Surprisingly Successful Day

Back in the studio opening up all my leftover cans of worms…

“T” – watercolor painting 22″ x 30″

As wonderful as a clean and orderly studio is, it’s terribly intimidating and resistant to what I need to do in its clean and orderly space.  I dragged out six of the 22″ x 30″ watercolors I started prior to moving out of my wonderful, giant studio with natural light that flooding in through huge windows.  I had the first three layers of thrown paint on the six sheets of watercolor paper.

I’ve come a long way since I threw that paint.  My color sense has taken a severe swerve away from where it was.  What I want from a painting now is far more than I have ever wanted before.  I panicked, then started to throw paint.  This time I chose the hue and value carefully.  I varied the marks with brush, scraper and my breath…..  splatter, splat, blow, flick, drop, scrape…. let dry…. flatten….. and then begin the cycle again.  I had no expectations of having a resolved piece of work for at least a couple of days.  The world is often full of surprises!

Watercolor Painting: “T”  – 22″ x 30″ watercolor

 

Vintage Forks at Chapman Lake Cottage

A couple of days ago I posted a photo of the fork and sketch on my other blog.

Vintage Fork painted with Peerless Watercolor Papers

This is the drawing after I painted it using a waterbrush and Peerless Watercolor Papers.  The sketchbook has thin, lined paper, not the BFK Rives paper I use to make my handmade sketchbooks.

sketchbook drawing:  drawn first with Vintage Sheaffer fountain pen filled with Noodler’s Black Ink, followed by Peerless Watercolor applied using a waterbrush.

Color Scheme: Double Complements, limited palette –  yellow and purple, blue and orange

 

Identifying Color Schemes In Your Surroundings

Noticing and identifying color interactions in your surroundings strengthens the lessons learned when playing The Color Scheme Game.

Double Complementary Color Scheme of Fruit

I am visiting a friend in South Portland, Maine.  The design of brightly colored fruit on the cloth beside the sink brings a smile to my face as I brush my teeth each morning upon rising and each evening before I slip into bed.  The red and green are full intensity, complementary hues.  The yellow and purple are slightly neutralized complementary hues.  The yellow and purple separate the red and green from one another while also supporting them without competing for attention.  This is an excellent example of a design using a double complementary color scheme.

 

 

 

Double Complements, Scribe and Square

Hand tools are excellent objects to play with abstractly.

Family Treasures No 25, Wooden  Scribe and Metal Square

After last week’s conversation with Dine, I’m more conscious of overlapping, crossing the boundaries of cells as well as creating illusions.  The metal scale works as an object while suggesting two separate cells.  Altering the scale of the tools within the same cell alters the illusion of space between the objects.

Color Scheme: Double Complements … Blue/Violet, Yellow-Orange and Blue, Orange.  the Blue-Violet is neutralized to create a stronger illusion of depth and dimension.

Drawn first with fountain pen filled with Noodler’s Black Ink followed by watercolor washes

 

Variations and Value Contrast, Trumpet Series

Trumpet Parts No. 65 …

Variations of Trumpet Parts No. 65 Double Complementary Color Scheme

The die gave me a double complementary color scheme of violet, yellow, red and green.  The composition is cruciform. I find violet and yellow delightful to work with.  I don’t have the same inclination when it comes to red and green.  I neutralized the green.  After stage one (far left) it appeared that I needed a spot of red somewhere within the border to balance the saturated red in the border.  I added the two little half-pans of watercolor pigment.  After that, I felt the contrast in value was not strong enough and I added another wash of a darker neutral green.  Looking at the sketch on my monitor, I decided that it was better without the half-pans of watercolor.  The darker green balanced the red and the composition is better without the pans.

Eliminating the watercolor half-pans.

Sketchbooks and computers work well together to solve problems!

Sketchbook painting: Drawn first with ink followed by watercolor, followed by the magic of digital erasing.

 

Leaving reality behind

This morning’s throw of the die was a welcome relief from the Modified Triad of the last two days.

Trumpet Parts No. 48 ............ Double Complements

I threw a three (Double Complements) a one (yellow) and a two (yellow/green).  The third throw was to determine the second set of complements.  That gave me yellow, purple, yellow / green and red/purple.

I enjoyed playing with the push and pull of the warm and cool colors as well as slightly altering the value of each.  I turned my back on the actual trumpet parts so as not to be influenced by the real lighting situation.  I wanted to manipulate shapes and colors with only design in mind.

Sketchbook drawing: drawn first with fountain pen filled with mystery brown ink, followed by watercolor.

Limited Palette: Cadmium Lemon, New Gamboge, Phthalo Green, Cobalt Violet, Dioxazine Purple.

 

Tavern Interior, Double Complementary Color Scheme

While the musicians set up for the Blues Jam at the Raven’s Nest on Wednesday night, I sketched the piano in the corner.

Table with Flowers and Piano in the Corner

Turned out to be a double complementary color scheme: Purple / Yellow and Blue / Orange, the Purple / Yellow being dominant and the Blue / Orange acting as supporting actors.

The Noodler’s Black Swan in English Roses add such a lovely touch of color as it bleeds into the watercolor. I enjoyed the reflections in the table as well as the reflection of the framed drawing in the front panel of the piano.

Sketchbook drawing: drawn first with dip pen and ink followed by watercolor.

 

Double Complementary Color Scheme, Lilies and Eucalyptus in Roseville Vase

Some sketches takes days to complete.

Lilies and Eucalyptus in Roseville Vase

The initial pencil drawing took about three hours.  The watercolor washes were done over a period of two days.  I would love to see what a yellow background, rather than the white of the sketchbook paper, might do to energize the still life.  Since the paper is so thin, I hesitate.

The color theme is double complementary, yellow orange / purple blue on the bottom and red/green on the top.  The lavender in the lily facing away, as well as the yellow-greens of the lily bud and daffodils on the Roseville vase helps to tie the top to the bottom.

Sketchbook painting:  drawn first in pencil followed by thin washes of watercolor.