd love to be able to capture some of it.  I prefer to use pen and ink and watercolor and urban sketching is really new and challenging to me at this point.  I much prefer watercolor but for now this is what I've done with pencil, ink, and coloured pencils.

Practice Painting Trees with Watercolor

Today I practiced painting trees.  I start by painting some light undertones where the dark areas will come through.  I've found that a light gray blue is good for this.  On top of that, I add some bright yellow for the highlights.  Then I start to layer on successively darker layers of green paint, being sure to pay attention to my light source.  To finish, I end with black to create some contrast and add additional value.  I don't know if there's a better way to do this - I only know what I've learned from watching youTube videos.  Anyway, here are what my trees are looking like at this point:

First Larger Landscape Start to Finish

Although I'm happy with the results, I can see that I rely too heavily on the use of primary colors, and that I still have a long ways to go in developing more subtlety and realism in my paintings.  It's exciting to see the quick progress I'm making though considering I just started painting about 6 weeks ago.  I used masking fluid on the mountains here.  I think my wash for the sky was too wet, since I had some pooling in areas.  My reflections are getting better, as well as my use of value.  Still, the painting comes across as a bit muddled and dark.  I know with time and patience I'll improve though.  I went ahead and framed this one for Christiane.  She hung it up so she must like it.  Here it is step by step: