I had to work on some watercolors this evening. I missed my 3 episode fix of Breaking Bad.
It's over.
Nov 7, 2020. Tears of joy and relief. It's been unreal and I'm ready to get back to a sense of normalcy. The desert has been tough. ...
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There are several theories as to why Mondrian did not use Green. Theory 1. Green reminded him of an unsuccessful part of his life a... -
THE ARCHEOLOGY TAPES 1: WHAT DIRECTION SHOULD YOU FACE A BUDDHA? 2017, HDV, 3:03 min. color, sound. THE ARCHEOLOGY TAPES 1: WHAT DIREC...
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Oooo, what season are you in?
(Right, I can't even care about art when I hear the words Breaking Bad. It's BAD.)
Ok, with a Herculean effort, I stopped thinking about whether I should rewatch all of Breaking Bad for a THIRD time (yes, I BOUGHT the forth season off iTunes :o addiction...), and actually looked at these watercolors.
They make me think I should stop saying "I don't know how to use watercolor" and learn how to use them.
Two episodes left in Season 3. You really shouldn't have told me I could buy season 4 in iTunes. Actually, I can't. School starts next week and I was only bingeing on movies over the break.
Watercolor was the fist media I learned to paint with, but over the years, I use gouache much more than transparent watercolors. I keep thinking I'll boycott gouache and do some strait up watercolors, but I slip. With gouache I can do things similar to what I do with oil, or so I think.
Well, you're a better man than I if you can resist buying season 4.
Everything is backwards with watercolor, right?
Backwards? I don't have any super formal training with either oil or wc other than knowing fat over lean with oil. Stay away from using white until the bitter end.
A couple of things that might help: you generally want the brush to touch the paper as little as possible and you've got x amount of time to work before the paper goes from wet to damp. At damp, you need to back off and let it dry before putting on another wash. Below my blogroll to the right, look for for "handprint." It's an amazing watercolor site. The guy is hands down, the greatest resource I've ever come across for watercolor. I mean, serious geek love.
I will look, thank you.
By backwards I meant you can't put a lighter color over a darker one (without gouache), so it seems like you have to think light to dark, which seems backwards to me -- IS overall backwards compared to opaque paint where, since lighter things tend to be closer, or more on the surface than dark or shadowed things, they are often painted later. Talking about representational paintings, of course. And, of course, you can go about them any way you want, but it seems that darker areas first often makes more sense. No?
Wait. You have no formal painting training? What did you study in art school?
No formal training as in "academic" training. I studied painting and have my BFA and MFA, but not from an art school art school. Focus was on finding something to paint about, rather than technique and I started painting neo-and ab ex. I've never painted a "traditional" painting in my life. Had no idea what grisaille or underpainting was until a few years ago when I had to teach painting, and I left it off the syllabus since I didn't know how to do it. So that's why I don't know what's proper.
I'm sorry that I threw away my first painting- I took it to the dump last year when I was clearing out the house, and one of the guys working there pulled it aside and kept it. I think I posted a pic of it here.
Ah, here we go: copy and past in order to see that first painting
https://picasaweb.google.com/maraddhac/FirstPaintingInPaintingClass?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOP0vubZl4Oo7QE&feat=directlink
But you did glazes in your very first painting? Doesn't that contradict what you just said about no academic technique? Well, I suppose you could be using glazes in a completely nontraditional way, but, still, they'd be glazes.
My overall training was not academic, but yes, I learned some techniques. That was the point of the first painting. I was going to elaborate and say that we did glazes on the first painting and experimented with some brush techniques, and apply some basic color theory. I learned how to make a medium with damar varnish and build my own stretchers. I learned a few techniques, but my overall training was not academic compared to many artists I know who had to copy masterpieces, do underpaintings, paint the figure, still lifes etc. Plus, I'm basing this on teaching the last 12 years and looking at other painting instructor's syllabi. It was just an unstructured approach, so that's why I say it wasn't academic. I still get antsy every time I create a syllabus.
My second and third painting or thereabouts: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/fKGBNb2AtUha6UBBp-qbGtMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/NG86nntseajHnaSg584aDdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink
Ah. But I'm surprised that you know so many artists with academic training. One's had to go out of their way for probably the last 40 or so years to find that.
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