More tutorials and copies

Hopefully learning from mistakes here.

Instagram

Frank Clarke demo

Explore.org Orca cam

Rubbing Beach Lookout

Instagram acrylic inspired

Matthew Palmer book

Doodles

New Paper and Anniversary

I used new 300 series paper from Strathmore for the above landscape. Seemed to stay wet longer. Was able to lift clouds a bit better. I think this needs a bit of pale green showing in the far away valley lower left.

I masked the sun above and the heart below below with masking tape. I added a bit of yellow orange across the bottom of the sun.

Need to try different brushes for stippling and lifting paint.

Also would like to try more interesting landscapes but feel that I should spend more time with techniques than product.

The heart was my first shot at a masking tape resist shape. Taped masking tape onto wax paper, drew the form, cut it out, peeled and transferred to paper. Worked perfectly. Also first try at splattering. This is the back of an anniversary card I made.

More painting and identifying problems

I think I might actually be limited by my choice of paper at this point. All of the tutorials are using cotton watercolor paper, which seems to be able to retain water and stay workable much better than what I am using. It simply does not stay wet and I am having a hard time with wet on wet technique.

I was able to do some lifting of color with the mountains. I was not successful with the clouds because they dried too fast. I played around with adding cloud shadows today, and tested out the Japanese White paint that came in my watercolor kit. It is suprisingly somewhat opaque, but not to the extent of gouache. Still, it did brighten up my cloud tops.

Not happy with the sky colors at all, but wanted to replicate the colors used in my beginning watercolor book (reference photo below).  I added the clouds because I definitely need the practice. Poor gradient plus unfortunate placement of clouds = lesson learned. Will stick to dry brush until I can figure out the paper situation.

Reference

Old Barn Window

I had this old window stored in the garage for about 20 years before I figured out what to do with it. Problem was that it was covered in lead paint.

I tried stripping it. It was very messy, but got most of the paint off. Decided to just cover up what was still there and seal it in. Not like I will be eating off it or anything.

I reglazed the panes, got it all nice and painted, and set to work on removing the bottoms of my collection of glass bottles. Pretty easy work once you get the hang of using the glass scoring tool. Alternate boiling water and ice water and they pop right off where you scored it. I also saved some glass fragments from green and blue bottles and purchased some decorative glass pebbles from the craft store.

I laid out the bottle bottoms and glass shards on some pieces of paper that were cut to the same size as the window panes.

Once I had a good test layout completed, I began to transfer the glass pieces to the panes. I applied clear silicone window sealant to the glass in small sections with a caulk gun, stippled it with a toothbrush for a mottled effect, and then set glass pieces into it while it was still wet. This part took a very long time, and I wound up storing it for about a year before I felt like finishing it. But I finally finished it this past spring. Added some hooks and hung it up on my porch.

I love it! And it is nice to finally have a finished project.

Beginning watercolor

Borrowed some chalky watercolors from my daughter and started watching tutorials and practicing. Doing a little every day. Also finding inspiration from others so also trying to copy their work as part of my practice.  Quickly got frustrated with the paints, so bought some nicer ones. Immediate improvement! All of these are done with the new paints. Phone cam put a bit of an orange cast on them.