Family Treasures No. 34, Moose Paperweight

We tried to stop giving my mother elephants.  We switched to moose.  After the polar fleece robe featuring a moose motif, we returned to the giving of elephants.  This moose standing in snow, mounted on a strangely curved slab of glass was a gift from that short period of time when the family felt the elephant collection was getting too large.

Moose Paperweight, Family Treasures No. 34

I find triad color schemes to be useful when the subject is somewhat neutral, like a brown moose.  It’s not that much of a stretch from reality to make the antlers yellow and the moose’s body leaning toward violet.  Using the Complementary Triad Color Scheme (one pair of complements with one color equal distance between the two) I chose a blue-green for the background of the larger cell.

Sketchbook Drawing: Family Treasures No. 34 – drawn first with fountain pen filled with Noodler’s Black Ink, followed by watercolor washes.

 

Color Value, Glass Inkwells No. 3

Color value is as important if not more important than color scheme.

Before and after adjusting values with a few more washes of watercolor without changing the hue (color).

This morning’s Color Scheme Game indicated a Complementary Triad, two complements with one color equidistant between the two …. Yellow and Violet with Blue-Green.  My dominant color was Blue-Green.  In an attempt to maintain the blue-green as dominant color, I used a pale wash of violet for the background. The result was less than thrilling.  Curious to see how the painting would change, I created stronger contrast between the glass inkwells and the background.  Abandoning my concern for any specific color being dominant, I applied another wash of a darker violet to the background.  In addition I darkened a few of the other shapes in the bottles as well as the shadow shapes.  The result is a stronger painting that reads well from across the room in spite of its small size (5.75″ x 7.75″)

Sketchbook drawing: drawn first with fountain pen followed by watercolor washes.

 

Family Treasures No. 21, Complementary Triad Color Scheme

Another painting of the family oil cans…..

My father’s oil cans

I’ll keep at it until I’m happy with the snake bends.

I threw the die for The Color Scheme Game and ended up with Complementary Triad, Dominant Color being violet.

Family Treasures No. 21: a light wash of transparent watercolor was painted on blank paper and allowed to dry completely before drawing the oil cans and cells with a fountain pen.  Watercolor followed using a bit more opacity.

 

Shapes of Flat Colors

The day was spent painting in Renee’s Garden in Keyport, NJ.  I participated in the first annual Garden Walk hosted by the Keyport Garden club.

Clock in the Garden

The large, flat, green shape behind the clock and bird feeders is a huge, old tree covered in English Ivy.  I brought my Color Scheme Game outside and into the garden.  My early childhood influence from the hundreds of illustrated children’s books my mother read to me pulsed through my veins as I sat painting in the middle of a magical, fairy tale garden.

Color Scheme: Triad – Complementary (Purple and Yellow plus Blue / Green) Drawn first in ink with fountain pen, followed by watercolor.

 

Trumpet Parts No. 71, Complementary Triad Color Scheme

Trumpet Parts No. 71 …. Twenty Nine more drawings to go …. This was the last page of one more sketchbook …. The pile of incomplete sketchbooks continues to diminish!

Trumpet Parts No. 71, ink and watercolor

Playing the Color Scheme Game, I threw a ten (Triad – Complementary) and a #7 (Purple).  As my color equidistant between the purple and yellow I chose red/orange rather than Green/Blue this time around.

Sketchbook drawing:  Drawn first with Waterman Phileas fountain pen filled with Sailor Jentle Epinard (dark green) ink, followed by watercolor.