Droplets and Negative Painting

 I spent time practicing. I needed an eye-stopper for the negative painting to finish.

There are three basic wet on wet base paintings here for a negative painting project. In the colder months I really need something to hunker down, that is additive and contemplative, experimental and imaginative. Kind of the opposite of plein air painting which is time- limited, location oriented and based on life. And outdoors. I read Linda Kemp and love her creative approach, especially with these spontaneous watercolour explosions!

Freesia are half finished, from the top one of the three basic grounds. The blue and yellow elements are suggesting Callas to me, and the blue green red turned into a Christmas Cactus. Callas present mysterious and confusing shapes.

Crackdown or continue?

 

Blockade police line

Daily sketching and or painting ties in with journaling and habit trackers. More on this later… this morning these scenes greeted us on tv, and I can see these images may be interesting to reflect upon in future. They are getting the protesters children out now I think. Police advance slowly and the media is taking a wait and see approach- will the pressure from America and canada bring things to a head?

Tools to Go

 This is what I carry in my minimalist sling purse:

Tombow Waterbrush Set with flat, medium &fine

And a tin with watercolour pans ( these are Genzäh handmade in Toronto!)

Sketching at Wanda’s- A new Noodlers Pen

 A window can be so useful to frame a viewpoint. This was quite relaxing and the new fountain pen behaved itself for the most part, as I am breaking it in. The typical Augusta Avenue Victorian has the front reinvented with a roof that extends out to the sidewalk. These were all veggie stands when I moved to Toronto, and boy have things changed!

Wires and signage, angles and shapes; all these converge about the top 1/3 of the window. I hoped to develop detail at that part and let everything else be less fussy. 

Cup of earl grey

Finished; the brown ink from the Noodler’s fountain pen and Noodler’s Walnut Ink are working smoothly on Strathmore Multi Media paper, 4x6 in.

Read about fountain pens from Liz Steel’s point of view here

People Watching

 From the porch, on a sunny day. Looking and capturing are miles apart. It’s fun to observe and then paint.

A page from a sketchbook.

 

Portrait of Dad

 Mom saw a photo of a painting on a pillow and sent me a photo of Dad asking me to try painting it. She wants it to hug when she misses him. 

I envision something very loose, in watercolour, because there is not a lot of clarity in this photo.Also there is the question of this odd gesture of his- so typical!

 “You.... you.....” like De Niro in Analyse This!

Anyway, the notion I had was something I’ve been looking for online, with other artists and how they handle portraits. Some of them look inaccurate. Some look accurate but the messiness is contrived. I love those watercolour artists who know how to let the medium express the colour and paint quality with spontaneity while somehow keeping the resemblance intact, just enough.

Here’s one I love- https://youtu.be/_5VDv0Er74A

Agnes Cecile- great drawing, luscious watercolour in spontaneous washes and transparency, captivating a mood in the subject that makes me look longer.

Here is my cropped  photo

My workspace setup

My sketch and first wash.

His hand is still unfinished, as well as the highlights on his glasses. I deepened the browns of the hat. 

 Sorauren Park 

Our family took a walk to appreciate fine weather- without social isolation would we have been here? I sketched quickly with an interest in the relative size of figures in the frame. 

Holding the sketchbook up at eye level I tries to establish relative size, spacing, orientation on the page... making little reference marks in the margin. How do artist do this? Sarah Burns gets it to fit like a snapshot

https://youtu.be/vO4pRoBJFsM

My photo wasn’t taken at eye level. I took it in a hurry because we were continuing our walk. The spacing therefore is different than the photo because of that. Little stuff, but hey- trying to get better at the whole thing, so, the devil is in the details as they say.

I look at it after the fact, then I think, what a horrific mess. 

Later I think, maybe its not so bad after all.