"100 SLC Porches, No.15"

"100 Salt Lake City Porches, No.15"- watercolor on 8.5" x 11" paper

I did most of this porch at watercolor painting class last night learning a new style of "Pouring It On".  Colleen first showed examples photos of the "Pouring It On" style of paintings.  The first examples she showed were from the painter Lian Quan Zhen.  He does a method of pouring watercolor that's more of a Chinese Watercolor Pouring on Style.  Next, she showed paintings from Leslie Redhead who does a pouring on method that is one color at a time.  Both of the styles of pouring watercolor were amazing.  I especially loved the building scene paintings done by Leslie Redhead.

Out of necessity, Colleen said we will limit this month's watercolor painting class to the Chinese style of pouring on.  The one color at a time does not work well in a class situation because it needs more time.  There is a waiting for one color to dry completely before you pour another color.  But she did suggest that we try this style as homework. 

Next, Colleen did a demo of the Chinese watercolor pouring on style.  She had all ready drawn and masked off the white areas of ducks in a pond.  She then mixed 3 paints in separate cups; one blue, one red, and another yellow.  She misted the sketched/masked off paper with her spray bottle.  Then, she poured the blue in the area of the painting that would mainly be blue.  Then, she poured with the yellow paint cup the areas that would be yellow or possibly green with overlapping of the blue.  She took her fingers and moved the paint around on the paper to mix in certain areas.  Also, dropping some of the paint in other areas for spots of green or yellow.  Next she poured on the red paint in areas that the red would be.  Then, took her fingers again and moved paint around on the paper mixing.  She also took a straw and did some blowing through it to move paint around showing the different effects.  Then, she took some paper towels and absorbed some of the extra paint. 

As the painting started to dry Colleen showed us how we could do interesting things to the painting as it dried.  She showed how we could take a thirsty brush and pick up paint to almost make pale white areas with gentle edges; unlike the harsher edges that masking achieves.  She also put salt (both table & sea salt) on the painting.  Then, there was an application of saran wrap to make subtle effects.  I was getting excited by all of the possibilities~!

I then started my own pouring on painting.  I had all ready drawn and quickly did a bit of masking while I mixed my 3 cups of paint.  When it was time for the actually pouring on I quickly discovered that it was harder than it looked!  I ended up with a bit of a psychedelic mess!  But with some work and some wet to dry painting, I finally ended up with the above painting which was a pleasant surprised.  But I think this is going to be a learning curve type of thing.

Points of Perspectives in Water Color Painting Class

The word for water color painting this week was "Perspective".  Right away we were at Colleen's computer station looking at examples of perspectives.  There's 1, 2, and 3 point perspectives.  We first talked about one point perspective.  Which I will be frank I have never thought of one point before.  I know it boggles the mind that at times I can be a bit obtuse!  I remember doing two point perspective in high school mostly city scenes with buildings wrapping around corners (that looked really horrible) but one point?  I never considered it or really tried to use it before.  And well, 3 point perspective... Forgit-a-boud it! But now I can see that it would be helpful to make a building see taller.  Not that I'm planning on bounding any sky scrapers on any canvas in the short future. 

Colleen showed us several examples of one point perspective (with a bit of 2 point) via paintings from Kathy Weber.  What amazing paintings this artist has!  I love her use of color-- her use of shading!  It's just wonderful!  Please check out her blog if you get the chance.

After all those wonderful examples, we were off to do a pencil drawing first of a one point perspective of a building disappearing into the one point on the horizon.  Got out those rulers and we drew lines according to Colleen's directions.  I ended up doing two different building (right next to each other-- one kind of in front of the other) working on the same one point of perspective.  Nothing too elaborate but enough to get a feel for the concept.  Next, we chose a photo that had a one point perspective to work on.  I chose a black & white photo of a horse out at pasture.  Here it is....

"Horse at Pasture"-Wet-on-wet style on cold press paper- 9"x12"



 So what do you think?  I think I did pretty well on the fence's perspective. 

Oh, and here's some other paintings that I finished this week...



"Red Fall Leaves"- wet-on-wet style on cold press-9"x12"

"Confetti'd White Stallion"- wet-on-wet style on cold press- 9"x12"

I even broke out the oils and finished this painting...

"Cycling Cache Valley's Little Red"- Oil on canvas- 16"x20"

Water Color Painting Class-- Saturation!

This week in class there seemed to be a theme—Saturation! First, Colleen discussed about how saturation of a color is relative to the vibrancy or brilliance of that color. Those colors that are lighter; like the yellows/oranges, naturally appear larger and carry more visual weight to that area of a painting. Also, those colors that are higher in intensity, i.e. pure pigments, tend to draw the eye to that area in a painting too. Colleen went on to show us several examples from Monet, Matisse, and other well known artists where they used the concept of color saturation in their composition.


Next we worked on Wet-on-Wet style of water color painting. In this we continued the concept of saturation as we literally were soaking cold press paper until it could no longer take any more water. This is the same method that we used in the prior class when we did the strawberry painting. Here again, we started by lightly drawing with pencil the outline of the painting. Colleen had us focus on the shading area of the painting. Concentrating on the darker and lighter areas of the painting would allow us also to think about the use of color saturation; as well as the values of color. I chose to do a painting based on a photo I taken up at a Sunday Silly Market in Park City. I call this painting—“Is This Hat Me or What?"

Is This Hat Me or What? - Wet-on-wet style on cold press paper



 And here are a few more of the puddle paintings that I worked on this last week...

Girls Checking Out Art - water color on yupo paper

Not too bad, huh? I might be improving just a wee bit?

Spur Exhange - water color on yupo paper

Sisters on a Sunny Sunday Afternoon - Water color on yupo paper