Watercolor - Bastrop River Co

Went to Bastrop today and painted this. I've lived just a short car ride from Bastrop for the last 6 years but I never went. Shame on me, it's a cute little town with lots of things to paint. Anyway, I painted this little boat rental place:

And here's a sequential of how I painted it. I didn't like how wimpy my washes were on stage 2. Also, I was under a tree, and the dappled light was throwing my camera off. Sorry for the poor photography!

In all honesty, the painting didn't turn out how I had it in my head. There are things I really don't like about it. My spouse says that it's a fine painting and that the failings are all in my head and that I should post it. So if you like my painting, you have him to thank for me posting it. :)

Until next time!
Tiffanny

Koi Watercolors with Step-by-Step instructions

Hi!

Skittered to San Antonio today to check out the Japanese Tea Garden they had there. I found a not-so-high-traffic spot and painted some koi.

Plein Air painting is no joke. It's hard work lugging your painting gear all over the place in 103-degree weather, then sitting in one spot trying not to sweat on your paper. Studio painting is for wussies. It's all worth it when you gather a crowd and they exclaim how beautiful your painting is. :) That doesn't happen in a studio!

OK now for the step-by-step:

Step one: Get yourself a cool hat. I knitted this hat! And a lady was like: OMG! COOL HAT! Did you make it? and I'm all... YEAH MAN! FIST BUMP. Well, it didn't go quite like that, but close.

Step Two and Three - draw it, and paint it. When I draw, I go from general to detailed. When I paint, I usually do the opposite - from detailed to general, which some say is counter-intuitive.

So, when I put down a stroke, I try to get the Color, Value, and Edge quality right the first time. Unlike many watercolorists, I don't build up color and value from light washes, I try to get it right immediately. This is called Alla Prima painting, Alla Prima is Italian for "First Attempt".

First Attempt painting is fast. Faster than glazing. It's a little more scary because a big bold dark mark cannot be built up to. It's there right away. But speed is a huge advantage when plein air painting where you want to be quick. Another advantage of alla prima watercolor painting is the ability to soften edges. When you put a mark down, you can soften it immediately by working the neighboring color or by touching it with water. Can't do that when you're glazing.

 Whenever I paint, I try to paint things that are next to each other, relating their color and edge quality as I go. I'm not all over the place, but I do keep the overall piece in mind, in my head, about where I want specific values to go. As you can see, I started with the fish head, then the water around the fish, keeping it wet-on-wet so the water bleeds into the fish a little bit.

 Then I take a break. Here's me with a GIANT LOLLIPOP. (Cotton candy flavored.)

 I lied a little. This painting is not completely Alla Prima. I glazed the water. The reason is that it was necessary. In order to get large dark washes you need a lot of water. That unfortunately washes down the colors and makes it wimpy. The alternative was to glaze. The water in the painting was glazed with Indigo Blue. It's a great pigment to glaze with. It doesn't lift as easily as other pigments. I did keep softening the indigo into the fish however. This integrates the fish into the water. Remember: hard edges separate, soft edges integrate. If the fish were all hard-edged, it would look like cardboard cutouts.

 I added some subtle fishy shadows and voila, got yourself a koi painting.

 Now show it off! Here's me Vanna Whiting it up.

Well, I hope you liked my painting and my step-by-step. I know, the instructions weren't that specific. For that you'll have to go to my youtube channel and follow the tutorials. These are more like general tips and an overview of how I work.

Until next time!
Tiffanny

Figure Drawing, plus a rant!!

These are all 10 minutes or less:

This week I stopped thinking about draftsmanship and focused on staying loose. My drawings seem to turn out better that way. It's weird. It's as if something else takes control of the drawing, not ME. I think when I "let go" it's like when a musician plays on feel, rather than thinking about every individual note and where to put their fingers. Soon, you've played the piece and you don't know how it happened. It's muscle memory.

It's very hard to push yourself in that zone, because you always want to control your work. It's how you feel mastery. You want to feel that you control every aspect of your art in look, feel, style and, if you're an animator, how the drawings move through space and time as well. We crave the control over our art, but really, control could be just knowing how to stay loose. Like the musician knowing when to close his eyes and just play. When to let the muscle memory take over.

I have a book called Alla Prima, by Richard Schmid. He says in the book that "Looseness is not a frivolous departure from control.... It arises from the freedom which comes from superb control." It's funny, that looseness looks like the opposite, doesn't it? Sometimes brevity, and the absence of rendering feels like the artist has nothing more to offer than a few carefully placed lines, but in this artist's humble opinion, those very few, select lines are the hardest ones to draw.

Anyway, back to the Schmid quote, *SIGH*, I would definitely never presume that I have superb control, but I do get better results being loose. I can't wait until I feel that the control is superb.

Until next time,
Tiffanny