Starting orange flowers; softening an edge

Continuing on from Part I, here is a close up as I began to paint the yellow and orange flowers. For the first layer of this flower I painted the darker sections and then used clear water in a damp brush to pull/feather the color out into the flower so it didn’t make a hard edge.

Yellow underpainting (click to enlarge)

For the three large daisy-like flowers, I outlined all the petals with Holbein Cadmium Yellow Light. Then I brushed a ring of clear water around the center of each of those flowers and painted a narrower ring of yellow inside that so the paint would softly spread in the water to not quite the edge of the water, producing a soft edge. When that dried I painted the flower’s very dark center with a mixture of Winsor Newton (WN) Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet. Then I painted the gold ring between them with WN Cadmium Orange mixed with Daniel Smith (DS) New Gamboge.

Painting one petal at a time

I began applying mixtures of WN Cadmium Orange, WN Permanent Rose and DS New Gamboge to one petal at a time while avoiding painting over the yellow outlines on the petals,. You can see the juicy puddle of color I like to put down. I’m careful to let it dry without shifting the tilt of the paper to avoid backwashes.

Orange flowers completed

I worked all over the paper, turning the painting sideways and upside down instead of reaching across, to complete all of the yellow and orange flowers. Some of them will get touch-ups before the painting is completely finished.

Next time: more greens, the dark background, and the finished painting. Meanwhile, I’ve been assigned the next painting to do: a lovely orchid which I will approach in a completely different manner.

Rehearsal: Sketchbook pages

I was given permission to post some of my work on the upcoming book, “Must Paint Watercolor Flowers” (Quarto Publishers, London) for which I’ve been commissioned to paint three floral watercolors.  The painting is the easy part; taking the photos, correcting them in Photoshop, and writing about each of the steps takes much more time and isn’t nearly as much as fun. I thought I’d break this into a few posts so they won’t be too long.

My first step after being given my choice from a couple dozen excellent photos (which I’m not permitted to post) was to do some rehearsals in my sketchbook. I used several pages to experiment with how I wanted to approach the metal pitcher,  mixing colors for the leaves, the buds and the yellow-green flowers (above). Then I experimented with color mixtures for the orange flowers and the large amount of darks (below — combinations of Winsor Green and Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna, Sap Green and Sepia, Winsor Green and Winsor Violet).

Rehearsal - Sketchbook p. 2

Next step was to transfer the photo to my watercolor paper. Initially I was going to make the painting small enough to fit on my scanner but decided to use the maximum size the publisher allowed since it was such a complex painting.  I chose a 12 x 16″ Arches 140 lb. cold press watercolor block  (block is easier to set up for photographing). If I’d been given more time and/or if the photo wasn’t so complex, I probably would have transferred the image by drawing freehand or using a “gridding up” method but with a two-week deadline I used a quicker method.

Transferring the photo to watercolor paper

I enlarged the photo in Photoshop and printed it in sections (before figuring out I could have more easily used my copier to do the same) and taped them together. Then I placed a sheet of Saral Transfer Paper on top of my watercolor paper and laid the enlarged print on top of the Saral. Using a ballpoint pen, I traced over the shapes of the flowers, leaves, stems and shadows which transferred graphite lines from the Saral paper onto the watercolor paper.

Cleaning up the drawing

See what I mean about how complicated the image is! I’d left too much of an overlap on the tiled together enlarged photo and some areas didn’t get a good transfer so had to freehand some of the drawing, clean up some lines and darken others. This is my new favorite mechanical pencil, the Papermate PhD Ultra.

Masking near the pitcher

I wanted to paint the pitcher wet-into-wet and so I applied Winsor and Newton Colourless Art Masking Fluid to some of the shapes around and projecting into the pitcher to make it easier to paint wet into wet more freely. I used a cheap disposable brush to avoid messing up my good ones. I prefer Cheap Joes Golden Fleece rounds for watercolor and even though they aren’t expensive, I don’t want to ruin them with masking fluid.

Detail: Pitcher painted, removing masking fluid

I like pulling off the mask with the rubber cement pick up tool. I think it’s made out of the same stuff Vibram shoe soles are made from. The pitcher and the table have had their first washes. Next step is starting on the flowers and that will be in the next post.

Toilet seat display, ink & watercolor

Who knew it could be fun to sketch at the hardware store? There were laughs (see end of post) and artistic discoveries galore at our Tuesday night sketchcrawl, now forced to go indoors for the winter.  When I first arrived I started to ask  one of the  helpful employees that Pastime Hardware is famous for, about the part I needed for my toilet. Before he could show me where to find it, my phone rang with the ringtone I made from the Cake song “Never There” (click below to hear the ringtone).

I had no idea how many differently shaped toilet seats there are. I discovered that looking at the negative shapes between the seats helped me to better find the shape of each seat. Then, looking more deeply and trying not to generalize, I discoverd the piles of boxed and/or wrapped toilet seats on the shelves behind the display. And then I noticed and added the pegboard behind that. I fell in love with the pretty color I mixed from cerulean blue and yellow ochre for the pegboard. This, to me, is the joy of sketching in a nutshell: seeing more and more deeply and the fun of making lines and dots and shapes and playing with color.

Next I faced the opposite direction and drew and painted these large metal watering cans up on a tall shelf.

Watering Cans version 1, ink and watercolor

When I got home I glued a bit of my receipt (from the toilet flapper I bought) to the edge of the page in my sketchbook (above). Tonight I thought the page might look better with a dark background so I added some ink, didn’t like that, and then painted with gouache over the ink to get more what I had in mind. (The receipt is still there, I just didn’t scan that part below).

Watering cans, ink, watercolor, gouache

The last sketch I did was of Cathy sketching a row of hand trucks in the room filled with bins of nails. I messed up her face but fixed the FAIL by pasting another piece of receipt over her head.

Last Sketch of Cathy Sketching

I would have liked to sketch more but it was nearly time for the store to close. It had been a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the comments and questions of passing employees and the few customers shopping on a very quiet Tuesday night. Cathy said that when she was sketching outside the employee break room she overheard employees talking about us and saying, “There’s a lady out there painting… TOILET SEATS!”

At 8:45 a man announced over the loudspeakers:

“Good evening customers…and… ART STUDENTS [giggle]. The store will be closing in 15 minutes so please bring your purchases to the [giggle giggle] cashier …[giggle]…”

…and then laughter ensued throughout the store, employees, customers and us artists alike! It was a slow night at Pastime, with twice the employees as customers, so I’d like to think they enjoyed our company as much as we enjoyed theirs.

Fruit Fail Flap Fail, graphite and watercolor 9x6"

When my toilet decided to start saving water by only doing half flushes, a knowledgeable friend took a look and said I needed a new flapper. He showed me how to remove the old one and told me to take it to my wonderful neighborhood hardware store, Pastime Hardware in El Cerrito, to get a replacement. I knew I would be going to Pastime to sketch with my Tuesday Night Sketchcrawl buddies so I waited until then to remove it.

Tonight was our sketchcrawl and it was so much fun. When I got home I wanted to sketch this intriguing failed flapper and thought it would be an interesting juxtaposition to pair it with this failed persimmon. (I waited too long to eat it and now it’s squishy and I just can’t eat squishy fruit.) This is the kind of persimmon meant to be eaten crisp.

I will post my hardware store sketches and a couple of amusing stories from our evening there, next time as sleep seems more important right now.

Meanwhile, if you aren’t familiar with the concept of something being “FAIL,” and have never seen the hilarious FAIL blog, I highly recommend a visit! Who knew there were so many ways for things to go wrong, from stupid signs, to stupid people. It always makes me laugh.

Hayward Japanese Garden (revised), oil on panel, 12x9"

Despite the encouragement to leave this painting and “don’t touch a thing” I wasn’t satisfied with it and made some adjustments to the color. I’m much happier with it now, although I wish my photo was more accurate. In real life the color is less fluorescent than it is appearing on the screen, although the actual scene in person was so brilliant it nearly was fluorescent.

Lone Tree Park, Rodeo, CA, oil on panel, 9x12"

Lone Tree Park, a funky little waterfront spot in the funky little town of Rodeo, CA alongside the railroad tracks. Sunday I joined Benicia Plein Air Painters there for an afternoon of plein air painting. I was determined to simplify, find big shapes, get them down on my panel with bold color, and stop. It was so much fun, made even more so by painting alongside Leslie Wilson, an inspiring watercolor painter.

Today I finished the painting at home from memory (above).  I had to work from memory because the photo didn’t even come close to capturing the colors from the setting sun.

Below is the painting on site, just before I filled the white spaces I’d left between shapes to avoid smearing as I worked.

Lone Tree Park, Rodeo, in progress

And here’s my easel set up at the park. Since we were painting in the afternoon the sun began to set and glow with wonderful hot colors the last half hour of painting.

Painting in Rodeo

It was good practice to finish the painting (at least I think it’s finished) but it also felt good to do what I set out to do on-site, simplifying down to big shapes and colors.

It also felt great to be out painting from real life instead of from a photo as I’ve been doing for the book. I got permission to share some of the steps in progress which I’ll do soon.

Not Swine Flu, Ink & gouache

It’s not the swine flu, not so bad.

Not Bird Flu, ink and gouache

Definitely not the Bird Flu.

Just an ordinary bug, ink and gouache

It’s not a cold, a fever, a pill bug or a lady bug, and probably not something from getting a flu shot on Wednesday. It’s just a sleepy, coughing, red-eyed, sneezey, sniffly little bug.

And it looks like I’m winning! I hope so. Tomorrow is a plein air painting day at a winery in Sonoma, the last of the season with my primary plein air group, and I’d really like to go.

Miso Soup & Washcloths, ink and watercolor

Tuesday night sketchcrawl met at Miyuki Japanese Restaurant on Solano and it was a feast for the eyes and the stomach. It took tremendous willpower to sketch and paint each morsel before eating them. I started with the miso soup, delivered with steamy wash cloths to clean our hands before dining.

Edamame (soy beans), ink and watercolor

They brought edamame to our table while we looked at the menu. I sketched and ate them after the delicious miso soup. We sat at the sushi bar and had fun watching the sushi chef. He seemed to enjoyed watching us sketch,e specially Cathy’s sketch of him.

Maguro sushi (tuna), ink and watercolor

Next was the maguro sushi on a wooden plank. Spectacularly fresh and delicious. Then it was time for the star of the show, the Country Roll, stuffed with perfectly crisp asparagus and covered in spicy and slightly sweet seaweed salad.

Country Roll Sushi (seaweed salad & asparagus); Ink and watercolor

For “dessert” I ordered Unagi (grilled eel with a teriyaki-like sauce.

Unagi sushi (grilled eel), ink and watercolor

The waitress couldn’t quite make sense of us but since the restaurant wasn’t too crowded they didn’t mind us sitting there for two hours sketching and eating. And we left a big tip.

Miyuki Japanese Restaurant, Berkeley, ink and watercolor

All of these were sketched and painted on site except for this last one, which was sketched in the dark from across the street when I first arrived. I took notes about the colors and added color when I got home. I highly recommend Miyaki. The food is always fresh and beautifully prepared, the staff friendly, efficient and helpful and the prices very reasonable. It’s spacious so there’s never a wait and it’s not too noisy. And it’s a great place to sketch on a Tuesday night!

Hayward Japanese Garden, oil on Gessobord, 12x9"

The little known Hayward Japanese Garden is a lovely and a very peaceful place. I set up my easel inside one of the little structures sprinkled throughout the gardens as it had a good view and nice shade on a very sunny day last week. It was also a popular spot for wedding and family photos, as two different wedding parties came to take photos at this spot while we painted.

There were a number of challenges with this painting. First was the complicated scene I chose. Also painting under a roof in a shaded area looking directly at a bright scene was tricky.

I was attracted by the rhythm of the crisscrossing diagonals of the bridge, the building, the tree and the reflections. While I was pleased that I met my goal for this session: to focus on composition, I only got as far as an underpainting on site (after starting with thumbnails, value study and a fairly careful drawing). I worked on it some more today from a photo on my computer screen.

Now I see  a few things I’d like to adjust (toning down the bright yellow greens, shrinking the rocks under the tree that somehow grew while I was painting, and adding some dark accents). But that will have to wait because…

Book commission

Now it’s time to get to work on the first watercolor for a book commission that is due in two weeks. I’ll be making three paintings for another book about painting flowers in watercolor by my previous publisher.  I love the first photo  I was assigned to paint from and am excited about the project. It’s so cool getting paid to paint flowers! I’m supposed to photograph 6 stages of the painting and then ship it off to London for them to make the final photo, Then they’ll send me back the painting and the digital file.

I’m hoping I can post some of the steps here, but my guess is that since they get publishing rights, I probably can’t. Either way, first I have to get painting!

Japanese Maple leaves, ink & watercolor

I celebrate this day each year as a sacred holiday because of the precious gift of an extra hour.  I wait until Sunday to change my clock. Then I pick an hour and spend it consciously, savoring every one of those 60 minutes by doing something especially satisfying.

And then at the end of the hour, if it was a good one, I set the clock back, feeling grateful. If the hour didn’t live up to my expectations, I just pick another hour and try again.

What are you going to do with your shiny new hour?

I wanted to sketch fall colors in honor of halloween and the end of daylight savings even though it’s warm enough here that my roses and hibiscus are still blooming and the grass is green from recent rains. This is a branch from the Japanese maple tree near my front door. It was a gift from my-coworkers in honor of my father’s death, who passed away 9 years ago today.

Update: Instead of picking an hour, I ended up doing it differently: Sunday afternoon I decided I would take a walk and if I timed it right, I could be home before I left. But I’d been having so much fun playing with taking that hour again and again that I didn’t change it on Sunday. I didn’t change it on Monday either, just hung out in the studio still relishing the possibilities. But Tuesday I had to work (from home) and realized I didn’t want another hour of WORK and since I needed to be at the restaurant to sketch at 6:30 I finally changed my clocks. Instead of one free hour though, I probably experienced at least a couple dozen over those three days. Goofy but fun!