Before I went off to do my errands today, I slopped some paint on my watercolor block. I wet the entire paper, then washed with ultramarine rose and ultramarine blue: a streak of blue and a circle of rose. In between errands, I stopped home and filled in the circle with blue and overpainted the […]
Today’s watercolor experiment: The emphasis of yesterday’s post was texture rather than graffiti. Today, in my experiment, texture is a major visual element of the composition, but graffiti is just as important. Today’s study depicts two different surfaces: brick face and wood. The plywood panels are easy to identify, from the details of the wood grain, the knots […]
Today’s watercolor experiment: Today’s composition is more of a study in color and texture than an example of graffiti. I liked the greenish panel with the yellow block-letter ‘X’ (the name of the bar) in juxtaposition with the yellow door with blue and green printing. I tried to give a sense of grunge to this portrait […]
Today’s watercolor experiment: I remember this photo I took in 1991. The canvas on which this graffiti cat was created was a scrappy, rotted wooden panel next to some metal steps. That must have been a day when I only had my camera loaded with black and white film. On my dedicated photography walks, I took […]
On my lunch break today, I wandered around the parking lot and found this interesting rock. This may not seem like a big deal, but I haven’t had a lunch break in a really long time. A lunch break from work, that is. I won’t get into my long search for work since moving to […]
Yesterday I was thinking about texture. It began when I noticed the sunlit bark of a tree. I said at the end of yesterday’s post, how I was hoping for a textural year in 2015. Texture has a range, just like tonal values of photographs and paintings. Texture is a multimodal concept. There is texture in sound, […]
I write this in the waning hours of 2014 (~7PM Pacific Standard Time). For most of you, it is already 2015 right now. It was really sunny here today, but cold (for California). I took a walk to stock up on some refreshments for later tonight and, as I usually do, I looked around for […]
Today’s watercolor experiment: Surface preparation: I used my straight razor today. Not on my face, on my watercolor paper. I used the paper as a strop, dragging it back and forth with the sharp end dragging. There was no chance of cutting the surface if I did it right. I did cut the paper with […]
Today’s watercolor experiment: Stage 1: I like the way yellow disperses over the paper. I started today’s study with a lemon yellow wash, followed by an application of several greens in the center of the paper with one of my wide brushes. Prussian blue graces the right edge and top of the frame. As an […]
Today’s watercolor experiment: I like texture. The other day I added texture by mechanical means: my safety razor. I thought I could give my rough-textured paper a clean shave, but the edge just kept skipping around, creating parallel gouges. Today I started my study using a dry brush. I’m back to my old habit of arced […]
