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| New painting |
After a morning of errands, and plenty of procrastination, I kicked myself into gear after lunch to start working on a watercolor painting of the last of the sunflower photographs. I remembered I had a 15×20 pad of Canson watercolor paper and decided I didn’t need to shop for paper after all. Not today.
The only thing about this paper is that it’s loose sheets, not a block like I’ve been using. To work with sheets of watercolor paper I needed to tape it to a surface so that when it dries it lays flat.
There was no board this size to use as a surface so I taped it to my art table. You know what that means? It means I painted in my little studio. Can you tell I had the desk lamp on? It’s not the best light, but it will have to do.
Today I had a plan. After a brief pencil sketch just to place the flower heads on the paper, I wanted to use only the brush strokes for the petals and leaves. I tried to use just enough water to put the paint where I wanted it to go, using color for the lights and shadows, without drawing them in pencil.
Other times when I pencil in my composition I indicate where the shadows should go. Not this time. The brush stroke was dominant and the color choices developed the shadows. Watercolor is a tricky medium. But I guess every medium has it’s tricks. It’s up to the artist to discover how to use them.
Twenty minutes was the allotted time, but I may have painted past that. I didn’t use a timer today. When I felt I was too on top of this work, I stepped away to look over my table with jewelry supplies to distract myself. That was fun. More colors to look at, rather than ruin this painting with overwork.
When I said I kicked myself into gear, it was an understatement. There’s no reason for me to put up road blocks. It’s not laziness. It’s not boredom. It is resistance. I dragged myself to paint, with the little inner-child-artist having a tantrum and holding her breath until she’s blue.
It’s so ridiculous.
Looking good so far, Dora. It’ll be a stunner by the time you’re done! xx
It’s funny Pat, but I seem to paint differently depending on my location. We’ll see how it goes.