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.