Friday 24 April 2015

Session 23 - simple seascape revisited


At the today session we discussed a little bit about the personal interpretation that each artist gives to a certain scene, while the theme/subject is a common one. We looked a bit into the theory of personal choices for composition and color selection. The exercise was to re-do a known subject, but make it personal. The subject was our first painting exercise, a seascape scene with a boat and some land/trees, which at that time was done monochrome (with cobalt blue and black) in an attempt to learn gradient wash of single pigment. Today the aim was to sketch a new composition on the same subject (main elements: sea, sky, boat, trees/rocks/land) and then consider and test a limited palette of 3-4 colors (plus black) and try to evoke a different atmosphere with the new painting (sunset, misty morning, hot afternoon, speed, wind, storm). Today the group only managed to have the sketch done, and transferred to the watercolor paper, so I am looking forward to see how the further interpret it at home or during the next session!

No photos today, I didn't had the camera with me. I promise to get some next time!

p.s. We also looked into the April issue of Watercolor Artist Magazine to the winning paintings of the "6th Annual Watermedia Showcase". As expected, each one had another favorite painting!

Saturday 4 April 2015

Sessions #21 & #22 - the big wave!

As summer approaches we are already dreaming of the great time on the seaside. For now, just walking on the beach and enjoying the sound of the rather big waves as they are breaking and mixing with the sand. And furthermore we are having fun with trying to translate this image into watercolor paintings.
As far as technique is concerned, we are working with wet-in-wet in the sky area (yellow ochre,crimson lake and cobalt blue) , we are learning to use masking fluid to save the whites of the paper to make the waves and foam, and color mixing (viridian and cobalt blue) to get the Mediterranean sea water colors. Work in progress so far, and only a few photos this time.