Saturday, November 6, 2010

Watercolor - Zilker Botanical Gardens Lantern in Pond

Unfortunately, my camera wasn't up to the task of taking 2 hours of video for this painting I did today. I really wanted to do a time lapse for you, but it just wasn't going to happen. I need to figure out how to hook up my camera to a battery source and laptop at the same time so I can record video. On batteries it can only records 2 minutes of video, which would have made me have to stop and go every two minutes. That's a bad way to paint.

Well here is my process. I started with the darkest part of the water, but wiped off where I was going to put the fish while it was still wet. Then I dropped in some orange fish, again while it was still wet. I wanted the greens to bleed into the oranges to make the fish look like they are in the water. This was a special challenge for me. I've never painted the water surface, reflections, and what's underneath it at the same time before. Hopefully it worked out. You tell me. The rest of the painting follows my usual technique. I think I can generalize a few things regarding painting water though. Reflections are hard edged. Everything underneath is soft edged.
And that's all for today. Two posts in one day though :) I hope I am keeping you, my reader, entertained. Anyway, earlier today I said how busy I was. I'm not kidding. I'm applying for two grants, and they both require me to show all kinds of work (10 or more illustrations). I'm busy working on one of my grant-paintings starting tomorrow. If I win it, maybe some publishers will take notice!

I hope you visit me again!
Tiffanny

7 comments:

Sadami said...

Dear Tiffanny,
The work is beautiful; a Japanese pond catches my eyes. The photos show a process very well. Very interesting. Please keep up!
Cheers, Sadami

Tiaggo Gomes said...

Hello Tiffanny.
Thanks for visiting and comment.
I love the way you paint your illustrations with watercolors
I am starting with this technique and your videos have a nice cheer.

excuse the English use a translator.

Ted Blackman said...

Tiffanny, I was watching your tutorial on Utube, and you have a real knack for giving instructive dialog while painting. You are very clear as well as interesting to listen to. That's an art as well. Bravo. -Ted

tiffannysketchbook said...

Sadami, Thank you again for visiting :) I love your loose and free style on your blog. I hope to become looser myself.

Tiaggo, Welcome to my blog and thank you for visiting :)

heya Ted,
Thanks for your visit once again :)
I really don't have a knack. That was recorded over after the fact. At first I tried to narrate while I was painting and that resulted in a lot of "uh.... umm....."

Ted Blackman said...

Aw criminey, you're way too honest.
Well, you have a wonderful knack for doing instructional voice-overs. How's that??

tiffannysketchbook said...

hehe hey Ted :) If you think I'm honest now, wait till you see my "When I was a Stupid Kid..." series that I'm about to do. Embarrassing and hilarious antics of my childhood.

Ted Blackman said...

Can't wait! I'm giddy with anticipation! :-D