Did you know that the grizzly bear is a North American subspecies of the brown bear? It has white tips to its fur that give it a ‘grizzled’ appearance.
I’m back home from all my travels and trying to catch up. I hope to start posting tutorials on a more regular basis soon!
Note: I’ve been extremely disappointed with WordPress Premium and decided not to renew it. It ends today, and I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance to go online, so I apologize for any wonkiness on my blog that occurs before I get the chance to clean things up.
I get the occasional insomnia, and sometimes I do artwork because it helps stop my brain from firing on all pistons. The results are often peculiar.
Finding a page in my Cappuccino book that I had started drawing on, and abandoned, I covered it with gouache. The little that showed through suggested buildings, but cast shadows that didn’t go in the right direction.
I decided to just go with it. It’s peculiar, but who cares at 2:00 am?
The steps were pretty much the same, though I used Lemon Yellow for my first wash, Burnt Sienna and Ponceau (Acid Red) for my mid-tones and purple for my shadows (the purples are vibrant in the original, but the scan shows them as more so).
With the hummingbird, I was playing with gouache’s opacity and trying to get the flat, velvety look. For this camel, I kept my colors more transparent by using more water. The purple is the only color that I applied opaquely.
I also played with lifting color. The Cézanne cold press is a very robust paper so I could lift and add more color several times. This can lead to muddy colors, but it can also give your work a subtle light effect and add texture by showing particles of the color beneath.
The gouache lifted easily. This is in part due to the paper, but I found that even the most intense colors lifted more than I would have expected.
I’m sorry I didn’t have my camera or scanner to take step by step photos. Simply, though – I took a piece of paper I had use to practice brush strokes and used it to test my gouache for opacity.
Gouache is more opaque than watercolor but colors differ in how opaque they are. I used a flat brush throughout.
These were my steps:
Using Gouache, I
Painted the entire background Medium Orange
Used the negative painting method, I added a coat of Ponceau (acid red) around the shape of the hummingbird and branch
Used Prussian Blue on the dark areas of the bird
Used Medium Orange and Ponceau on the throat and stomach
Using Interference Watercolor, I –
Added Interference Green to the lighter areas of the bird, blending it into the Prussian Blue
For the branch, I –
Used up the left over color, using the tip of the brush flat to add texture.
I almost never throw away any of my drawings or paintings, even if I hate them. This painting is an example why.
As I recall, I was at the coast when I painted this – can’t remember where or what paper or paint I used. What I do remember is that I felt it sucked. I really disliked it.
Recently, I was going through some old work, looking for something else entirely, and found this. And I thought “Hmmmm. Not half bad.” Not a ringing endorsement, and I still don’t think it’s one of my best. But it’s not half bad, which is a long way from the ‘sucks’ I originally felt.
I doubt it will go up further in my estimation, but I’ll keep it to remind myself – again – that my first reaction to a painting isn’t always valid. Some works just need time to grow on you.
