I wanted this to be pretty loose. Lots of lost edges with defined detail in the faces. I’m pretty happy so far but it will have to live on the easel until I know for sure.
Day 11 of 30 in 30 – Nesting Herons
Author: Michele Clamp
Scientist turned watercolor artist and teacher.
Day 10 of 30 in 30 – Dundee Disaster
Well the luck had to run out some time and this will remain unfinished and in the reject pile. I was mostly interested in the light on the buildings and wanted to keep the color muted. Neither of those things really worked out. The light doesn’t pop and the color is just drab. I’d like to do the scene justice at some point so it will remain in the to do pile.
Day 9 of 30 in 30 – Lady Agnew take 3
Take 3 of lady Agnew. Getting closer. Tough this portrait lark
Motif #1, Rockport Watercolor Painting
Another one from the archives and a view of the very popular Motif #1 that has a bit more compositional interest than most. As usual I’m not sure about this. I’m rushing these in order to get them done in one day so there’s some areas that I should have thought through more. But on the whole it hangs together well. Day 8 of 30 in 30 – long way to go.
Watercolor of St Mary’s Church, Cambridge MA
Watercolor of St Mary’s Church, Cambridge for day 7 of the 30 in 30. Phew this is getting intense! Maybe something a little simpler tomorrow. It’s hard to assess the results when you’re in the midst of this challenge so I’ll just carry on and take a breather at the end. Pretty happy although I rushed to finish. (Edit: It looks a little wonky as my photo is slightly off)
A couple of intermediates
New England Coast Watercolor Painting
A New England coast watercolor painting today. Lots of very close values. It is a surprisingly tricky view to paint and I’m fairly happy with it. Day 6 of 30 in 30.
Some thoughts:
Keep The Main Shapes Large
Although there’s a lot going on in the center of the painting I didn’t want to overwhelm the viewer with lots of choppy detail. If you stand back from the painting you can see there are 3 main shapes: the sky, the water, and the jetty. I kept the values of those around an average value. The sky is light, the water is slightly darker, and the jetty is much darker still.
Vary the Value Within the Main Shapes
The interest in the painting happens within that big dark shape. Even though at a distance it looks uniform when you get closer in there’s a lot going on there. A lot of detail and activity is just suggested by slight changes in value. It gives the eye something to focus on but still keeps the ‘big look’ of the painting as a whole. Stapleton Kearns writes about this a lot (and he should know!) and his blog is well worth a look.
Don’t have Detail Everywhere in your Coast Watercolor Painting
This isn’t a hard and fast rule but I find I like paintings where the following happens. I like a painting where some areas left pretty empty and some areas have lots going on. Or some regions have a lot of color change and others have very little. Or some regions have contrast or texture and others have none. You get the idea. I intentionally kept both the sky and the water with minimal detail. This allowed the central portion to have all the action. If you do this carefully and provide a few connecting areas – the boats and the reflections in this case – it stops the detail overwhelming the viewer. And, frankly, I just like the way it looks!
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