Rob’s Waterco☺ler

I recently unearthed my Winsor Newton handheld watercolor sketchbox and started falling in love with it all over again.  I have been through several fits of getting the colors I like to use for “Field Sketching” and this is the current result:

Cadmium Yellow                     Scarlet Red             French UltraMarine
Transparent Yellow                Alizirin Crimson    Winsor Blue red Shade

Permanent Green                    Raw Sienna              Raw Umber
Winsor Green Blue Shade    Burnt Sienna           Indigo

And I really like  to have my Escoda travel kolinsky sable brushes size 10, 6 and 2.

Below is a picture of the set up along with a color study using Burnt Sienna as the interest color in the middle and seeing how the other colors react to it.  Notice Transparent Yellow is completely eaten up by it and the difference between how the two blues react.  Note: CR stands for Cadmium Red but is really Scarlet as I have been trying to get away from the Cadmium’s of late.  The dollar bill is for size reference.  No you cannot have it

Saturday was the 3rd annual Manassas Art Guild Fine Arts Festival and I did a full sheet (22×30) watercolor demonstration (above).  I used my John Pike tray with tons of Winsor Newton, Maimeriblu and Lukas watercolor paint.  The two interest colors are the turquoise blue which I applied liberally to the background, and Scarlet Lake which I used to gradually deepen the intense orange of the fish (Lemon Yellow base).  The picture conveys a bunch of motion and hopefully brought a smile to many a spectator’s face.  I certainly enjoyed spreading the paint around!

Been awhile since I painted in my oils, so I thought I would break them out.  This weekend I ripped a stack of Pannelli cotton panels to 8×10 on my table saw and now have a nice stack to inspire some quick oil and acrylic sketches.  This is from a nice friendly squirrel picture I shot a few years ago and it made a nice subject.  This was done very quickly (about an hour) and kept loose.  I also used the six warm/cool primary palette.

Rob

Thought I would drop a quick post in to show what I am currently working on.  This is a 10×14 watercolor inspired from a larger, and incomplete, oil painting I have been working on for some time.  I really have not had much inspiration to work on the unfinished oils this summer.  Saving them for the winter when I am stuck inside is usually best.  Still this painting of a boy fishing on a river bank is inspiring and I did a quick sketch here.  The drawing was done in a hotel while on vacation over the Labor Day weekend, and I am almost finished dropping in the majority of the color.  Now I will let it sit for a few days and make adjustments, as needed.

Of note, is the colors I used.  Besides the standard 6 primaries (3 warms and 3 cools) I also used Burnt Sienna, Naples Yellow (a favorite) and English Red.  I usually don’t like to use the English Red, except on trees because it is very opaque, almost chalk like.   I think it helped bring out some dimension and contrast in the painting though.

Rob

Not much to say about this 11×14 acrylic painting except it is a work in progress.  It definitely looks better in real life  so I will have to re-photo it in better light.  I also need to tune the perspective abit.  Nice thing about acrylics is they are sooooo… forgiving

***9 June update**** I fixed the pilot house before I went to bed last night and shot a phot in better light today.  Much better!  I used a reference photo of a Tuna Boat in San Diego I tool some time ago.  The background and the pier area is very simplified.

This was done with the same six color limited palette I have been using.

Rob

Last night we had no power in Manassas, again.   Today the temperature was in the mid 90′s and more thunderstorms moving in.  This seems to make it rather difficult to do much painting, however today I managed to crank out this little 9×12 sea bird.  I used a reference photo from a San Diego trip I took some time ago and I have no idea what kind of bird it is, but it was interesting, (hence why I took the picture )

I used the six primary color limited palette again.

Rob

After watching Michele Frantz do her limited palette demonstration last night I came home and whipped out this quick, 45 minute, 9×12 acrylic sketch I have titled: “Whatsa you lookin’ at?”  I stopped last night because I thought I had the basic idea down and planned to go back into it and add detail.  Looking at it tonight my feelings are to leave it alone and sign it.  There is a very nice appeal to it, largely because I used the 6 color limited palette system Michele taught and it seems to have worked nicely.  Of note, I am usually reluctant to paint in acrylics because I rarely like the results, however this painting seems to break that trend.  I am going to try another tonight I think.

Rob

Thursday night we had the monthly Manassas Art Guild membership meeting with our very own artist, Michele Frantz, doing a limited palette lesson and demonstration.  Michele went over the advantages of using a limited palette (less paint = more $ in your pocket) and the ways she uses a limited palette to achieve consistent colors in her works.  Below is a chart showing how to use a six primary color wheel.  

Michele’s colors are: 

- Cool: Phthalo Blue, Cadmium Yellow Light, Quinacridone Red
- Warm: Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Red Light

As you can see from the picture above Michele also did a very nice demonstration of a still life using an acrylic six primary limited palette.  I was not able to stay until the end so I did not get to see the finished painting but Michele got off to a great start.

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.

Well today I went painting en plein air with several Manassas Art Guild members in Old Town Manassas.  We set up at the Historic Manassas Train Station and I took a shot at oil painting with a palette knife.  I will tell you that this is NOT something to do for the first time in the middle if a busy down town, en plain air!  I felt so good about the painting that I left it in the garage and will go back at it in a few days to see if I can get it right.

So after I abandoned that folly, I decided to sketch one of my fellow artist.  All in all it was a great time and the weather was fantastic.   See some of the photos.  Tommorrow I am going to Clifton Virgina to get another look at some of the historic structures.

Rob