Rob’s Waterco☺ler

The weekend after Christmas is a great time to do art with Dad!  I am working on a drawing of Pre-USS Mason DDG 87 being built in Bath Iron Works, Bath ME in 2002.  Kids are going through the box of pictures and drawing dogs

Ship progressing well.  14×17 inches on Lana 100lbs paper…nice paper to draw with.  My favorite

Kids in the art room.

Show and tell time.

Tonight I did art with dad with my son.  My daughter had a Brownie meeting.   Above is my creation and the thumbnails are his.  Pretty good considering I am 40 something and he has got a very long way to go before he even thinks about driving, let alone 40.  He is also a lefty (south paw).

I let him use my Prismacolor Art Markers, and lest you think I am crazy, think of this.  How often does a first grader get to use professional art supplies?  If you can remember way back when, the disappointment of trying to create great piece of work, only to end up with junk at the end.  You cannot paint a Picasso with dime store watercolors, right.  Now what do you think my son said about the markers:

“Oh! I like these!”  Go figure.  If he messes one up, I can buy another.  If he gets discouraged with his art work because his supplies are junk, how do I fix that?

Anyways - The picture above is a loose and quick sketch of the 2007 Prince William County Fair.  What an awesome time!  The kids are waiting for the ride to stop so they can get on.

Rob

A little Saturday “Art With Dad” time.  Yes that is the statue of liberty complete with a phenomenal fireworks show!

Well today was “art with dad” and I worked with this painting more.  The kids painted teddy bears and the neighbors house (no pictures this time    

I have started systematically filling in the colors for the boys.  I am using my LUKAS pan set and taking advantage of the great reds and blues without mixing.  The first three boys are done and I have  a good color formula working.  All are based on Burnt Sienna.  Each boy has a different skin tone so I either mix in Alizarin Crimson, Raw Umber or Burnt Umber; depending on which way I need the tone to work.  I considered using a formula of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna for boy #3, but opted not to.  That formula produces a real nice warm chocolate, however I was afraid that the Ultramarine in the shirts would cause a problem.  I think I made a good choice with the Raw Umber and Burnt Sienna as boy 3 really seems to radiate.  I do not think i would have gotten the same effect with Ultramarine Blue.

I hope to finish the boys tomorrow.  If not I will probably need to take a small break from it because of my schedule.  Either way I will post an update as it moves along.

Rob

Kind of a slow day after all the holiday stuff .  Yesterday we took down the Christmas tree which we had put up in what most people would call their living room (I call it my art studio).  That made room for the kids to properly set up their new french easels and do some drawing and painting with dad.  Many people would likely find it very annoying to try to do artwork with two very curious and active 6 year -olds next to them.  To tell you the truth, if they were not my own children there is no way I would make it.  Since they are my children, I end up taking great enjoyment in answering all the great questions like: 

How do you make black?

How do you make gray?

Why does everything I mix turn gray and everything you mix look good?

How do I make light green?  You get the idea…   

 It is interesting to observe how children can decompose a scene into the simple and important things.  They also are quick to imitate us and can mirror our best and worst painting habits.  A trap I often fall into is trying to include unnecessary things in a painting.  This tends to lead towards a painting that is more technically accurate based on reality, however dull and lacking in focus.  It is quite possible that “art with dad” sessions are as educationally rewarding for me, as they are for my children.

For the record, Anthony was painting the yellow jeep outside the window.  He needed the gray for the road.  Natalie was painting a tree, kinda visible in the left side of the window.  She wanted a lighter green.  I confiscated the white and black from their Cotman watercolor sets when I gave them to them.  Might as well stop bad habits before they start.  The white has lead in it so that was also a deciding factor. 

I was working on a Hawaiian man playing a ukulele in a ukulele shop from a reference photo I took in Hawaii in November 2007.

Rob