Second day without my computer. I’m all thumbs now. Literally. This is only the third time I have written a post on my phone, using my thumbs only. I’m also behind on my blog reading, but don’t worry, I’ll catch up in the next day or two. I have been keeping my eyes open for […]
So sorry for the lateness of this post. It’s a long story but suffice it to say that my wife and I took a trip to visit friends 150 miles away and I forgot my computer. I know… ‘the dog ate my homework ‘ etc. etc…. I did remember the charger, though. (Sheesh! What a […]
Today’s warmup exercise: The title of today’s exercise in the book I have been following, the Tate Watercolour Manual, Lessons from the Great Masters by Tony Smibert and Joyce Townsend, is Creative Blotting. The idea was to drop grainy pigments, such as raw umber and burnt umber onto pre-wetted watercolor paper. From there, the instructions said, to wipe […]
Lately, we’ve been awakened to an annoying buzzing sound. The leaf blowers out here in California are annoying enough (haven’t they heard of rakes?), but this was even worse. I got up to look and there was a guy on top of a palm tree, calmly cutting log after log, moving down as he shortened […]
Today’s warmup exercise: I noted yesterday that I had some questions about brushstrokes and how I could make them visible in my watercolor tone studies. They all seemed to fade into the background wash within seconds. I am working through an interesting watercolor manual called, the Tate Watercolour Manual, Lessons from the Great Masters by Tony Smibert and […]
Today’s watercolor experiment: My experiment today is a continuation of my warmup exercise (see Lesson 10 – Brush Strokes). I extend the utility of the marks I make and use them to build a composition. I made four vignettes of landscape-like compositions using a number 20 round brush and sepia pigment. The idea was to begin with marks […]
When I lived in New York City, I looked for unusual things to photograph. I usually didn’t have to look far. I took these two pictures inside the Museum of Modern Art, which I would visit frequently. Today I review a couple of my black and white photographs, given my recent interest in tonal values of my […]
Today’s warmup exercise: The next lesson in the Tate Watercolour Manual, Lessons from the Great Masters by Tony Smibert and Joyce Townsend, from which I am learning, is about rendering a scene from a photograph that has been desaturated. Desaturation is a function available in many digital photo editors. It drains the photograph of color. The only quality left […]
Today’s warmup exercise: I’m finally getting to learn the technique of at least one Master watercolorist from my book, the Tate Watercolour Manual, Lessons from the Great Masters by Tony Smibert and Joyce Townsend. The Master is Claude Lorrain, who lived in the 17th century. The example shown in the book is The Tiber from Monte Mario c.1640, which suggests rather […]
Today’s watercolor experiment: My experiment for today is a rendition of The Tiber from Monte Mario c.1640, a tonal watercolor sketch by Claude Lorrain. I used the techniques from today’s warmup exercise to give the impression of faint, distant mountains, middle-toned trees and their reflections lining the riverbank and darker trees in the foreground. According to art historian, […]
