WATERCOLOR PAINTING, AN INTERESTING JOURNEY

Watercolor – Red Head III - A Pleasant Surprise

2011-03-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

Our local watercolor society (Central Florida Watercolor Society) held its annual juried competition recently. I entered a portrait I painted this year with absolutely no expectation of an award. To my surprise it was awarded first place. My goal in this show was to “participate” and to just show my fellow artists the work I have been doing lately.

The juror was Pat Weaver, an international watercolorist, author and workshop instructor:

Pat Weaver

On the day of the show opening, I walked through the gallery and saw such excellent work, I was just pleased my piece was accepted into the show. As the crowd gathered, and the food and drink flowed, I began to receive complements from the society’s artists on my painting. That in itself was my reward for showing the piece. At this point I was pleased. Then when the juror announced the awards, and my painting came in first, I was just blown away. Words cannot express my excitement.

Here is a better photo of the painting:

Watercolor…Finally an update!

2010-09-12T16:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry dear friends…it has been awhile since I have updated this Blog. Life and illness can get in the way of best laid plans, but enough of that.

I believe in this economic downturn it has been and continues to be a good time for me to work on improving my techniques. After all, art is a life long study. I remember reading that an artist’s studio is also a place to study as well as paint.

Though commissions and art sales have been slow, like all of you, I’m waiting for the economy to pick back up. My watercolor portrait workshops have been sucessful and I have received a lot of positive feed back from the students.

I have become determined to be able to draw faster and still maintain a good accurate rendering of what I’m about to paint. I believe this only comes with practice… I now go to weekly open (no instruction) life drawing session where a group of artist will hire a model and we draw and paint from life. More about this in later blogs…

Recent portrait paintings…

Watercolor Videos

2009-04-17T05:18:00.000-07:00

I hope you enjoy watching these videos as much as I have in creating them...the next one is a compilation of the guys I have painted.

Some art friends have wondered what I have been up to lately. I have been working on new landscape techniques that can be accomplished quickly to capture the mood and light of the scene. While I feel like I have been able to do that with my watercolor portraits, it has been a challenge for me capturing the morning light, or a sunset, or the noon day sun in my landscapes that makes me feel... like I am really there. It is all about atmosphere which I feel watercolor can capture. Soon I'll post some of my experiments... Meantime, check out my guy portraits video...

Watercolor - Lady Portraits

2009-04-09T06:49:00.001-07:00

Honorable Mention

2009-03-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

The Central Florida Watercolor Society had the opening of its Third Annual Juried Show this past Thursday night. 85 paintings were shown, and one of my paintings received one of three honorable mentions. The Juror was Sue Archer, noted National Watercolorist. To be selected was truly an honor...I'm really stoked!

Here is the painting:

Watercolor – 2009 Portraits and Figures

2009-02-21T10:56:00.001-08:00

I know it has been awhile since I have up-dated this Blog. A lot has happened over the past few months.

I have been concentrating on improving my life drawing skills. To draw a face or figure accurately in 20 to 40 minutes and place some watercolor washes on it is a challenge. Several times a week I attend a life drawing session. This is not a class but an opportunity for the artist to hone his or her skills at drawing quickly and accurately. You can’t fudge the human face or figure too much! Also, our local Starbucks coffee shop provides interesting faces to draw quickly in stealth.

Faces have always fascinated me. In today’s fast changing world, my portrait clients do not have time to sit for hours while I paint their portrait. To accommodate this fast paced society, I schedule a digital photo shoot on a sunny day. Not only does it give me a chance to get to know the person better, but it provides me the opportunity to observe facial planes that the digital camera may not show well.

This is a recent portrait:

Art friends have asked me different questions on how I approach painting the various features of the portrait in watercolor. The one question that comes up most often is hair. So, I have decided to post a short demonstration of how I paint hair.

As most of you know, white in transparent watercolor is the white of the paper. First, with careful observation of the highlight in a subject’s hair and the underlying scalp and face, we can tone it with a pale representation of those lights. Pale yellows, pinks, and blues and some white can be seen. Most often we paint from light values/tones to dark, this will be the under painting or base of the hair. I let it dry very thoroughly.

Next I use Winsor & Newton art masking Fluid. It is like a liquid rubber cement. Looking at the highlights again in the reference, I mask off the highlights with a synthetic rigger brush, rinsing in water quite often to avoid clogging up the brush. After the mask is dry, strokes of dark hair color is applied following the flow of the hair, changing the color/value/tone as I go quickly. I let it dry very thoroughly and the remove the mask.

Now it is time to paint in the abstract darks, tone some of the highlight areas where I have removed the mask from the paper and scrub with a very small scrub brush to take out some of the hard edges.

More darks abstract shapes are painted in here and there and finer dark hairs are painted with a rigger brush. Lighter hairs are darkened on the shadow side of the hair. I do not paint too many this way, just enough to make it sparkle.

And a detail view:

Recent life drawing with wash:

Watercolor – Portrait

2008-11-22T07:01:00.000-08:00

At the recent Winter Springs Festival of the Arts, I was interviewed by a TV news personality, Christine, Fox 35 Entertainment Reporter. She was kind enough to allow me to take a few reference photos so I could paint her portrait. The morning light was shining on her face and I believe I captured the light.

Detail:

Watercolor – Venice Series

2008-11-18T05:07:00.000-08:00

Thanks again to Roger a UK artist who has allowed me to use his reference photographs of Venice. In the past few months I have painted two Venice paintings.

In these two paintings I have tried to capture the atmosphere of the morning on the first one and twilight on the other one.

Watercolor – More Watercolor Portraits

2008-11-12T06:52:00.000-08:00

The following are recent portraits I have painted in the last few months. Some are painted in a very tight realistic style, while others are fresh and loosely painted. What I love about faces is each one is different and I try to capture the character of the person. I believe I am now able to capture the mood and emotion of the person in that instant. All were done from reference photos.

Most of you visiting this blog know I regularly attend life drawing sessions. I am improving my skills to accomplish portraiture from life in watercolor. In today’s busy world, many of my clients do not have time to sit for a portrait. Thus, I am concentrating on painting loose fresh portraits in a life sessions I attend. Soon I will post some of my recent attempts to do this in a short time frame.

Yes, this is all part of my journey as an artist. I encourage all of you to draw and paint from life. I belive the skills you learn from each drawing and painting from life will really move you down the path of fine art.

Watercolor – Plein Air Painting (Painting in the Great Outdoors)

2008-11-04T06:33:00.000-08:00

The art journey I’m on, in my opinion, requires me to become more proficient at painting outdoors. Painting in the great outdoors is something that I strive to become better at. I finally have arranged my “Plein Air” field kit into a manageable load, and it easy for me to carry all the stuff into the great outdoors.

While I am best known locally for my watercolor portraits, I also paint Florida landscapes and nautical scenes. Most of these painting are accomplished in my studio from reference photos I take.

So, I am determined to get better at plein air painting. To do this means I need to go out and paint plein air as much as possible. One of the problems with plein air painting is once on location the artist sees too much information in the scene. You can be overwhelmed with the view, and because the light is changing so quickly, one has to learn to paint fast and proficiently. I was told a long time ago by a very accomplished artist that every painting will not turn out well and not to be too hard on myself when it does not!

It has been a long hot summer here in Florida, and now the weather is cooler and I have had a chance to get out and paint. Below are a few recent plein air paintings that were fun to paint.

Watercolor – Winter Springs Festival of the Arts - Poster

2008-09-03T06:56:00.000-07:00

I have been selected to be the poster artist for the 1st Annual Winter Springs Festival of the Arts. Thank you Committee Members! I am honored for the selection.

Here is a link to their web site:

http://www.wsfota.org/about_the_festival.html

The event will take place October 2 & 4, 2008, in the Winter Spring Town Center, Winter Springs, Florida.

I will be at the Festival signing posters.

Here is the painting:

Watercolor - Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

2008-08-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

I had a good time at the Maitland Art Center pARTicipation event. All were happy with their portraits and they had fun watching me paint.

Back at the studio, I wanted to paint something other than a portrait. Digging through my reference photos several of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse spoke to me in only the way images speak to artists.

I have spent many years on the beach at Ponce Inlet (named after Ponce De Leon) within the sight of this lighthouse...fond childhood memories.

So here it is, something other than a face:

Watercolor – A Wonderful Event

2008-07-23T05:16:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jeff Shonkwiler, the creator and director of Artist Registry, I have been invited to participate in a fantastic art event. The Maitland Art Center (MAC) is hosting this event as a part of its fund raising goals. I will be one of twenty-one artists to participate in this unique hands-on event.

This event is called “pARTicipation.”

Reception and Preview Show. Friday, July 25, starting at 6:30 pm

Hands-on Event, Saturday, August 2, starting at 10:00 am

The opening reception is where the artists (emerging and practicing) will show one piece of art in the style they will paint, demonstrate, and/or participate (hands-on).

A bidding process will take place at the Reception, like a silent auction, and will provide the opportunity for the public/patrons/donors to bid on a 45 minute time slot with the artist of their choice. Bids start at $100 where public/patrons/donors who find interest in the media/art/style of the artist of their choice, and select the time frame(s) for the Hands-on Event. All proceeds benefit the Maitland Art Center and provide the opportunity to promote membership with MAC.

The Reception and Preview Show is open to the public. Successful bidders will attend the Hands-On Event.

This is an opportunity for my art friends and clients to share a hands-on event with me and have a lot of fun creating a piece of watercolor art. Mark your calendars, I promise we will have a ball!

Watercolor – Al the Fisherman

2008-06-02T05:21:00.000-07:00

A long time friend of mine was kind enough to pose for me. He is one of the best fisherman I have ever known, and a character to boot! We have caught flounder, snook and red fish all up and down the east coast of Florida. Don’t let his “good old boy” looks fool you, he was an English teacher. We have had many interesting discussions on everything from English Literature to current events!

The challenge of this painting was his beard. Unless I change my mind in the next few days, I consider it finished. It is always good to let a painting rest a few days.

Also, you will find a preliminary study I did for this painting a few months back done in a quick and loose manner.

First the finished painting:

Now the preliminary study:

Watercolor – The Finish

2008-05-13T13:11:00.001-07:00

The nose knows...It is so hard in watercolor to get all the values right on the nose, and with the added shadows, a challenge to say the least! I am pleased with this one and have called it finished.

This painting was accomplished with a limited palette which included only five colors. Red Rose Deep, Azo Yellow and three blues, Cerulean, Cobalt and Ultramarine. Some of the color mixing was allowed to occur on the paper. This color fusion is one of the interesting characteristics of watercolor art.

The lips and the bottom of the face were the last elements to be painted. Some interesting design element to note is the predominant eye is the center of interest. It is located in the golden mean. For me, this was a fun painting that captured her personality.

Carolyn:

Watercolor – One Still in Progress

2008-05-13T03:58:00.000-07:00

While many watercolor artists will not lift or scrub to adjust values. 300lb. Arches will take a lot if you know the techniques. While the hair is giving me a hard time, it is finally coming along. Now, I need to finish the face, and then start adjusting values.

While this is not a step-by-step work in progress, it is where I stopped.

Work Still in Progress:

Watercolor – Two New Portraits and One in Progress

2008-05-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

After recovering from some medical problems, my muse has finally returned. It is funny how mood can affect your painting and your urge to paint. I am feeling well and back in the groove; much has been going on lately. More soon…

The first painting is my first attempt at a full sheet portrait (23” X 30”) on a new brand of paper I have not tried before. From now on, I plan to stay with Arches, the paper that works the best for me.

Smile II

The second painting is another view of my friend Karen. This one is on ½ sheet, Arches CP 140# paper. I had more fun painting this one because I didn’t have to constantly think of how the paint would react with the paper!

Karen II

Finally, this young lady was kind enough to pose for several reference photos and like most of my paintings at this stage, I’m not sure how it will turn out. It is on 300 lb. Arches rough paper, ¼ sheet size. Stay tuned in...

Work in Progress (un-named)

Watercolor Update - 02

2008-04-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

Recently I conducted a workshop on painting watercolor portraits here in Central Florida. The goal of the workshop was to teach methods and techniques of painting the portrait in a loose, fresh and quick manner. This method requires unique brush control and moisture control.

Here is the demonstration painting I did for the workshop. It is a duo-tone (two color) painting of my son Andy:

While painting a loose portrait has its unique advantages, I also like to paint portraits in a tighter more realistic manner using some loose elements. Here is a portrait of a good friend Karen:

Here is a dog portrait I recently did for a lady. It was a gift to her husband, a soldier, who is returning from Iraq. The dog was retired from the Army after ten years of service. Typically know as an IED (road side bomb) sniffer, this dog, saved her handler's life on many occasions. It was painted as a tribute to her service. When the Army retired the dog, she was given to the handler's family. For me, a dog lover, it is a wonderful story with a very happy ending. Soon both the dog and soldier will be re-united after their service and return home. She is a Belgian Malinois...I painted her proud...of her service.

Watercolor – Update 01

2008-03-04T18:14:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has been awhile since I have posted here. Life can get in the way of art sometimes. If you have been reading my blog, you know that transparent watercolor is the media I love. Lately, my watercolor journey has taken strange turns, and I had little time to paint over the last few months. I plan to change that as this year goes on…..and, most importantly, will be updating this blog regularly.

Here are a few of my recent painting and I hope they hold your interest.

First a new face since portraiture has to be high on my list of things I like to paint.

This is one of my dear friends. Both he and I do a lot of plein air painting in the Central Florida area. He is a character, and loves to flirt with the ladies. I had fun capturing him in this magical medium called transparent watercolor.

A good artist friend, Roger in the UK, allowed me to use his reference photos of Venice. Thank you Roger, your digital images have inspired me.

Watercolor – Interesting Faces

2007-08-26T16:44:00.000-07:00

Often I find myself looking at interesting faces. While the placement of eyes, nose and mouth follow some standard rules, it is the facial structure and texture of faces that I find a challenge to paint in transparent watercolor. Most often I paint from reference pictures which allow me to make some measurements during the drawing process to be sure the feature placement is correct. Changing the lips just a 1/16th of an inch will most often dramatically change the expression and perhaps loose the true portrait of the person. I use an engineering scale and dividers to check my drawings. While this can be time consuming, as Charles Reid has noted in his book, drawing is 80% of a good watercolor painting.

I believe in honing my drawing skills and go to various open life studios once a week. It is a bonus for me when the group chooses long poses as it allows me to draw and then paint in watercolor. As a musician practices scales to keep in practice, drawing from life is a necessity. Family and friends now duck out of sight when I have my sketch book or camera and approach them.

Here are a few recent painting. I hope you find them interesting too!

Watercolor – What is not to like about Boats?

2007-07-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

Nautical scenes still hold my fascination. Although I have been concentrating on portraits lately, here are a few recent boat paintings that I like the final result.

I hope you find the scenes interesting too! The difficulty with painting a nautical scene, or for that matter a landscape, is to determine what to leave in and what to leave out! Many times you can just delete things from your reference and just focus on the central view. Other times the surroundings features support your central view, but you can paint those elements in a looser manner.

From Venice to Florida, nautical scenes are popular and not necessary a “guy” thing. So relax and enjoy the view.

Watercolor – Controlled Blooms - #2

2007-04-28T15:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry I’m late getting back here but I have been involved in a wonderful art experiment. Since I am a traditionalist when it comes to transparent watercolor, and there are others world wide who enjoy traditional transparent watercolor.

While many watercolor artists despise blooms during the painting process as noted in my previous posting, I love them. By encouraging blooms through new techniques I have discovered, and then in painting many multiple layers of blooms, I have been getting interesting results. While I will let you decide if the results are interesting, I have added this techniques to my bag of methods and techniques in producing my art.

This new method has a lot to do with the timing of moisture control of the paper and the thinness or thickness of the paint applied in a “wet into wet” process for a given section of the paper. Then letting it dry and then repeating the process.

Watercolor - Controlled Blooms

2007-04-28T14:56:00.000-07:00

My journey continues as I study the faces of interesting characters. My methods are evolving mainly due to my experimentation with what I call “controlled blooms.” Each new painting seems to be a discovery of methods and techniques that are moving me closer to my goal.

While many watercolor artists despise blooms during the painting process, I have been encouraging blooms through some of these newly discovered techniques, painting in many multiple layers of blooms. Much of this new method has to do with the timing of moisture control of the paper and the thinness or thickness of the paint applied in a “wet into wet” process.

I’ll leave the viewer to decide the merits of this new process. For me, I am as excited as I am obsessed with this finding. Above are some recent paintings that explore the process.

Sorry I am late in updating this blog, but I have been out of pocket lately. The next installment will show a Work-In-Progress (WIP) of one of the first paintings I used “blooms” for layering purposes. So stay tuned in…watch the magic!

Watercolor – Sketches - 02

2006-10-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

Style, I believe, is a part of the artist’s soul. It is just there! Sometimes it is difficult to express but when methods and style come together music can be made in color tones on the paper. Many times artists will talk about changing styles, but they are just talking about changing methods, the style has always been there in them, deep in their soul! The challenge for watercolor artists is to be able to put on paper the image that is reflective of the artist’s style.

Style is an interesting description of the truth I seek. I feel my art is moving to a new level. Am I getting in touch with the truth therein, or is there something ethereal going on that is beyond myself? According to Andrew Wyeth on watercolor in his autobiography, Andrew Wyeth Autobiography (Bulfinch Press, New York, New York) “The only virtue to it is to put down an idea quickly without thought about what you feel at the moment. It’s ones free side. Watercolor shouldn’t behave.”

With that being said, the following character painting is a native American dancer, where the eyes are the center of interest, and color movement brings you back again and again to the eyes.

Watercolor – Sketches - 01

2006-09-29T16:25:00.000-07:00

When one develops new methods of painting portraits are you changing your style, or just painting in a different manner? I believe my style is evolving through the use of new methods and combining those experiments with old methods.

This is a self portrait painted it a tight manner with some loose and fresh elements. Watercolor is an interesting media that when all the elements come together magic happens.

WATERCOLOR – SECOND PORTRAIT OF AMY

2006-08-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

In the course of working on my looser style, I have again received great advice from the many books and DVDs available to artists today. From my studies, the several exercises that preceded this painting have led me to this point in my painting methods and techniques. Each exercise moved me closer to my goal, which I believe I have achieved. This will not be a titled painting, but just a watercolor sketch.

WATERCOLOR – PORTRAIT OF AMY

2006-08-07T16:49:00.000-07:00

This was painted from an old Polaroid of my daughter on Christmas Day. I have titled it “Christmas Snoopy.” This was an effort on my part to become looser in my painting methods and techniques. As you can see from my other paintings posted here, I paint in a fairly tight realistic manner.

Watercolor Painting - Running the Sun

2006-05-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

This is the third painting in a series on the America’s Cup racing boats. The first shown below was a monotone. The second painting I added some color. This painting is done in full color and I think you can almost feel the wind and smell the salt spray.

Watercolor – Running Hard

2006-04-27T06:16:00.000-07:00

One good painting leads to another. I really enjoyed painting the America’s Cup monotone painting below. I had two other sketches that began to call me. Since I had three good sketches, I painted the second one shown here that I call “Running Hard.” True it is not a monotone, because there are apparent blues and light tones of purple.

I hope you can feel the salt spray!

Watercolor Painting - Beating to Wind

2006-03-19T18:12:00.000-08:00

Monotone paintings can challenge the artist to insure values (light and dark tones) are correctly stated. I entered a recent open project with the Art Café Network which required a monotone painting. It was a challenge because I rarely paint monotones. Since the America’s Cup races are coming up, and they are going through the elimination process, I though this would be a good subject. This was quickly sketched while watching TV! I think it captures the excitement.

Watercolor - Morning Surf

2006-02-07T15:29:00.000-08:00

My goal in this painting was to transport the viewer off on a mini-vacation, at least for a few seconds to the beach. I believe I have achieved that goal, and I hope you enjoy the painting. - Bob

Watercolor Painting - Shady Cat

2006-01-27T13:29:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when an artist comes up with a new idea it can be a disaster! I have been thinking about a painting that indicates an abstract pattern while reflecting reality. It requires looking at it in terms of light and dark values which from a distance will reflect the reality of the scene. Early sketches failed to give me what I was looking for in this new concept, at least new for me! A restless night, milk and cookies, and old photo references, can do wonders! I found a picture of cat resting in the sun at my Mothers house. With several modifications it was exactly what I was looking for in this Painting.

My early sketch looked very good, and I was getting excited about the painting. There are times when you just know a painting will work. It was sketched on 300lb Arches CP paper. Next, to save the whites, I laid down large flows of mask. In retrospect, I should have used masking tape and mask. The abstract pattern was completed.

After all that work, it was time to drop in the darks. I mixed several test patches of color to get the luminous grays and browns I wanted. I ended up using only three colors, Ultramarine Blue, Aureolin Yellow and Red Rose Deep for my palette. As I began to place the darks in the painting, out of nowhere I decided to drop in some mid-values. Sometimes a painting will lead you where it wants to go, or is it the right side of your brain? At any rate, the painting lived up to my expectations. I hope you like it. An artist friend from Australia said it was purrrfect (if you will pardon the pun)!

Painting Outdoors - Plein Air

2006-01-08T06:22:00.000-08:00

As an artist, each day I see scenes all around me that I would like to paint, and impart my special vision. My latest adventures into painting outdoors (plein-air) have been difficult. Sketching, that is a whole different story! I can carry my sketch pad and camera with me everywhere I go. Sketching and taking reference pictures can be a lot of fun. Artists that can haul all their painting stuff to the great outdoors and set up to paint have always held my respect. Many who are accomplished at this form of outdoor painting refer to the other artists who do not paint in the outdoors as “studio” artist. Yep, that is me! I have been a studio artist for years. Frankly, it is not half bad, because you have all your art stuff around you in your studio. You are not limited in what you can do by not having all your stuff!

Plein-air painting in watercolor is something I intend to conquer. I have decided not to let this style of painting beat me! Culling my art stuff down to a manageable lot that I can carry has been a trying experience. I’m always thinking what if I need this, or that, and by time I’m finished packing, I can hardly carry all this stuff! This is a painting that I sketched on location at Longwood, Florida, and finished in my studio. So, it is one-half plein-air painting and one-half a studio painting.

A Watercolor Portrait

2006-01-03T14:11:00.000-08:00

Painting a portrait in watercolor is a difficult process. If certain features of the face are off slightly, the person portrayed does not reflect reality. With other media adjustments are facilitated in a manner that does not make the painting look overworked. Transparent watercolor allows for some adjustments, but the transparent look will fade as more pigment is driven into the fibers of the paper when adjustments are made. The artist must plan well ahead to avoid that scrubbed overworked look. The following portrait was painted in November 2005, and completed and framed in early December 2005.

That Old Saying: "To Thy Own Self Be True"

2005-12-30T07:39:00.000-08:00

Not listening to my calling and native talent I went off into the world to make my way. I won’t bore you with the details. I always I felt like an artist but without a medium. I went to galleries, museums, art shows and art fairs, all the while fascinated by the beauty and feeling conveyed by the artists. Somewhere in the back of my “right” brain, late in life, I decided to purchase a set of inexpensive watercolors, brushes and paper. Thus, began my journey, but late in life. My world has not been the same since!

Just like most beginners, my early attempts were marginal. Now “marginal” is a relative word when your native talent is the sight an artist has been granted. What I mean by “the sight” is when you can look at a painting, any painting, and tell if it is a good painting or a bad painting, that is native ability. Artists, as well as collectors, have that ability. I knew there was only one cure for me to correct these early attempts and that was to study.

Books were my first art teachers. Later, I took workshops and observed nationally famous watercolor artists demonstrate their art. As the years have gone by, my art has improved and it is finally looking good. Over the years I have learned two important things: First, I should have started earlier when I knew I had this native talent. Secondly, in art the more I learn and understand, the more there is to learn and understand.

So take heed would be artists, do not ignore your calling, I recommend to you, to thy own self be true!