Yesterday I had an idea buzzing around in my head to paint an abstract watercolour in a minimalist style. First of all I decided on a colour scheme and played with my watercolour sample swatches until I came up with the right colour combination.
I worked spontaneously without any reference photos but just had a picture in my mind of a landscape skyline. I dabbed on colours, dripped and splattered until I was happy with the result. Then I added a few scribbles with a very fine tipped pen.
I decided it needed more definition so added some heavier scribbles with a 1.0 mm pen and a hint of other scribbles in different pen colours.
Finally to give a little more interest I added some threads.
I was happy with the outcome. For me it suggests a landscape. What do you think? Does it work for you?
Today’s watercolour painting practice. A4 size on watercolour paper.
I have decided I need to do more watercolour practice!
It is strange, but when I work in acrylics I think acrylics are my favourite medium. And then when I work in watercolours I think no, watercolours are my favourite medium! And vice versa.
But I do know that watercolours take a lot more practice. If only there was more time!
A new idea just popped into my head yesterday. I decided I would take a look at trying to create a cubist painting. Cubist painting is something I really like but I really had no idea how to go about it but this is what I came up with. Not sure that I like it but it was an interesting exercise.
My process was as follows:
First of all I found myself three items that I thought had interesting shapes.
Then I made a quick sketch of them on to tracing paper just using outline shapes.
I used the tracing paper to transfer three groups of the same images in what I felt were a pleasing arrangement and decided to paint them with watercolour. That was trickier than I expected. I still need to try and refine my watercolour skills.
At this point I didn’t know what to do, so I took a picture of it and imported it into Procreate on my iPad. This gave me the freedom to play with ideas. Then I came up with something I was happy with.
I took these ideas back to the painting and replicated them in a similar fashion using fine line markers in black and white. And voila!
Well, now that I have worked on that little impulse I am not sure that I want to explore it any further. But that’s not a problem. I still have endless other ideas buzzing around in my head.
Well I just had to paint another big eyed girl. I love painting whimsical portraits. They are a little bit addictive and I do love whimsy!
So now I have a set of three.
Now I wonder if there is any improvement? I painted them in the order 2nd, 3rd, 1st (left to right). What do you think? Have you a preference? Have I improved? Please leave me a comment and let me know which one you like the best. It would be interesting to get some feedback on my progress.
At last I have found some time for creativity including some abstract art. I have had a couple of days of art play and am so-o-o-o happy to have completed four pieces of work.
First of all on Saturday I decided I would paint another Big Eyed Girl inspired by Mindy Lacefield.
This is an 8″ square canvas. Started off with some collage for the background and then painted the girl in acrylics. I do love painting these little girls.
And today was even more productive. I completed three pieces of artwork.Yes three! Woo Hoo!
I wanted to delve a little more into some abstract art. I have had lots of ideas buzzing around in my head. Even been dreaming about it and waking up to make notes!
The first one is fairly large (for me) 12″ x 17″. Collage, acrylics, watercolours and stitchery on watercolour paper.
Then a smaller one 8″ x 10″. Same techniques but no stitchery on this one.
And finally a more colourful piece. This one is using watercolours, collage and stitchery. 6″ x 9″.
And as you can see I already have them signed and mounted. Feeling very virtuous! And also feeling very happy to have had some creative time again.
However, my art room looks like World War Three! So now I have to go and tidy up and clean all my brushes etc. That is the not so fun bit. 🙁
I have signed up for an art course with Kate Thompson and I’m really enjoying it. This is the result of the first lesson; my first attempt at abstract art!
This was great fun to do and I am loving the result. I have decided to call it ‘Abysstract’ as the word ‘abyss’ conjured up everything I felt about this piece of work.
Noun:
1. a deep, immeasurable space,
2. anything profound, unfathomable, or infinite: the abyss of time.
3. a subterranean ocean.
This piece is 12″ x 16″ on watercolour paper using a .5 mechanical pencil, a .3 fine line pen, charcoal, watercolour paint and collage. Includes scribbling to music which is very therapeutic.
I can see creature like shapes that appear to float across the surface. Not planned of course, but just happened. I would be interested to hear what you can see?
I need to find some more time now to try some more abstract art and also to delve further into this great art course.
I sometimes think I spend more time playing and practicing with my paints than I do finishing pieces of art, but I do believe this is the best way to learn.
I have been spending a long time organising and playing with my watercolours recently.
First of all I prepared my own little travel set. I purchased this tiny empty metal watercolour box which would hold 12 half pans.
But I removed the metal insert trays inside which gave me so much more room. I then re configured the layout so that it would take 24 half pans. I glued in my own half pans and filled them with my preferred colours to create my unique palette. I finished off the paint palette by painting and inserting a reference chart of the colours and Voila!
This is such a portable size 5″ x 3″ and perfect for travelling. Plus of course I now have a larger choice of colours for such a small tin.
Then I spent a great deal of time preparing and loading my paints into my large watercolour carousel which I keep in my art room.
I purchased this carousel online from Robax. It spins around so it is easy to access all the colours. It is probably a little larger than I needed (15″ diameter) and maybe the next size down would have been more practical and taken up less room.
Now it was time to play.
I often spot colours that accidentally fall together on my art table and I suddenly notice what a great colour combination they are and they inspire me, so I decided that when I notice these I would paint the colours together on a piece of watercolour paper as a reminder reference. So I painted a few that I liked and then threaded them on a chain to hang up in my art room.
I can look at these when I need inspiration. But of course this is just a beginning and I will add to the colour chain as I find more great colour combinations. I think I will also paint some three colour combinations too.
Finally, I decided to make myself a reference book of watercolour techniques that I have discovered. So I painted out the ideas and made notes with each technique.
I then got out my Cinch Binder for the first time.
It was incredibly fast and easy to use. I used it to put together this little book. I left some spare blank pages at the end for me to add techniques as I discover more.
Once again this makes a good reference for inspiration.
So all in all I thought my play days were an excellent way of learning more about watercolours.
I wonder if you have got any great watercolour techniques, video links or website pages with ideas for me to add to my techniques book? If so I would love it if you could share them in the comments.
I sketched this face portrait from June Biagioni’s ‘Drawing in the Soul’ online class using charcoal pencil and pastels. This is an exceptionally good class and I am enjoying every minute of it. If you would like to learn how to draw portraits then I really recommend this class.
This was my first attempt at using charcoal and I really enjoyed using it, much to my surprise. I find charcoal messy but I used this method of catching the charcoal crumbs that inevitably fall away as you are drawing.
I used a table easel and I taped double sided tape on the lower edge which is slightly tilted up to create a channel. The tape attracted the falling crumbs and they stuck to the tape. This meant that there was no mess left on my worktop and no charcoal crumbs were inadvertently smudged on to my drawing whilst I was sketching. One of the reasons I have always avoided charcoal is that I don’t like the mess. But this solved the problem nicely.
I took some photos of the progression of this portrait from start to finish and then made it into a quick little video for you if you would like to see how it evolved.
I was really pleased with this sketch and felt I had made a huge stride forward with my portrait drawing. Now I just need time to practice more.
I have been playing with surface design techniques again today working on making fabric cords.
I am so-o-o pleased with the results. They are even better than I had imagined.
This is how I made them ………
First of all I selected some fabrics from my batik fabric stash. My fabric stash is vast as I was a quilter long before I became an artist. All my fabrics are 100% cotton. The batik fabrics work well for the cords because the design is on both sides of the fabric.
You could of course experiment with other types of fabric, because this is how we discover new and inspiring ideas.
I then tore a strip from the fabric about ½” wide. To begin the tear I snip the end of the fabric first with scissors.
Once I have torn my fabric strip I squeeze a line of glue down the middle of my strip.
This is the glue I used and it works very well.
But you can use any water based glue that dries clear.
Immediately after adding the glue I twist the strip in opposite directions from both ends.
Then give the strip a small pull and run my finger and thumb along the strip to make sure glue is distributed throughout.
And voilà, I have made a fabric cord.
I just leave it flat on the table to dry.
I then experimented a little more.
Here you will see four different strips. From the left the first one is ½” wide. The second one is wider. The third one has one edge pinked with pinking shears instead of torn and the fourth one is pinked on both sides.
And this is how they finished up.
If you look closely you will see that they are all slightly different.
So it depends what type of finish you would like.
My final experiment was to cut a strip with a varied width. Here you will see that I added two lines of glue and a thicker amount of it on the wider end.
This worked out very well too. It gave me a fabric cord that was less uniform in width. This could add more interest to any artwork.
So all in all I was very pleased with the results.
I can see a lot of possibilities with these fabric cords for use in my artwork. My imagination has been fired up and I can’t wait to work on a piece of art with the ideas that are racing around in my head. It feeds my soul to be able to incorporate fabric and stitchery into my art.
It’s amazing how playing with materials can inspire you. Why not give it a go!
More Mixed Surface ideas coming up over the coming days. Remember to subscribe to posts (top right) to receive email updates.
I decided it needed more definition so added some heavier scribbles with a 1.0 mm pen and a hint of other scribbles in different pen colours.
