Rob’s Waterco☺ler

Been working on this for a few days.  Inspired from a 2004 trip with the USS Truman Carrier Strike Group.  Formation traveling through the Straits of Hormuz.  View from the flight deck of a Flight 2A Aegis DDG with the back nets down.

HB, 2B and 8B graphite on 100 lbs Lana paper, 14×17

I am back from North Carolina and not to be out done by Michele in Paint! Manassas, I am busy painting the town away, so to speak.  Above is a watercolor and graphite sketch of the Manassas Old Presbyterian Church I have been messing with tonight.  I started this as an 11×14 very wet-in-wet painting and then have been attacking it with an 8b pencil.  After it dries completely I might go back at it with a harder H pencil and scratch out some whites.  It might not amount to anything but is was sure fun to put together!

Rob

It has been a busy few days around here.  I will be splitting my time between Currituck North Carolina and Northern Virginia for the next few days while I take care of personal business.  Above is a 5×7 wet-in-wet watercolor and 8b graphite pencil painting I was messing around with earlier from a reference photo I shot at the Norfolk Zoo a few months back.  I think I will do a more dtailed study of this lion and her cub at some point.

Sometimes these little sketches work out ok and I post them.  I think this one has potential for development into a larger piece.

Rob

Last night we had some pretty significant storms come through Northern Virginia.  We lost power from 1AM till about 5PM today here in Manassas.  Made for a pretty miserable day; non-stop rain and temperatures in the low 50′s.  Once the power came back on, and I was able to heat the house, life got back to normal and I finished the above Clifton painting this evening.

I started this 11 x 15 watercolor painting en plein air in Clifton Virginia a few weeks ago.  I keep trying to get back but the weather has not cooperated.  I have a feeling that the nice very lush and spring green trees I have captured behind the store have been replaced with more mature greens, especially with all this rain.  I am glad I had an exceptional reference photo shot in the early morning spring light.

This one is a wrap, but between my Paint! Manassas project paintings, I will be back.  Next time I think the old church will be in my sights.

Rob

It rained in Northern Virginia pretty much all day.  Tomorrow is not supposed to be much better and it will be cold.  I had hoped to get out and paint but will likely take care of other things, including some reading.

Gina was out working with flowers all day at Peg’s Florist in Stafford so I decided to finish a few of these Paint! Manassas projects.

This is the finished Okra’s painting (matted to 22 x 28) which I started on-site on Center Street last week.  The bulk of this painting was done en plein air and it had it’s birth as a value sketch.  I had intended to make this a loose 8B graphite and watercolor sketch but as I got into it it progressed into a more technical piece.  I did leave many loose elements in and really tried to break the symmetry of the building which lacked interest straight on.

This is the finished “Wrong Side of the Tracks in Manassas” painting (matted to 16 x 20).  All I can say is lots of (like 20 ml worth!) Cadmium Orange.  I will need to put a “the State of California has determined that this painting may cause cancer” sticker on it.    Of course these pigments are safe unless you eat them!  The cadmium is completely encapsulated in the medium.  This was done in the studio from a photo I shot at the Manassas Train Station and it absolutely glows and screams RUST.

Last but not least is my very loose sketch (matted to 10 x 20) I started en plein air from the Manassas Train Station last week.  Today I added as much transparent watercolor pigment as I could into the buildings and trees.  I also put as much 8B graphite as I colud into the hard lines without indenting the paper.  The effect I hope I have created is a burst of welcoming color and contrast.

All in all a very productive rainy day.

Rob

It rained today.  I started off with Selina, from the Manassas Art Guild, in Clifton Virginia and I fully intended to finish my Old Clifton General Store painting.  Did I mention that it rained today?  No sooner did I get my french easel set up and it started again

As a back up plan we went to Old Town Manassas and painted en plein air under the old train station.  I did a very wet-in-wet impressionist painting of Fosters Grille and other stores across the tracks.  I will let is dry for a few days then go back into it with an 8B pencil to really bring out some hard lines.

Selina went to work drawing some sketches of the Candy Factory.  Both of us are gearing up for the official kick off of Paint! Manassas 2008 on Saturday

 Rob

I did some volunteer work and spent the rest of the day with the kids so not much time to paint today.  I did add some more color and effects to this painting I started en plien air in Old Town Manassas on Tuesday.  The nice texture in the white portion of the building was done wet-in-wet with salt to get the Burnt Sienna to bleed out of the corner stones.  I also cropped the painting down to a more interesting portion.

Tomorrow I will go into Clifton, weather permitting.

Rob

This painting of the Clifton Virginia General Store is moving along slowly and methodically.  The real trick here is getting all the greens working correctly, while maintaining the accuracy of the true colors.  Of all the colors in the rainbow, green is the hardest for me to work with.  Go figure, it is also my favorite color, especially with orange.

Rob

Here is the progress of my 16 x 20 Clifton Virginia General Store watercolor painting.  I started this with a that took about 3 hours to complete.  Now I am washing in the colors and adding detail.  I will go back to Clifton in May to finish the painting since the lighting is soooo..very important with the green the building is painted.  I want to ensure I capture the correct tone in the morning light.

Below is my reference photo for color and detail but I did the base drawing en plein air 

Rob

Well I started working the Happy Sparrow painting to night.  This is a limited palette event and I am using Sepia, Cadmium Orange, Lemon Yellow and Turquoise.  I am using gum arabic to brighten the colors (which is also repsonsible for the reflections in the photo above).  So far it is going well and I hope to finish it by the weekend.