Old Quebec City, 1640

 Longing for normality and remembering this great summer getaway back in 2018. We stayed at this inn right in the heart of the old city.

Sketch with blocked in shading

Original Photo (Can you find Joe?)

Watercolour sketch and blocking, thumbnail

Finished Thumbnail (4x6 in)

I always fall in love with the unfinished sketch or the first wash! Maybe I find it hard to finish paintings in general. Maybe unfinished paintings just have more potential. Maybe it has to do with the struggle to let go of fussiness and detail and control, which seems to be unavoidable in finishing the pieces.

Working out the composition and a plan of attack for handling contrast of light and shadow should help a lot. Watercolour can be so spontaneous, but perversely, it also requires some forethought. Reserved whites, for example.

There were soooo many great artists there, right in that district. Quebecqois love their art and music.

Thumbnails

 So enjoying the immediacy of watercolours! Swatching and charts of my palettes are a current preoccupation, because I want to buy some new colours and recently discovered a maker of paint local to Toronto. Before I do I need to know what would augment my collection of colours, and it is instructive to do. Here is a link that got me swatching-  https://youtu.be/obiKf0QGfjo

Here are my swatches... 

Here is a link that inspired me to look again at the photos I take for painting. I wish for stronger lighting effects also in these urban landscapes.   https://youtu.be/ZKllFTjg7k4. 

Here are some just started... more photos to follow.

"Happies"

 Inspired by an Instagram post by CEECEEsCREATIONS, I gave this a try. These are liberating- a lot like decorating flat pottery bowls. without all the angst of ceramics. Little designs with no other purpose other than the doing of it. It provides more familiarity with my pigments and brushes also. Aside from being relaxing, I mean.

Queensville Flats

 Most summers my brother takes one passenger per trip on a sunset tour in his 1966 Alpine Sunbeam with the top down. Last July 1, we toured the old town of Newmarket, Holland Landing, and the Queensville Flats. Mom is from Queensville originally, and family is buried there on a ridge overlooking the flats with lake Simcoe far in the background. 

This last photo was a reference for a digital painting in which I exaggerate the cool lilac water in the distance. Sometimes art gives me a chance to show the way things impress me, weighing the parts differently from the photo and emulating more of my memory of that place and time.

Dinner

Inktober52 helps to keep me motivated, and now with social isolation, the likes are giving me predicable but addictive little dopamine rushes. This response to the promp “dinner” isn’t very quirky but it is exactly the sort of painting I find pleasurable.

The Fire King plates are really old but in mint condition, and get used every day. I love piecing in strokes of  different values. Particularly, at the finish, the teeny highlights are enjoyable- especially when I love the early blocking in part and consciously NOT giving in to those twinkly little buggers.

Digital Prep

Mandarins in simple lighting with glass... this value study was fun to do. Getting the values right is even more important than drawing accuracy!

Mandarin Bowl_Digital File_2020Feb

Frames

When I had a pastel professionally framed (pastels present special difficulties, such as the surface cannot touch the inside glass) the result was beautiful and elevated the artwork wonderfully.
   I want to see some of my smallest panels framed, as there are a few I'm fond of and I can add more photos to the ones selling on Etsy, showing how it looks on the wall. That being said, I'm sure the framing charge would be half as much, given that the panels require no glass. I decided however to make some from scratch.
   Building a simple floating frame for small panels proved tricky in terms of measure - because of miter. The math escapes me - I custom fit the first frame and saved the measurements as follows :
16 cm inside measure- this part is hidden behind the panel
24.4 cm outside measure- the part that shows.
20.8 is the width at the bezel- I left a gap of about an inch around the panel- see spacers below.

spacers against bezel

This will leave a little wiggle room around the panel and create a nice shadow for the floating effect.

I glue 2 1/4 in  and half inch square strips together before cutting the lengths. 

About three frames will come from the 5 ft lengths, and these are for 8 in panels.

Can you see the difference?

Three Mandarin paintings are now complete! The first is on paper, the next two are in birch panel. One is in Acrylic, the other is Acrylic Finished in Oil Paint. These still look rough but I think I like the effect.

Mandarin_Series2_It Takes Three_Acrylic on Birch Panel_8x8in_Jan2020

Mandarin_Series3_It Takes Three_Acrylic and Oil on Birch Panel_8x8in_Jan2020

Mandarins are a symbol of abundance and good fortune in the Chinese New Year. The colour orange is said to be Joyous and uplifting. They are so tasty this time of year!

Little drawing issues

I want to work on several mandarin paintings and I’m off to a good start. The little drawing and proportion difficulties are bugging me. I decided to trace and overlay from the photo to check my first painting.

Set Up

Source Photo

The first painting is by eye, using a grid.

Check out this video about procrastination and the benefits of reworking an idea or image.   https://youtu.be/M6NsEDwHHiE

Mandarins1

Sketch

 Unfinished Mandarins 2

There are changes to proportion, but my mistakes aren’t as glaring as I had supposed while doing the work.

New Still Life, moving paintings along...

So many projects! I know it’s good to have several on the go, so things can dry and I gain some distance, but this is ridiculous!
Yesterday An acrylic I’ve been planning to redo for a along time came together. The 2018 original from years ago was on paper. I always liked it despite its roughness, and may do several more.

New Bookmark

Happy to do these as a simple way to develop iPad skills. I forget how to do thing if I don’t practice regularly. After printing a set of four bookmarks I found two of them needed tweaking, as print reveals flaws not seen on screen.
This one is a weird combination of morning and high noon light.