"Red Rocks" - SOLD
Description: In my watercolor class we have been given the freedom to play with what they want to for the rest of the semester. I really liked this painting of three cows a girl was doing a study of and so I found the artist online, http://www.kenhosmer.com/gallery_watercolor.html. I also found an article that was really exciting to me at the following link, http://narwhalminded.blogspot.com/2010/11/watercolor-tutorial-by-ken-hosmey.html. I've always wanted to start with the darks of my watercolor paintings because my mind just kind of thinks in that way. The darks are so serious and strong that they feel like they want to get out of my palate first. So I loved this article because I felt like he was showing me how to do what I've been wanting to do, and he does a great job of it.
Clouds, I've been experimenting with clouds since the first painting of the assignment below. My first clouds were awful! So I tried about 10 different methods and with Sister Ellis' help I got it worked out. Just a random thought about that, whenever I see something I really like in painting I should teach myself how to do it, that way I'll actually like what I do.
Also, in that article before mentioned I discovered a GREAT and easy way to do a value study. I always hate doing value studies with pencils because it takes so long and then watercolor is very free and flowing so it's hard to get exacts, well the solution is a water soluble marker! You just mark your darks and then drag out your mid-tones with a brush and water. Another thing to add to the wish list.
The way the artist explained his dark to light method was really a lot like the marker/value method. You lay in your darks then while still wet you drag out your mid-tones. After those dry then you can play with your lighter values and whites.All men by nature desire knowledge. -Aristotle
So anyway, now, I love doing clouds with 1. A wash over the sky (with or without color). 2. Go over the wash with the sky color, leaving the under-color peaking though for puffy clouds. (At this point you can drag a paper towel from your cloud shape to make light rays) 3. Lifting out around the cloud shapes to have more control of their shape and make harder edges, with something soft and fluffy (paper towel). 4. Waiting until grey clouds dry and then doing a clear wash inside the cloud then adding grey or whatever color you want I guess by dabbing it in and letting it spread, and you can modify it by blotting out with a fluffy soft object... like a rabbit. 5. Softening the edges with a hard bristle brush and drawing out darks.