Peony 2 WIP

Well, I have been working on another white ( :-) peony, but this time with a picture from Wet Canvas. I still have a large petal to paint, but I have fiddled too much with it tonight...I always do when I don't work in daylight. It is certainly no longer white!!! In the last thirty minutes of painting, I covered most of my whites:-( The big petal on the right hand side is too dark and heavy. The petals do not have enough delicacy and are way too colorful.  However, I like the buds...The picture was taken with a flash and the colors are not really true. I think that the painting looks somewhat better in real life.  Nevertheless, what do you think of it?

I hope that I will be home early enough tomorrow after work to finish it. I think that I am gaining confidence with flowers...I think that I should start a third floral right after this one to keep learning from my errors.

Have a great week, and for all my American friends who have a holiday tomorrow, enjoy!

DVD Painting- Finish

Well, I will stop fiddling with this painting. I did not do a very good job with the yellow glow and the stamens, but I will consider this finished.

It may not look too much like Jacqueline Gnott's masterpiece, but I certainly learned a lot while painting this. I think I would now be ready to tackle my own peony and dark background. I highly recommend this great DVD, The Queen, by Jacqueline Gnott!

Thank you all for your patience and your support during this "virtual workshop" that I followed.

Now, what to paint next....?

I hope that you are all having a great weekend.

DVD Painting- Update 2

There is definitely something wrong with my paper! I am using my favorite, Arches CP140lb. However, I am finding it blotter-like and almost fuzzy. I can think of at least two things I  have done that may have caused this;
- I sprayed my initial pencil lines with a charcoal fixative made by Pebeo. Jaqueline recommends using a workable fixative by another company....The spray I used may not be made to be painted on top of.  I certainly hope that this is not the case because I have used it on a complex half-sheet drawing of one of my next Venetian scenes.
- I used a hairdryer a lot and this also on top the dried liquid masking. I often use liquid masking, but not on such a large surface. Next time I think that I will use the masking film and use the liquid masking simply to seal the edges. This way, my pencil lines will not be affected.
-Most of my colors have been mixed with the black ( until tonight) and I find the black does not mix well - it is very heavy on the paper ( maybe my layers were too thick)

I  have started the petals. After a few petals painted with a cobalt and black mix, I have now switched to a cobalt and quin pink mix - it applies better than the black and it is more me. Now, I have to ensure that I end up with a unified look and not with 15 petals that seem to belong to 15 different flowers.

I can't repeat enough how I am enjoying Jacqueline's DVD even though my painting is not doing it justice:-) I hope that Jacqueline won't mind that I am showing my progress pictures.

DVD Painting Update 1

I have continued working with Jacqueline Gnott's DVD on painting a peony. After the dark background, I have tackled the leaves on the right-hand side of the painting.

I have just realized that I have never painted leaves before - flowers and petals, yes; leaves, never! Therefore, I tell myself that this first try did not turn out too badly. My first mistake though was in misinterpreting the  drawing when I used the liquid masking: I painted background in a few places where a leaf should have been, and I completely misinterpreted the lines that represented a large stem. Ah., well! It is still somewhat believable.

I also lost a lot of the highlights that Jacqueline kept. I probably went much too dark on certain leaves. Jacqueline achieved her darks in about 2 or 3 layers max....I must have at least 5 layers in certain areas. The pink on the bud is also too pink; I will go back and put in some magenta to darken it a bit.

Anyway, here is the progress picture with all its imperfections and sloppiness.  The next step will be to finish the leaves, mostly on the right-hand side. I can't wait to start the petals. However, I have just noticed how white the whites are in Jacqueline's painting - I am using 140 lb CP Arches - Bright white. Is there such a thing as extra bright?
Added Monday, 1200pm:
On my monitor at work, I have just noticed that the image is too bright - in real life, the green in the background hardly shows and the leaves are more subdued. On my monitor right now, the painting looks really ugly while I like it in real life.

Painting along with DVD

As mentioned in my previous post, I have purchased one of Jacqueline Gnott's new DVDs, The Queen - the white peony.  So far, I have watched the DVD twice and have thoroughly enjoyed it: Jacqueline's easy, informal manner, her tips and her great painting.
Now, I have started to paint along. Jacqueline masks the entire flower so that she can focus on the background. My biggest surprise is that she uses tube black instead of mixing her own. I did not have any tube black, so started to mix my own to finally give in and go to my art supply store to purchase a tube of black.

Jacqueline uses many layers of glazing to achieve her very dark background: black with a touch of dark green here and there to create what she calls the "inner glow". She then removes the masking to work on the leaves, leaving the flower for the end. On the picture, the green is not very visible, but it does provide a nice glow behind the flower.

I have finished the background - I have to admit that I have never been able to achieve such a dark, even background before! I have removed the frisket, but I see that my edges were not as good as Jacqueline.  I also notice that some of my pencil lines are no longer very clear.... I will start the leaves later on today...however, I am not sure if I have Jacqueline's patience:-(

Mother's Day and other fun stuff

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers. I have just received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my daughter and I am about to go and visit my 92 year old mother who is such an inspiration to me: she has her own apartment, she still drives, she cooks, sews and paints. And she never complains!

This past week, I was so busy at work that I had no energy left at night to paint. However, I did purchase a new painting gadget: a mouth atomizer. I tried it on an old painting and on matboard. I think that I will have fun with this new toy. I will post pictures of any successful experiment. Are any of you using a mouth atomizer for your paintings, either as the main technique or to add finishing touches?

This week, I also received a DVD that I had ordered from Jacqueline Gnott: the Queen - painting a white peony. I have watched it twice and now will probably do the "paint-along" with Jacqueline.

I wish you all a great week.
Christiane

Golden Venetian Door on Red Bubble

When I finished Golden Venetian Door last weekend (see previous post), I really was not sure at first if I liked it or not. It was such a departure from what I usually paint. However, I have been looking at it all week and going back to it to add a touch of paint here, a shadow there...and I now really like it! And it's just been featured on Red Bubble.

I think that I will get this one framed professionally: at about 8". X 11", it should not be too expensive :-) I usually frame my paintings myself, with sectional metal frames and a plain mat, but I feel that in some cases a professional framer may be able to bring out more the best in a painting.

Any tips about framing watercolors?

Experimenting with Soft Press - Going Wild!

Yesterday was my birhday...one of those big numbers. Consequently, today I decided to show that I was still young enough and go wild...at least with my Fabriano SP paper and my paints :-)

The following sketch represents a lot of "first time" for me:

• for the first time, I used a ink sketch as starting point (micron pen)
• for the first time, I used Inktense pencils ...well, just one, for the door
• for the first time, I used metallic acrylic : Golden fluid, fine gold and fine copper
• for the first time, I used white acrylic for a lot of my whites.
• for the first time...but this was by mistake...I used iridescent acrylic in the spatter: I grabbed the wrong container and in the evening light, did not notice immediately that I was not spattering white acrylic:-(
• for the first time, I used neutral tint to darken a color: I used it to darken the ultramarine blue used behind the metallic grid over the door.

So....here is this strange concoction, which I entitled " Golden Door". As usual, it is from one of my Venice pictures.

Don't hesitate to say that this is my ugliest painting...it's probably true. Anyway,  I had a lot of fun painting this today and with one more birthday behind me, I should now be mature enough to take it :-)

Take care and have a nice weekend.

Experimenting with Soft Press Paper - Part II

I have played some more wiith the Fabriano's 140 lb SP paper.
In completing the  Gondola sketch  I observed the following:

• Removing masking over painted areas also removes the paint. This is the downside of the fact that this paper allows for such easy lifting techniques.
• In the same way, the smallest addition of water to a painted area will immediately disturb this first layer.
• I tried an automatic eraser on this paper and was pleased to see that it did lift out paint without any apparent impact on the paper: this is a good way to add highlights in small ares.
• The colors seem to remain more vivid than on the cold press paper. This picture was taken with a flash inside - so the colors are not true.

In conclusion, I will certainly use this paper again. I now know that if I use masking, it has to be to retain whites and not to protect already painted areas. My next experiment with this paper will probably be combined with my attempt to develop my floral painting skills.

As you can see, I am still procrastinating before starting a larger, more demanding painting:-)

Have a great week!

Experimenting with Fabriano's Soft Press watercolor paper

I am continuing my experiments with various watercolor papers. This time, I have tried Fabriano's Soft Press 140lb paper. I think this is going to be a winner!

Fabriano states that the soft press is somewhere between its hot press and its cold pressed paper. I wanted to try it out for myself with a quick sketch. I started the most typical Venetian scene possible: gondolas facing San Giorgio's. I may or may not complete this small  5"X 7" painting, but I am ready to share the following observations :

The soft press paper:

• has a texture similar to most CP papers: in other words, it is not as slick as most Hot Press. You don't have the impression of being on a skating rink.
• allows for extremely easy lifting of paints.  For example, on the main gondola cover, most of the highlights were achieved by lifting of paint, either while wet or once it had dried.  I loved that feature of this paper. This probably makes the paper closer to HP than CP. 
• should be ideal for florals
• is probably not the best for texture , although this is only an assumption on my part since I have not yet tried to achieve any special texture effects on this paper. Any comments about this?
• is a lot more economical in Ottawa, Canada than any of the Arches paper ( almost half the cost of the 140 lb CP Arches).

I really enjoyed working on this paper and this is definitely a paper that I will try again.

I would be very interested in reading comments from those of you who have painted on this Fabriano 140 lb Soft Press paper.

New experiment with watercolor paper:Fabriano 140 lb cp extra white

Some weeks ago, I tried out several brands, types and weights of watercolor paper. I have just bought some 140 lb Fabriano Artistico extra white in two types: CP and Soft Press, a paper between HP and CP.  Below is a waterlily that I have painted on the CP Fabriano to test out this paper.

-I used some masking in the center of the flower: the masking came off easily without any damage to the paper.
- I lifted off color on the petals with either a damp brush or a Q-tip: I was really pleased to see how easily the watercolor lifted.
- Using a wet-in-wet technique, the paint flowed very easily and blended very well on this paper. The picture does not show up very well any of the shading unfortunately,
- I used some acrylic over the water color in the center and then added some more watercolor
- In the background, I experimented on the right - hand side with granulating medium: tiny fishs cales appeared, but I did not really like the texture. I added more paint on top to cover up the texture.
- For most of the background, I simply flooded the paper and dropped in paints: I liked how the colors blended easily.

I found this paper very forgiving, very easy to use. For florals, I think it offers more soft blending possibilities than my favorite Arches CP.  I will certainly use it again...and it is much cheaper than Arches, at least in my area.

Next time, I will try the Soft Press.  I believe that Fabriano is the only company to produce this paper. I'm quite curious to see how it will handle. Have any of you used it? Any comments or advice?

Change of pace

After all that time on my last Venetian painting, I badly needed a change of pace. Like Ann Buckner I followed the super watercolor petal workshop by Ruth on Painting Friends. I used  Arches 140 CP and W&N paints. I think that this would have been a good time to use the bright white Fabriano in either the CP or HP.  I am fairly pleased with the petals, but the background ended up rather muddy.

Good feedback from Red Bubble

 

I uploaded my Venetian Shutters ( see previous post) to the Red Bubble site to see what kind of feedback it would receive. To my surprise, I almost immediately got a double feature!.

Back from vacation!

I have just returned from my vacation with exactly 1000 pictures for future inspiration :-) We went to Venice with a short side-trip to Florence, Sienna and San Gimignano ( see background in photo below.

The temperature was fine, but unfortunately, we did not have any sun for the first half of the trip. The only unfortunate incident was that my hotmail account was partially hacked in Venice and everyone in my contact list received a spam message... apparently from me!




I quickly worked on Venetian Shutters this afternoon...it has been dragging for too long and it's time to move on. I will put it aside temporarily before I sign it. I find this painting very "busy" and am craving for some simple, uncluttered scene.

 It's nice to be back and to catch up with your blogs and your work. Monday, it's back to work at the office for 9 hours a day :-)

Venetian Shutters: Latest update

I have made just a little progress on this painting: the posts in the water and some darks here and there. I will not be working on it for over a week because I am going on a short vacation...guess where? My favorite city in the world Venice, then Florence. I will have limited access to the internet, but will try to check a few blogs.

Here is the latest version of Venetian shutters. It was photographed inside, so the colors may not be quite accurate.

I am also including the photograph used for inspiration so that you can compare the two at this stage.

 Take care.

Anonymous in Spain: Featured in Art at its Best

 Red Bubble has just featured my  Anonymous in Spain watercolor in the Art at its Best group.
This is an riginal watercolour painting on Arches 140lb cold pressed watercolour paper that I painted probably over a year ago at least.I  used DaVinci and W&N professional grade paints and the finished painting is approximately 14 ” X 19”. I used a  photo reference from WetCanvas, an online artist community. Most of the painting was done with the pouring technique.

An old lady hides her identity and her thoughts under a dark umbrella while the Spanish sun is pouring into the stone arcade. Let your imagination provide a face, a soul and a purpose…

Venetian Shutters - Update 5

Hum...I went from I considered drab colors to a weird color explosion in the cast shadows:-) Ah, well! Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I suppose

. I still have lots of work to do on this painting. It won't make me famous, but I am having fun. Have a great Sunday.

Serenity Featured on Red Bubble

My watercolor "Serenity" has just been featured in a recently created group on Red Bubble, called "Waterlily Wonderland".

The majority of the entries are photographs, but there are some paintings. Some are so beautiful that they take your breath away. Do check them out.

My "Serenity" was painted over a year
 and a half ago and was my fist large painting ( just under a full sheet). The waterlilies are somewhat stylized; the nuancing occurs mostly in the background.  This is certainly a painting that I intend to paint again one of these days.

Venetian shutters-Update 4

 Here is another update showing very little change, but taken without a flash, although still inside.

I need those shadows soon!!!!At this point, I really don't like these colors...too much dull brick color and yellows. It's just does not feel like "me":-)

"Laundry Day in Venice": a Red Bubble top ten challenge winner

I am very pleased that my watercolor Laundry Day in Venice was one of the Top Ten winner ( the 10th, I think :-) in a recent challenge of the Around the World group on the Red Bubble site. Mine was the only "non-photography" entry. Look at the other entries ...there are some extremely beautiful pictures!