Evening Reflections

Evening Reflections, Watercolor on Arches #140 Rough Paper, 7"h x 10"w, 2016 #16

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Dusk over Marsh - Day Twenty-Eight of the 30/30 Challenge

Dusk over Marsh, 

Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #30

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Day Twenty-Eight of the challenge -- a little plein air piece at sunset, done mostly with my 1" slanted bristle brush. I am falling in love with this big, stiff brush that is not at all capable of doing any details, but carries so much pigment and water and does soft wet-in-wet blending and rough edges both so well! When the sun is setting and the light changing fast, it is really handy! I actually did several different studies before the sun completely sinks under the horizon, but I love this one the most -- it did capture the glorious sky that I saw, which made all the draw grass near shore literally glows with dragon's blood red! Again, this is done in a quiet back corner of the shoreline park of mountain view. I can never get tired of painting the beautiful wetlands in the bay area...

Windy Hill & Cypress Hill Sunsets - Day Thirteen of the 30/30 Challenge

Windy Hill Sunset, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #15

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Day thirteen of the challenge -- this one is a little test of compositional elements for a larger piece. I really wanted to do a sunset scene today and used a combination of primary color palette -- Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow and Ultramarine Blue for the sky and clouds. Since the composition is overly horizontal, I tried to experiment with different elements of diagonal movements. In the first one I tried to add back-lid barren deciduous trees; in the second version I used wind-blown cypress trees, since I was working on a larger sheet of paper, and had more room to play with shapes:

Cypress Hill Sunset, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 11"w, 2015 #16

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I am quite happy with both version and think that I may go with the second concept on the bigger piece. But I may play with the composition just a bit more... We'll see!

Northern Exposure - Day Four of the 30/30 Challenge

Northern Exposure, 

Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #6

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Day four of the challenge -- continuing with big brushes and try to get all the elements of this minimalist landscape in painting on a piece of soaking wet paper as it was continuously drying. I put in the twigs and brushes by scoring the paper with the blade of painting knife, and added the little bare tree using a #3 rigger. Sometimes a picture almost just paint itself. I am happy this is one of those days. 

Day's End - Day Three of the 30/30 Challenge

Day's End, 

Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #5

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Day three of the challenge -- one of the goals I have for this 30/30 challenge is to try using as big a brush I can manage and carry the painting to as far a point as I could, as I did in the last painting, "Woodland Fall"; a second goal I have is to experiment with non-conventional brushes and surfaces without the worry of "failing", i.e., not turning out a beautiful little painting in the end. 

For this 6" x 6", I used primarily a slanted 1" stiff bristle brush to lay in the soft sky and foreground snow on very wet paper, and added gradually thickened pigments to create the distant mountain with fir trees as well as to establish the general shape of the snow-laden evergreens in the foreground before the paper dried. The advantage of bristle brush is, they really can pick up and carry a lot more pigment (especially if your pigment is not fresh squeezed out of a tube) compared to traditional watercolor brushes, even the stiffer synthetic haired ones. Another advantage of these brushes is that they have very jagged hair, hence it is absolutely futile to try to get any detail out of them when painting. One is thus forced to pay attention to the general tone, color and overall silhouette of each value shape, and design the bigger picture before putting in the details (which would require switching to a different type of brush). 

I did eventually switch to smaller bristle brushes to establish the darker crevices on the rocks, the branches of foreground fir, etc., and used a small rigger brush to suggest some bare branches of deciduous trees as well as shrubs, but most of the painting was done with the big 1" bristle that at times made me feel very awkward and not knowing what I was doing. Overcoming that awkward feeling was very liberating, since I know I am going beyond my own comfort zone, pushing myself to learn more and grow as a painter. The results is not always as exciting as the process itself, but in case of this little painting, I am feeling quite satisfied...