Watercolor Fridays: Weeks 7-9
This month I got off track with the Watercolor Fridays, for a couple reasons. I was sick as a dog one weekend and was unable to do much of anything, much less a postcard project. I also devoted some time to a “real” watercolor project – a WC rendition of a previous acrylic painting called Ride on Round Lake. Originally with the acrylic, I didn’t have a large enough canvas to accomodate the full size of the landscape I wanted, so I only painted the right side. This time with the watercolor, I had a pad in the aspect ratio I wanted (6″x9″), so I did the whole scene. I suspect that the right-side-only version is the best choice in terms of composition, but now I’ve satisfied my curiosity about the whole scene.
I did manage to do two postcards though. One of my kitty, and the other of a theater in my neighborhood that was cruelly torn down about a decade ago. (Ugh, loads of perspective problems in that; I was just being quick and sloppy about it.) Onward…
This NPR story discusses, in all seriousness, the mindboggling “choice bloat” in Crayola colors since their inception at the turn of the 20th century. A handy diagram (pictured) shows how the number of available crayon colors has ballooned from a mere eight to 120. But it is indeed a serious matter to the artist.
As someone who has typically felt more comfortable selecting colors than drawing perspective lines, I personally find color guides to be kind of irrelevant. To me, it’s done by intuitive seeing. It seems easy to choose colors, to understand color harmonies and temperatures without being told, to know when a color is or isn’t right (though I hardly claim perfection, since when I’m done I always feel I could have done better). I’m the one who needs “How to Draw” books, which probably seem just as irrelevant to people who like drawing.
I used to chalk up this need for color mixing guides and color charts, simply to innate differences in perception and so-called “talent for seeing.” You are better at this or that, and need help in other areas, etc. But lately I’ve been wondering if the average person is simply overwhelmed with choices. I got a nice set of Derwent watercolor pencils for Christmas, 24 count, and some of the colors seem only marginally different from each other… and that’s just a small set of 24. Does anybody really need 96 different watercolors or 100 different tubes of acrylic?
Anyone who settles into painting eventually gravitates to a certain limited palette, changing colors now and then. There are certain popular colors I have absolutely no use for, such as cerulean blue; whereas I still live and die by ultramarine. But people who are a little less confident with color might be vulnerable to the dizzying array of choices.
Drawing seems… different. Yes, you have to pick between charcoal and pastel pencils and graphite and varying thicknesses of technical pens, but I think people starting out in drawing are less vulnerable to overwhelm with the different products. It’s because we live with writing instruments in our daily lives (ballpoints or pencils) and they aren’t exotic mysterious things like paints and color can be.
Someone has invented a pen which scans objects and then is able to reproduce the color of the object for your drawing pleasure:
Color Picker is an innovative design of a concept pen that can scan colors from anything around and instantly use the color for drawing. After placing the pen against an object, the user just presses the scan button. The color is being detected by the color sensor and the RGB cartridge of the pen mixes the required inks to create the target color. This superb device will help people to observe the changing colors of nature. With color picker, all range of artists will be able to create a more sensorial and visual insight of their surrounding nature’s colors.
Can you imagine how freaking expensive that thing would be, though?
I’m about to head into a pretty stressful work week, after a quiet three-day weekend that didn’t feel much like a vacation. Over the last few days I’ve felt as if I’m using artwork as a means to wrest control over various minor uncertainties in life. The whole watercolor thing seems to be about that: brute-forcing myself into the discipline of producing a postcard every week (and sometimes more).
Now I’m trying to do some drawing every day, too. My drawing skills have never been the greatest. And when I feel uncomfortable about something coming up at work, I’ve been throwing myself into drawing. Today I’ve felt like I don’t want to put it down. I have almost completed a “serious” watercolor project (more on that later), and I ran out to Michael’s today and bought a proper watercolor sketch pad and some Sakura pens so I could scribble and force myself to “be loose.” I’m done for the day, but don’t feel done. It’s all starting to feel a tad neurotic.
Hopefully when I get back into the work week, I’ll be more myself…
I must say I had an awesome Christmas. I was overwhelmed at the great gifts people got me, for starters, which is going to keep me rolling in supplies all year long I’m sure. I didn’t attempt to put on any special efforts for Christmas entertainment, so that kept an 11-day-long (!) vacation good and relaxed.
Bizarrely, I sold a painting over the holiday break, which was a pleasant surprise. It was something that was lying around unfinished for a couple years and I got so tired of it staring at me that I took an afternoon to finish it and then get it listed just for the heck of it. It’s a genre of floral painting that I don’t do any more, but which always seemed to sell well back in the day – and apparently still does, even in the throes of a deep recession?! Maybe I should just continue raiding my dusty back corners huh?
Above is a detail of the current acrylic project I’m slowly working on (Middle Falls, Letchworth). Nothing particularly interesting to report on this one. No surprises. It’s just going to take a while.
Or, “Chinese White is for losers.”
The project continues… although I’m not really making great use of washes or anything (not a whole lot of room on a 4×6 card for that), and these look like illustrations at best (or disasters at worst, as in the case of the middle pic – hey, it was New Year’s Day, I was not feeling well.)
The last one is a portrait of my sister’s dog Romey, which I’ll give to her as a thank-you for helping keep me well supplied with blank postcards for the year. (Can you spot the perspective problem with the end of his nose? There’s a way to improve this somewhat, but it doesn’t involve retouching the nose.)
I’ve been completing one small watercolor project every Friday for the last couple of weeks, and have decided to see if I can go a full year. These are done on 4×6″ Canson Montval cold press, 140lb cards (I prefer blocks), with Grumbacher paints (hey, they were cheap). So far they’re just copies of various photos I’ve taken, since I don’t feel confident enough in my skills to embark on “serious” art. There’s no theme, just whatever I feel could help me learn watercolor better.
What am I doing with these? Well, I’ve got a special place for them. Recently I bought an analog desk clock from Target. I just wanted something with a face, you know? I got the clock home and realized it was also a photo frame. You swivel it around and there’s a space for a 4×6 photo on the other side of the clock face. Not only that, but the clock also has a secret storage compartment where you can store about 2-3 dozen photos in plastic sleeves. Odd, but cool.
So, upon completion, every Friday project gets its week in the limelight, featured in the clock photo frame. (Nobody knows the photo is in the back of the clock, but I do.) Then it gets moved inside the clock with the other completed watercolors. I just hope I don’t forget about all those pictures in there and one day sell the damn thing in a garage sale or something.
Just a quick progress report. While I’m still doing small watercolors every Friday, I’m continuing on with some more conventional acrylic landscapes. These will all be done on 12×24″ stretched canvas (real canvas, not Fredrix WC) and I’m not going to stress out too much about the quality of the canvas. Just going to paint. They will be of scenes from New York state parks I’ve visited over the years, so I guess I can call this the State Park series. Above is Green Lake, Green Lakes State Park. (I am never sure how much to intensify the unusually vivid color of these lakes and still have it be “realism.”)
At left is the next one in progress: Middle Falls, Letchworth State Park. The idea behind these, if there is any unifying idea, is drama (of course!) in the form of overwhelming landscape features of my beautiful beloved New York, contrasted with teeny tiny figures. (I know there must be some more highfalutin’ way of describing that suitable for an artist statement.)
From the blog English Russia comes one artist’s look at the urban Slav’s idealized imagination of “the good life” in Ukraine. These paintings are by Alexander Ivanov, and I love ‘em. Do urban American artists even do stuff like this any more? Do they have any affection or even appreciation for earthy rural American life at all, or is it still just highly serious Norman Rockwell-type stuff that gets painted? I’ll try to find out. But in the meantime, enjoy.
That is the title of a good article by Graeme Smith in International Artist this month. “Maintaining focus is the aspect that sorts the professional from the hobbyist.” Truer words were never spoken, but ADHD-type artists like me have got a special challenge staying focused. I read these kinds of articles feeling as if I’m a double amputee reading advice for marathoners with two good legs. It is always going to take me twice as much effort (if not more) to stay focused than it takes for a “normal” person. Which is why it’s amazing that I’ve been able to satisfactorily complete major projects at all.
In 2009, I made a choice to focus away from the subdued pet portraits and florals I had been doing (and occasionally selling) and to spend most of the year on a series of bold and fantastical landscapes. I got through seven paintings and was starting on an eighth, which was to be the final one, before I hit a wall. I just have lost interest in this last, eighth painting. It’s not working and I’m avoiding it. So despite my satisfaction at having stuck to my series, once again the specter of losing focus looms.
On top of it, in this “dangerous” interim period between goals, I’ve become interested in watercolors, a new medium for me. The speed (and potential marketability?) of the work is very seductive. I’d like to incorporate watercolors into my goals somehow, but how do I do it without it taking over all my creative time? Right now, I’m hoping to contain it to one day a week (Friday).
My goal for 2009 was to complete my series, think of a new series that would not be a total departure in style, improve my techniques, finish work properly and not sloppily, etc. And of course, to have enough decent work to showcase on a website (this blog doesn’t count). Now at the end of the year, with that completed, I don’t know what the next step is. I still feel like I don’t have enough good work to mount a website. So what comes next? Another year of painting? To what end? I’m just not sure.