Painting What You See

"Spring Daffodils" - 6x6 - Watercolor - February 2016

Spring is coming.....the daffodils are the trumpets announcing the good news.    I've been painting from reference photos for months and its good to have some 'real' things to paint.   Last week it was holly and this week it's daffodils.    To say 'paint what you see' is harder that it sounds.   Our mind and our eyes make sense of our world and give us short cuts to process all the stimuli around us.   We did an exercise in class one time where we drew without taking our eye off the subject.   I have to admit I cheated a little.   It was hard to draw and not look back and forth.    Needless to say it was not very good.    Later I saw a video where an instructor did the same thing but with an additional twist.   He first painted a wrench without ever taking his pencil off the paper and without looking away from the subject.   Next he drew the wrench from memory.   Finally he drew by looking 50% of the time at the subject and the other 50% of the time looking at the drawing.   The comparison was a) a drawing with 100% looking at the subject, b) a drawing with 100% NOT looking at the subject and c) a drawing with 50% looking at subject and 50% looking at drawing.    The last one was the most successful.   It's easy to get caught up in painting or drawing and to begin focusing only on the painting.    This 50% example helps me understand how important it is to keep a focus on the subject.    It also reminds me that drawing or painting from real objects/subjects and plein air are the very best ways to draw or paint.     It's a discipline and 'painting what you see' is something you have to work hard to accomplish     I've had three artist within the last few weeks say the same thing....'the painting never gets better than the drawing' ....or 'your paintings will never be any better than your drawing ability'.

With that in mind, I'm glad that I have been focusing on drawing for the last month.    I would add that drawing exercises the 'muscle' of focusing on what you actually see.   It's hard but worth the effort.

Learning Your Subject

'Needle Point' Holly - 6x6 - Watercolor - February 2016

My focus over the last few months has been to concentrate on learning some basics of drawing.   It started with a drawing class at University of West Georgia.   Our focus was sketch, sketch, sketch.  Sounds easy but it's actually hard to do.   Keeping my sketchbook by my living room chair helped me over the holidays.   Now I've drifted away and I think my next strategy will be to take a sketchbook and put one in my studio, living room, sun room, bedroom, etc.   I'm really anxious for some pretty weather so that I can do more sketching outside.     The other step was to take a illustration class at the State Botanical Gardens.   This required that we focus on the 'detail'.   We looked at things under a magnifying glass, we used a lamp to focus on shadow, we practiced, practiced, practiced value scales with graphite.   Then personally I decided to pick up the watercolor brush again and between trial and error, You Tube and practice, practice, I continue to learn some things.    What I learned in the watercolor above was to NOT use a charcoal pencil to sketch a watercolor and then put a watercolor wash on the paper.   While I was able to go back and work out some of the problems, I was left with some charcoal residue in the paint.    The other thing I've been doing is painting the same thing over and over.    I actually have done this before and a couple of my favorite paintings were ones that I painted dozens of time.   I'd sketch the composition, paint it in various color schemes and in different mediums.   It is a technique that really helps you get to know your subject.

Getting to Know Colored Pencils

'East Palatka' Holly - 11x14 - Colored Pencil - February 2016

Colored pencils have many positives.   Some of those positives include the following:

1. the pencils can be left out and don't take up a lot of space
2. pencils don't leave a mess
3. pencils don't require clean up like paints
4. no issue to leave out around children/grandkids
5. easy to sharpen to points
6. mix on the paper
7. allow a wide variety of strokes
8. produce nice artwork
9. allow for a wide variety of values

With these positives being said, I did find the medium to be time consuming and tedious.   On this one drawing I spent the better part of a week sketching, completing in graphite, sketching and completing in color.   I thing it's perfect for the project our class was working on - natural science illustration.    It is a medium I will try again.  

Continuing With Pencil Drawing

'East Palatka' Holly - 9x12 - Graphite Pencil - February 2016

This weeks assignment in my Natural Science Illustration Class is a pencil sketch of a 'East Palatka' Holly.    This is not finished yet but I thought it would be good to take a photo and post so I could see more clearly where I needed more dark shading.     Here are the steps in this assignment.   Our assignment was to draw thumbnails sketches of various composition of a still life of the holly.   We then use a proportion scale to determine the % need to enlarge the drawing to at least 9x9.     We then traced the enlargement onto tracing paper and then traced onto a hot press paper.   Our task was to use a magnifying glass to search for all the detail in the veins, etc.    It's only after completing this drawing that we are to do a color recipe card for the colored pencil drawing.   I've worked hours on the graphite drawing already so this is turning into quite a project.   I will say that the more work on the front end creates a better results on the back end.

Landscape Design

It's been a while since I completed a landscape plan.   This didn't copy very well but I decided to post it anyway.   Several years ago I took courses at Chattahoochee Tech in Landscape Design.   It was great fun and I completed my certification.    I've applied a lot of what I've learned but had gotten use to the Dynascape software.    I was asked to do a butterfly garden design for the local senior center.   My student license for Dynascape had expired so I was back to hand drawing.    I loved doing these in school.   I'm finding that all my experiences since retirement have been similar and have built on each other whether landscape design, painting, drawing, etc.   This was a fun project.

Less is More

"Deserted Wagon Wheel" - 9x6 - Watercolor - February 2016

After a sleepless night and a good cup of coffee, I decided to go back to my mini paintings.   They are quick and feed my need to capture a subject and move on to something else.   This field was at a Georgia farm I visited last year.   I was taken by the rocks, wagon wheel and the old tub scattered under the trees.   So much the stereotype of an old country place.   The remnants of the past are abandoned without regard of the landscape.    I think it actually gives it some character and speaks to the farm's 'past'.

Sometimes you have to look for the one thing you like?

"Homestead" - 9x12 - Watercolor - February 2016

I'm discovering that I'm an impatient painter.    I love mediums that give you instant gratification.    Those are pencil, charcoal, pastel.   I love watercolor but we have a love hate relationship.   When I started this painting I did the sky first.   I loved the clouds and probably should have left the painting for a few hours and came back.   BUT....I just couldn't step away.   Maybe the trick is to start several at one time and move back and forth.    I've got a colored pencil assignment for a class this week so that will help me get away from watercolor for a few days.