Lesson 1: The watercolour paper!

GINESTRA - watercolour 50x70cm

It happened again- once in a while I end up using  random paper( in this case Canson 200grs paper) instead of real watercolor paper. 

The reason usually is because I find it ready to hand, just in the right size - and I just plan to do a fast sketch anyway ;). 

But now, what happens when your sketch didn't turn out that bad, BUT you can't finish it...

Good watercolor paper is GOOD because it can take several layers of color and water. In this painting I feel like it would need some more depth and shadows using wet color - but this paper can't take it -I could draw on it , or paint with a very dry color - but that's not what I want!

On the other hand I don't really want to paint this subject again, even if I often do paint more versions, since I feel quite happy with the way I captured the esssence I was looking for! 

And also the flowers are on the compost now!!

So remember one of the very first lessons - ALWAYS use GOOD watercolor paper!!

Mixed Media Sketching Tuesday!

Last week I had a wonderful afternoon, drinking tea and sketching and painting with my friends!
I was supposed to stop by just for a while, and didn't bring much material with me, only and old book and some white gouache. While chatting and sipping on the tea, I started to partially cover  the book pages with the white paint... I really didn't have any idea of what I was going to do...

 Since I didn't have any watercolors with me I then used the different teas on the paper for some abstract designs for warming up, and finished with some watercolor pencils...

Now I was inspired enough to end up with some small and loose mixed media sketches of coffee and tea cups! I really enjoyed improvisating and sketching in good company, and I was quite happy with the result as well, even if these are no traditional watercolor paintings -  what do you think?!

Flowerpot with succulent - playing with watercolors!

Due to the recent repeated earthquakes in this area I haven't been able to concentrate on painting, so this is from my small sketchbook some time ago - just playing around with watercolor... The subject is a small flower pot with a succulent that I got as a present. It was fun to try to capture the colors and shapes very quickly...

                                                    A closer detail  of the flowers.

Still life with fruit and doubts...

I find it's very difficult to take good photos of your paintings... In particular of watercolor paintings, I think.  They can change a lot - sometimes a boring painting gets life when looking at it in a good photo. Sometimes it gets duller, because you can't see the delicate layers... 

Sometimes you might want to 'improve' the contrasts or brightness - but it might be too much... Anyway, for a reproduction or a postcard this bright version might work better, what do you think?

Still life Challenge - Part 2 - loose watercolor painting!

The very first approach, this time I'm painting wet in wet. No drawing, just a light layer of color to mark the volumes and shapes.

What I adore most in this photo, is the blue shadow of the jar of water!

Usually I would have painted the light green tomatoe first, but since I had started with deepening the reds, I was obliged to let the greens wait a while, not to mix up everything. Since I couldn't keep my hands away, I went along with the browns of the jug meanwhile.

Here you can see the proceeding of the green color and the table. The background is still very light.

The result is fresh and loose and I left it aside to dry.

In fact, I wanted to paint a third one - THE painting, but because of my time restrictions painting was postponed ...

But, once this painting was dry, I went back on it with the finishing shadows and more details. I also painted the background darker, to make the objects stand out more.
I did enjoy the whole painting session a lot, especially sketching in a loose way!

You can click on the link of Paint and Draw Together to see the source photo and more paintings of the same subject, as I mentioned in my previous post.

Still life with tomatoes - a new Challenge!

This is my first painting  to participate in the latest Paint and Draw together Challenge. Click on the link to see the reference photo, and the other participants beautiful works.

Step 1 - first layer of color.

 Step 2 -adding more color, some details and structure to the table with salt.

Step 3 -was adding the background and more detail and contrast through shadows, for example.

Some details of the work in progress.

As usually, it's hard to know when to stop. I tend to overwork my paintings, losing the initial freshness. That's why, whenever I have time, I do one or two additional, fast paintings, which I personally like more. I will upload he pictures of the progress of my second painting very soon!

Hope to see you again!

Still life with persimmons

When the weather is getting worse, flowers are sleeping and it gets dark early, you end up painting a lot of still lifes...

Still life in Autumn

This still life with pumpkins brings your thought to autumn! See how necessary a few white details are to give some breath to the composition?

More Old Still Lifes

Shells are wonderful subjects. Pick a handful of sells - you have beautiful shapes and colors, matte and shiny surfaces, a lot of fun and a lot of challenge!

Paint the smaller shells next to fruit or maybe red chili peppers to add some color to your composition.
This painting is from a workshop several years ago...

A bottle of Chianti with Fennel

One of my old paintings. A still life is really the best way to start to learn painting ith watercolors. The subject will stay in place, the artificial light doesn't mute  - and you can paint the composition many times over and over again, maybe from different angles - and at the end you eat and drink everything! (Note: the bottle is empty...)