The following is a painting of my son Jakob when he was about two years old. It’s watercolor on canvas primed with limewash, which is pretty much the equivalent of a wall, that painters in the old days would have used to paint Frescos. I will explain the process in my next post. It was an interesting and fascinating experience and I am really happy with the result. Hope you like it too. Be safe, stay healthy, keep creating, xoxo, Lilo
Quick follow up on yesterday’s post about different undergrounds for watercolor painting. I already showed you a little painting on Gesso board. The following is painted on traditional canvas primed with Gesso. You can buy it like this in any art store. I put the label in the picture, so you can see what exactly it’s called.
It’s available in all kinds of sizes, different qualities and from several companies. I actually chose the cheapest I could find, I simply wanted to see what happens when I paint with watercolor on Gesso canvas. I might try different qualities in the future, we’ll see if it makes a big difference. This particular Gesso canvas did not suck up the watercolor as readily, the paint stayed on the surface for a while. Once dry though you can carefully add a second layer. It does have the tendency to lift the previous layer to a degree when applying the next one, so, it does take a little practice and patience. The upside is, that you can fairly easily correct mistakes, it’s easy to lift the paint, even once it’s dry, simply use a moist brush. Also, creating colors by layering was a bit of a challenge, but it is possible to a degree. In this picture, I used Cadmium Yellow, Permanent Alizarin Crimson and Indigo Blue. Some I mixed on the pallet, some on the canvas. I’m particularly happy with the hat and the folds on the shirt. Some parts of the skin turned out a little too green. Overall though, it was a good learning experience. A definite upside of canvas is the weight, which allows for very large sizes, and which inspired me to search for a canvas that can be used for watercolor. I have experimented with other types of primer and underground, stayed tuned for more on this subject in my next post.
I hope, wherever you are, the weather is as sunny as it is here today and you are safe and healthy. Stay curious, keep creating. xoxo, Lilo 😘
Commonly watercolor paintings are done on watercolor paper. If you want to display the painting and hang it on the wall, it usually is framed behind glass. That has two downsides, it’s costly and because of the weight, it limits the size. So I did some research on what else I could use to paint on. Obviously, there is canvas, but as far as I knew it usually was not used for watercolor, rather for oil and acrylic paints. After having consulted with a very knowledgeable salesperson at my art store, I came up with three options:
1) Most canvases are already primed with Gesso. He thought it was worth a try to just use it as is and see how it works with watercolor. I did, however, buy a Gesso board, wanted to try that first.
2) I found a watercolor ground (Schmincke, Daniel Smith, several companies make it), that can be painted on pretty much any surface. Once dry you can paint on it.
3) I also found a canvas especially made for watercolor. It is produced in Berlin, Germany. So, possibly you might not find it as easily in other countries, I am not sure. However, I would never want to use it again. I thought it was the worst option of the three. Obviously, that is only my opinion. You might want to find out for yourself. I was just not happy with the quality.
In order to test those three options, I painted a little bird.
From left to right: Gesso board with three layers of Aqua Ground, then in the middle simply Gesso board (as bought in the store), on the right the above mentioned watercolor canvas, which is really rather paper, not traditional canvas. Note the different quality of the brush stroke, the way the paint spreads, the quality of the layering and the way the paint flows into other colors – or not. As I said, the worst underground was the watercolor canvas (according to the company, it is their new invention, specifically made for watercolor painting). I wasn’t even able to add the watery layers I did on the feet in the other pictures. It simply would not work, the “canvas” would not take the color or let the color flow. If you look really closely, you can see a very faint spot around the feet of the bird. I also don’t like how the paint smudges. The other two undergrounds were fairly similar. The Aqua Ground allowed for a little more blooming. It was a very interesting experiment. Goes to show, how important good material/underground is. It can impact the quality of the painting quite severely. Note, I painted all three birds within a few hours, meaning there was no time for my painting skills to improve. The difference in quality is completely due to the ground I painted on. It was quite a revelation to me.
I experimented with other options to paint on. I will show you in the next post.
Hope you found this helpful. Keep painting. Stay healthy. Be well. 👩🏼🎨 😘
Today, tips on watercolor palettes – or things that can be used as one. 😉
I used to keep my watercolors in a John Pike palette. It’s very sturdy, holds a lot of different colors and has a lid that closes tightly, which makes it easy to take with you.
The downside is that the material stains, I never really liked that. So, I looked for alternatives.
And I found this little beauty. It’s a ceramic mixing tray. Obviously, it has no lid, so, it’s rather for use at home. What I like is that the trays are quite deep, so you can add a lot of water. It’s ideal for mixing various shades (very handy when you paint monochromatic pictures). The one in the picture is 7 inches wide, it comes in different sizes. BTW, the brush is from Cheap Joe’s. They have excellent watercolor brushes (their own brand), that are inexpensive, hold a good portion of water and are very accurate.
While the ceramic tray is a really nice option. This is my absolute favorite. Simple white tiles, high gloss. The size is roughly 8 x 10 inches or 20 x 25 cm. Obviously you can choose whatever size you like. For my purposes this size seems ideal. I love love love it!
It’s ideal for mixing colors and trying out shades (less paper wasted). They are inexpensive and when you’re done you simply wash them with water and they are like new. I bought a whole box at my local home improvement store. Or, may be you have a couple of tiles left over from your last remodelling project. Try it, it’s truly fabulous. 😃
As mentioned in a previous post, I picked up watercolour painting again. It’s been a few years since I tried my hand at it. This time, I promised myself, I wanted to approach it in a very structured way, from the ground up. A teacher of mine once told me (watercolour-) painting is 80% preparation and 20% painting. Quite possibly that’s one of the reasons for my past frustration with watercolour. I used to just go at it, without lots of thinking. 😬
Not anymore! Here we go. One of the first steps, and a very helpful one, I might add, is creating your own colour swatches. Not only do they provide an overview of the shades you can create with a colour, you also learn (or practice) shading. Here is what you have to do.
Draw ten boxes in a row (with a pencil), even in size. Write the name of the colour above the row of boxes. Now, start colouring. The darkest shade first, then gradually get lighter until the very finest shade. The result should look somewhat like this:
If you really want to challenge yourself and practice some more, do it in reverse as well. Like this:
Do this for each of your watercolours. As mentioned, it is an opportunity to practice. Shading is not as easy as it might seem, and I noticed, that depending on the intensity of the shade the colour changed in ways that I did not expect. It’s really helpful to have the swatches. Next time when you try to decide which colour to use and/or which shade would be appropriate, they’ll come in handy. Believe me, been there, done that – oh, all the mistakes I made without them. But, I am learning. 😉 😀 I enjoyed that exercise. Hope you do too.
I found an old pencil sketch of a bottle the other day and spontaneously started filling it in with watercolors. It’s been a long time since I’ve painted. It’s really just a sketch and has its flaws, starting with the paper (not watercolor paper) and then the colors that turned out muddy in some places because I just kept moving the brush over and over in the same spot (an old bad habit I have a hard time controlling). Watercolor is a tricky and fascinating medium. You can only do so much and quite often have to accept the flow of the watery pigment. That’s one of the reasons why I started painting with watercolor and it’s also the reason for a lot of frustration I had to deal with. And one day I stopped, partly because the frustration was just too much. But now, I think, it’s time I pick it up again. While you get better with practice, it is not always possible to control the outcome. That’s true in art, as in life. The only thing that can save you then (from frustration or worse) is acceptance. It is what it is. And sometimes, if you look at things with an open mind, you might see beauty where there seemed to be none before. Enjoy!
Today a different kind of art post – I baked a flag cake.
HAPPY 4th of JULY EVERYONE !
I attended a class at Miller School of Art in Georgetown today (which is just south of Seattle). Title of the class was Experimental Painting. Marc (the owner) provides all the material and you have four hours of time to just paint, no restrictions, no limits really – he gave some guidelines what media to use in what order, basically teaching certain techniques – but otherwise you could just let loose – which I enjoyed sooo much. Just letting loose compared to the very concentrated efforts of the drawing instructions in the other classes was a nice change. Here are the two paintings I produced.
Mixed Media on Watercolor Paper | Charcoal, Oil Pastel, Watercolor and Acrylic | 06/2012
The above painting was just pure fun. First you apply any shape you like with charcoal (it leaves the dark shadow-like shapes), then you draw in oil pastel (which pops out in the end), go over it with a layer of watercolor (that’s what you would see as back ground color in this case), paint with acrylic paint on top of it, blow dry the whole thing until the acrylic is half-way “firm” – and finally wash/scrub the whole painting down under running water. The acrylic remnants show up as fine lines here. The abuse the painting took was amazing and the outcome just pure fun.
Mixed Media – Watercolor, Charcoal, Acrylic on Untreated Cotton Cloth | 06/2012
This is the second painting I’ve created. It’s done on drop cloth stapled to a 1/4 inch board (cheap material ! ). First you apply layers of watercolor, then charcoal (hardly visible in this painting) and finally acrylic paint. I really liked the technique (very promising, I will use it in the future for sure) and if I may say so, I am fascinated with the outcome.
Also, did I mention it ? Fun, Fun, Fun !
Deep Summer | Watercolor on Paper | 09/2011
Some time ago I visited the Leopold Museum. They have the largest collection of Egon Schiele paintings. They also show some paintings of Gustav Klimt.
This small sketch (11.5″x 6″) is inspired by the work of these masters. It’s part of my experimenting with posture and color.
Woman Standing | Watercolor on Paper | 09/2011
Here's To Express.. :)
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