Colored Pencil Plumeria

"Colored Pencil Plumeria"

Image size 2.5" x 3.5"

Colored pencil

Another week of no time and little energy...so, here's another ACEO.  This time, I felt like playing with colored pencils.  I love the look of colored pencil drawings but rarely have the patience to use them for anything much larger than an ACEO.

I used a piece of Bristol paper with a 'plate' finish - totally smooth - which doesn't allow for working with multiple layers of color.  There is no 'tooth' to grab the pigment so after one or two passes, the paper doesn't accept any more color.  It feels as though your pencil is gliding over a slick piece of ice and leaves no trace that it has been there.  That was fine for this drawing since I didn't want to spend much time finishing it.

Hopefully, next week I'll feel more like painting and will have time also.

Mini Merlot

"Mini Merlot"

Image size 3.5" x 2.5"

Watercolor

Are these Merlot grapes?  Who knows?  Who cares?  I was just trying to make a title that was an alliteration.  This has been a crazy week and I wasn't able to paint, so luckily, I found this little gem that I painted a while ago but never posted.  Since I make the rules for my weekly postings, this counts!  

This is a tiny painting which is called an ACEO - an artist trading card.  I don't know if people are still trading these or not but it's a fun size and quick to paint.

Skyscape

"Skyscape"

Image Size 14" x 11"

Watercolor

This painting was also done on a saturated piece of paper.  It was my first painting in Jeanne Hyland's workshop.  There is space at the bottom that I cropped out for this view.  I haven't decided whether or not to put some land in or leave it as a skyscape.  I like it this way, I think.

Brilliant Pepper

"Brilliant Pepper"

Image size 11" x 15"

Watercolor

Last week I took a watercolor workshop with Jeanne Hyland.  I worked on this painting in the class.  Her "wet and workable" method is very interesting and and I love the brilliant and saturated colors.  She had us working on a totally saturated piece of paper and we had quite a long time to work before it began to dry.  Controlling the water/paint ratio will take a lot of practice but this seems like a pretty forgiving way to paint with watercolors and I'm looking forward to trying it again.

'Choke

'Choke

Image Size 8" x 10"

Watercolor

I wasn't really in the mood to paint this week and I think it shows.  This isn't one of my favorites but it is done.  I think I got the shadows too dark and I fought with the paper a lot.  This paper is Fabriano Artistic which I don't usually use so I'm not that familiar with its properties.  It's easy to lift color from this paper but conversely, it's hard to add layers without lifting the previous layers.  Since I love to glaze many layers of color, this probably isn't the best paper for me to use.  I like Arches because it works with my way of painting.

Rat Condo

"Rat Condo"

Image size 30" x 22"

Watercolor

What a horrible name for a painting, right?  Well, living in Southern California, we have palm trees everywhere.  Some are well manicured and some have a lot of the dead fronds hanging below the pretty green ones.  When I see these trees that aren't well maintained, I start imagining what critters are living in those dead fronds.  I mean really, what a perfect home for rats and other critters.  Nobody is disturbing them and they can live there forever!  Rent free!

I came up with the name for this painting before I painted it.  Sometimes that happens and I actually like working that way.  It gives me a goal instead of painting a picture and then struggling to think of a name.  Sometimes, naming a painting is the hardest part of the process.

This is a poured painting.  I save the white areas of the paper with resist and then wet the paper and pour red, yellow and blue over the whole paper.  Then, I decide what areas I want to save that are that value, add more resist and then do another pour.  I continue until I have achieved the value contrast that I think will work.  After the resist is removed, I tweet the painting where it needs it and then I say, "It's finished!" 

Rain Dance

"Rain Dance"

Image Size 30" x 22"

Watercolor

I know there are parts of the country that are having serious problems with flooding right now, but here in Southern California, we are praying for rain.  We were promised some rain last Friday and I tried to do my part by painting this, doing a little dance, and begging for some rain.  We didn't get any but it sure looked like were were going to have a storm.  We were teased by the heavy black clouds, but we didn't get any precipitation.

We are in such a desperate drought situation after four years of very little rain and I really hope that we have a mild summer so that our need for water is lessened.  However, it seems that in the past several years, the summers have been much hotter than average so I'm not going to hold my breath...

Contempt

"Contempt"

Image Size 30" x 22"

Watercolor

I love the textures and dimension that can be achieved with watercolors.  I used two of my favorite paints in this painting; Daniel Smith's Lunar Earth and Lunar Black.  They are the most sedimentary colors that I've found and are beautiful straight from the tube or mixed with other colors.  I'm sure you can't see the sedimentary effects in this photo but in person, they are pretty interesting.

I painted most of this on wet paper.  The initial painting layer was allowed to completely dry and then I re-wet the paper to add additional layers.

Papaya

Papaya

Image Size 7" x 10"

Watercolor

I struggled with picking a subject for this week's painting.  When I saw this papaya in the store, I decided to paint it.  Papaya is my least favorite fruit.  In fact, I really dislike it and would never choose to eat one, but I do think the inside is very interesting looking.   It took longer to paint than I thought it would, but since I really wasn't planning to eat it, I wasn't too upset when it looked really dry and unappetizing by the time I finished my painting.  Usually I eat my still life set ups once I've finished painting them but this was an exception and although I do feel a little guilty about wasting food, I think I'll get over it especially since I don't think of papayas as an eatable fruit.

Mexico Surf

"Mexico Surf"

Image size 15" x 22"

Watercolor

I wanted to work on a saturated piece of paper for this and I could tell as soon as I wet it that the sizing was gone.  The paper looks translucent when wet if there is no sizing.  Since this has happened to a lot of my paper, I'm becoming used to working with this blotter-like paper.  The things that make it hard to work on are:  

* You can't blend colors because the paint soaks into the paper immediately 

* It's hard to get dark darks. 

* Color can't be lifted

This probably wasn't the best subject to pick having a paper with these limitations but I muddled through anyway.  It was actually fun because I went into this not expecting much.

I would have liked to have the look of some misty spray from the waves but that wasn't possible with this paper.

In this photo, you can see the ripples in the paper because I haven't flattened it yet.

I should probably buy some new paper to be sure that there is sizing in it (apparently the sizing degrades over time) but I have so much paper that I need to use first so I'll wait.  I hate to waste art supplies.  Also, I think working with this limitation is a good exercise and will force me to work differently which is a good way to grow.  I can always seal the paper to keep the paper from slurping up the paint but a sealed piece of paper has its own challenges and is also different from working on a piece of paper with sizing.