Seven students attended last Saturday’s Watercolor Crash Course! We painted Seascape, one of the newest subjects for that course. Even though the day was cloudy and cold, the large windows banking the classroom provided beautiful light. It was a wonderful experience for me; great students, great classroom.
Clint Eastwood said of his one-take directing style, ” You can kill it with improvements”. This is definitely true of watercolor. Learn to appreciate unpredictable outcomes, exciting developments and happy accidents.Relinquish your goal of absolute control and you will be rewarded with more success.
I’ve been trying to learn new things, stretching as best I can. Kenny gave me a book for Christmas, “Painting Portraits and Figures in Watercolor” by Mary Whyte, and it inspired me to try my hand at portraits. I had an old photograph of my father wearing a straw hat in bright sunshine. I’ve always liked that picture. Even though it lacked some detail, I decided to use it because I loved the way the woven pattern in the hat made little squares of sunlight on his face. It wasn’t easy, but I didn’t give up, even though many times during the process, I threatened that painting within an inch of its life. It was touch and go for many days. The drawing, planning, mixing, painting, took several weeks. Its all done now and I’m very proud of it. As soon as Kenny photographs it for me, I will post it for you to see. Title: “Leffel”.
I’ve also been writing. Last year I discovered BLURB (free designing software, self publishing, check it out) and decided to collect all the stories my dad told us about his childhood growing up in Marion County, Georgia. He is a natural storyteller, mixing fact and fiction seamlessly just to entertain his audience. Well, I got started and life happened, so it was put on the back burner, until now. Well, this portrait of my dad inspired me to pick it up again. The title of the book is, “Leffel’s Tales”. I’m including some of my paintings to illustrate the stories.
Will keep you posted on my progress.
Here is the 2nd house portrait for the previous client. Every summer the family moved four miles outside of town to this beautiful country home. You will notice I used the same color scheme for both houses, complimenting each other if they were hung together. In the small, black and white reference photo, most of the face of the house was obscured by trees. Luckily, I could see part of one upstairs’ window and because the house is very symmetrical, I was able to determine where the other windows and chimney should be placed.
Old Homeplace in Hawkinsville
House portraits are fun, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy. Every house presents similar and unique challenges. My job as an artist is to find creative solutions and it is in finding solutions to the problems that I experience the most satisfaction. My process begins with the reference material. I prefer taking my own photographs because I begin to make compositional decisions as I frame up the shots. However, sometimes that is not possible and I must rely on whatever photographs the client can provide. Old Homeplace in Hawkinsville is a good example. This home burned to the ground many years ago and my client only had two photographs of the house. Below, you will see the two, black and white, out of focus photographs I was given to use. One was even printed in reverse. Luckily, I’m on good terms with a patient and talented photographer who flipped it for me. From these, I produced a detailed drawing, value studies, a line drawing, and finally a painting.
The only detail shot of the house was out of focus and incomplete.
Reference photograph, before it was corrected.
Photographer printed corrected image for me.
“I cry out for order and find it only in art.” Helen Hayes, American actress (1900-1993)
“Seascape” is a new subject for the Watercolor Crash Course series. No drawing or painting experience is necessary. Have fun learning all about watercolor and in just four hours, you will have this beautiful little painting to take home.
Click on Schedule in the menu above to view a list of my fall classes at Columbus State and Auburn. To read a detailed description of each class you can click on Classes.
brendaswatercolors.com 