Carleton Variety Again...and Again

GOUACHE! I haven't touched it since college because they used it for colour theory lessons and it was so tedious and difficult, I swore I'd never use it again. James Gurney has inspired me, however, and as I still have a beginner set, I worked with it for the third version of this little store. Apparently the Pelican tempera jars we had in college were harder to work with than expensive, highly pigmented, non-chalky, blackberry honey suspension, flowing, levelling, quick drying, velvety professional-grade non-acrylic, Traditional Gouache.

So what has this exercise taught me? 

Firstly, when painting the same image multiple times in the past, I quickly got bored with the subject. Not this time- the interpretation had to change a little for each medium. The watercolour is cute but a little fussy, in my view. I really liked the acrylic for its lively unapologetic brushwork.  The gouache let me block things in like with acrylic, but maybe with a tiny bit of finesse, due to how well it thins down in water. Detail is much more possible, as are fine textures, because it is layered and opaque. Mistakes can be adjusted, dry brush works well, and it dried so quickly it could be finished in one session .

Today I got POSCA markers, which are like gouache in a marker, and work on multiple surfaces. Boy, things have come a long way. Even brushes evolve and improve as they develop synthetic and blended synthetic fibres. I love trying new stuff.

Carleton Variety. 5x7 in Watercolour on Fabriano 

The second version is 5x7 in, Acrylic on Illustration Board 

I may continue to try small versions of this in Gouache and perhaps Oil paint. The atmospheric quality is there, for a cold wet Toronto afternoon just as the streetlights come on at dusk. Small convenience stores are becoming scarce in our city, much to my dismay. They promise a bit of respite from ______________- (fill in the blank: loneliness, thirstiness, cold, heat, hunger, alienation)

Carleton Variety

 The photo is poor, really. Taken through the car windshield and wet snowfall at dusk, it has a certain atmospheric quality I want to mimic, somehow. The lights seem switched on to over-glow and the colours are grainy and warm. 

Winter paintings I admire use soft neutral colour to get the low light areas. John Kasyn, for example, who often shows the unflattering back  side of the house on an overcast day. A certain charm is there, in the airing of the dirty laundry and the daily mundane.

Preliminary Sketches

First Washes

Colour development

Walking West

 Daily walks during COVID-19 been a mainstay for my daughter and I to stay sane while social isolating. Walking west in the late afternoon to avoid the heat of the long August days we make friends with cats and neighbours. With the sun though in the sky the dappled sunlight on the road stretched towards us and I asked her to take this picture for me.

Recently I was at Harbour front with urban sketchers (2 others) and was inspired by David Chen and his approach to  watercolours. We talked about the struggle with overdrawing and the need for spontaneity. I’m looking for a method that will serve me and be enjoyable while I’m painting. I also like the urban watercolour landscapes by Alvaro Castagnet. Here is the start with light hues and washes on a card.

The Harbour front drawings were an opportunity to experiment with my homemade black walnut ink.

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.