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Day 101 (Tues April 11) Another Lighthouse, Sheeler style

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I guess I may end up working my way through each of Peter Sheeler’s tutorials. They are perfect for my 2017 project, and I feel very comfortable with the style. And they are small and fit well in my sketchbooks. I’ll add the link for the Uniball deluxe micro pen again from Amazon. This is the three pack. It is really nice for this (or regular writing) and SO affordable. I love my special art supplies… but this pen is probably one of my favorite finds. This micro deluxe, also here in a set of 12 for $20, specifically says waterproof, and I haven’t tried the regular, so I don’t know about it
(although it says the regular protects against water, fraud and fading).

(In case you’d like to try it, this is a link to a set of 12 for $5…  the regular uniball micro, not the deluxe. I have only used the deluxe so far, listed further up, and love it, but I may try the regular since it is SO affordable, and compare sometime. If it is waterproof and fade proof, and creates a nice line, that’s all I’m really looking for.)

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Day 100 (Mon April 10) tree trunks

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A watercolor wash, and a few tree trunks. Easy peasy. I just copied another tutorial. I used that Silver mop brush again from the other day for the background today. I do like it. And it doesn’t smell so goat-y today so I think a good rinsing will take care of that. 🙂 I’m so glad I bought this brush. I try to do anything with a very wet wash on this Arches cold press block. Expensive paper, yes, but I’ve decided well worth it for the quality difference, and the blocked pad makes painting washes and wet pictures a pleasure. It is great paper, and doesn’t wrinkle or curl a bit on the block, however wet I get it! Amazon has it for a good price, too, compared with what I’ve found other places!

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Day 99 (Sun April 9) butterfly

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Oooh, I love this one. Another Peter Sheeler tutorial. Definitely more my style than the past several days. When I’m washing watercolor over, I generally use the pen Sheeler recommended, the Uniball Deluxe Micro Pen. It is an inexpensive pen with waterproof ink, and a nice steady flow. (a three pack for under $7 on Amazon) I assumed I’d need to use expensive art pens so it was a nice surprise to see how well these work. I really love them. Great for sketching and for everyday writing!

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Day 98: (Sat April 8) One last try at the light study

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I purchased a mop brush, the Silver oval mop seen here on Amazon,  to try the background off these paintings one more time. I like the brush a lot, but I may still try to get a hake brush sometime. I think the shorter, but still very soft, bristles will work better for what I’m trying. I liked this one. It hasn’t shed any bristles for me, (contrary to the Amazon review), BUT…. when it is wet, it stinks to high heaven. No lie. This is some serious goat hair here. It holds a ton of water, though, and I’m hoping after a few uses it will smell like nothing for me. This brush does handle the large wet areas of wash better, but I still had trouble here (like not letting the background dry enough before I laid in the first layer of land) Still, I think it is progress.

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Also, my paints are granulating, I think, which means they separate some as they dry. See the effect?

I like the granulating effect but I think for this particular piece I’d rather have it flat and smooth. (like the yellow part is) which means (I think??) I’ll need to use a different blue. I’m not sure if I need a different brand or a different shade. (So maybe I’ll try it one more time with my prima paints?) The clouds are made by just touching a crumpled tissue to the paper to lift the color. Some colors won’t allow this, but these colors lift nicely.

Day 97 (Fri April 7) More light studies

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Still following Steven Cronin’s tutorials, here are a couple more.

I tried a cheap acrylic brush for this first one because I didn’t have the hake brush he used, but it absolutely didn’t work. Left stripes everywhere. It is very stiff and bristly feeling and (turns out, after a moment’s research) the hake is very soft.  The mountains are supposed to have three layers so you see distance, but the first layer was too wet and bled too much. The second layer too dark, so the third also too dark. I like the way he lifted a tiny sail out of the paint on the mountains to show boats in front of them. The rocks in the bottom right worked better today that yesterday. But not like his. They were scraped away with a bit of plastic gift card.

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This second tutorial used the same hake brush (!!) which I still didn’t have, but a different technique. He dried the whole painting, then wet the whole thing again, adding another wet layer, dried it again, added another layer. So I learned that if I wet the whole thing evenly I can rework it a bit. I’m happier with the light here, but the red I added to the clouds didn’t want to lift, and my little foregrounds on the right are too symmetrical. Still, it’s a light study, and I learned about light:

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Using a very limited palette, three colors, on Arches cold pressed block, with Daniel Smith watercolor paints. I like the way dried pans feel better, but I think Daniel Smith tubes might be better quality than any dried pans available.

If I crop it this way, I really like it a lot better:

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Day 96 (Thurs April 6) a piglet!

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I saw a cute little acrylic painting of a piglet in Tuesday Morning the other day, so copied it (sort of) in watercolor. I like him AND he was fun. (her? She? I think he) Okay, he’s a little freaky looking. He can’t help it. Stop judging. Used my Daniel Smith paint set for this, plus Burnt Sienna. If you are just starting out, this makes a really great color palette for a smaller investment than some huge paint sets. Don’t let my odd little piggy keep you  from starting. (I think that blue circle may actually be an M Graham Prussian Blue.  But don’t hold me to that.)

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Day 95 (wed April 5) Watercolor daffodils AND The Best Paintbrush Ever. And some darn nice paints.

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Okay, FIRST, the many flowers. Way more than ONE attempt today. I tried several different styles, two kind of from tutorials.

Now on to the good stuff. I was so wrong to think my little cheap paintbrushes would hold me for long. AND also wrong to think I had to spend a fortune on a great brush. Check out this super cool brush, the da Vinci CosmoTop Spin #6.  (see link) Best spent twelve dollars and thirteen cents EVER. This is a synthetic brush but a DREAM to paint with. (Oh my goodness I will probably SWOON when I use a #6 real sable brush, if I like this so much!) Anyway, it’s clean, smooth, gorgeous, and I swear it paints forever (well, nearly) on one dip of paint. This all may be slight exaggeration because I’m still on painting cloud nine, but really. You’ll like it.

Also I used this set of Daniel Smith paints… they are teensy tubes, but a little goes a long way. (they are 5 ml tubes…figure 2 1/2 ml to load your half pan so you can fill twice, maybe?) I’ve been trying to decide whether I like M Graham paints or Daniel Smith better so wasn’t ready to commit a lot to either… So far, my choice is Daniel Smith, although I love both. This whole set of 6 colors is less than $23 and a great way to decide whether Daniel Smith paints are the way you want to go. (edit: this set went up to $27 as I wrote! Still a bargain imo for a good starter set…) Most of the 5 ml tubes are like $9 a piece, so I feel like getting 6 colors to try for the price of two or three is awesome. And really between these six you can mix nearly anything you want.  (seriously, ANYTHING. You get a warm and cool of each primary) But consider (once you know you like them) adding Burnt Sienna (because it mixes with all kinds of stuff, and with ultramarine or phthalo makes lovely grays), Hansa Yellow Deep (‘they’ say this is the truest, most “primary” of yellows. I don’t know if that’s true. But I love it), and Sepia (because I like it, esp mixed with ultramarine) I linked these to the 15ml tubes because it’s only like $3 more for the 15ml sepia vs the 5 ml sepia, and I assume it’s the same for the others. Once you know you like them, get the tube that is three times the size for just a few extra dollars. And now ta-daaa!! A complete palette!! You don’t need those crazy convenience colors. (Okay I MAY invest in cerulean or prussian blue… but those are hardly convenience colors, are they?? And a quinacridone or two, but we can discuss those another day. After I get them)

Go check them out. You know you want to. I won’t tell. Also… check out all my links! It took me two hours to figure these things out, ha!!!

Day 94 (Tues April 4) Light studies

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I wasn’t satisfied with ANY of these, particularly, but I did learn about keeping the light in a dark sky or water.  I didn’t even finish some of them. And now that I look at them, I want a reflection of the land in the water (but that was’t in the tutorial.) I do like elements of most of them, though.

 

Also, the first two used m graham watercolors, the next used daniel smith. I liked the daniel smith better, but in the end, I don’t see much difference, really.

I really had trouble keeping the paper wet enough, but not too wet, controlling the color, etc. I enjoyed using my new Arches cold pressed block. The block of paper is sealed on all four edges so the paper stays flat, then you insert a palette knife of something in the one inch piece left open and slide it all around, removing the finished page. It’s so much nicer than using a book for a very wet painting! And taping edges isn’t required. Although, I still did it in some of them because I like the look. 🙂 The only down side for me is that I’m just doing studies and would like to keep them in a book. I have some rings and I’m tempted to hole punch them and hook them all together but something inside me is resisting that idea. Any other thoughts about keeping all these separate pages together somewhere?

This was a Steven Cronin tutorial. He makes it look SO fast and easy. I didn’t actually have the same colors he used, but close enough.

 

 

Day 93 (Mon April 3) Cherry tree

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We have some beautiful decorative cherry trees in our yard, and I love those few days a year when their petals are snowing all around. This was a Jay Lee tutorial.

It took me two attempts. The second I like better, though. Better control of the brown. I thought I liked it a LOT better, but now that I look at them away from the tutorial, I really like both pretty well. I think I’d like a light scruffy wash behind it.

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Day 92 (Sun April 2) cable car/train

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Trying a sketch of my own of a photo my husband suggested I try. Practicing perspective, and what things to leave out. Also, I think I want the darks darker and the lights lighter next time. I was afraid of making it muddy, instead I made it bland. I’m learning!

I will have to eat my words regarding waiting to get sable paintbrushes, because my husband surprised me with a sable detail brush this week!

It’s really nice and now I want more More MORE. I definitely need a #6 or 8. And a #12. And a 1/2 inch flat. And a travel brush. And… some others. Poor Mark. He was being so sweet. 🙂

Seriously, though, it really does just feel NICE. But I still think you can find good quality cheap brushes to start with. 🙂