The first day of spring
Posted: March 20, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized 20 CommentsYesterday I had so much fun doing a negative painting with no pencil lines that I repeated the exercise today. Just turned the branches upside down. Painting the spaces between things requires patient observation and a good amount of wash on the brush. I started in the middle of the sheet and did a light wash of the parts of the fence that I could see between the branches. Then I added the dark bits of evergreen under the snow. By that time the fence was dry so I added the darker parts of the fence. The last step was the lacework of branches that tied it all together.
so subtle, graceful. such close attention paid to create the elusive layers, great work
Thanks Melankooli. I am not always sure the pale areas will show up on screen so I’m glad you see the subtleties.
This is a great watercolour excercise Shari. Alas, it may not make a very practical demonstration in Barcelona this summer.
I think I will be able to do the same thing in Barcelona with the bleached out areas. It’s going to be pretty hot there. I am bringing my hat!
Wow! Just 3 weekends ago, I was taking the train through Bavaria to catch a flight from Munich to Israel and everything was covered in snow. I remember thinking to myself “How could you possibly paint that with watercolours, not painting all that snow but everything looking out from underneath it!?”.
Your sketch is how! Beautiful.
I love painting snow. It was quite spectacular this morning. I wish I didn’t have to work. I would have been out there painting only things covered in snow!
Thanks for the description how you proceeded, quite enlightening, I can see now how you did it. Now it comes down to trying it myself – and probably finding out that things that look simple never are 😉
I’m glad you appreciated the description René. It’s good for my teaching as well to stop and think about how I do things.
I love this picture! It feels so fresh, clean and vibrant!
Thanks Sue! I tried not to muck it up too much.
This is lovely. I have a technical question, and it’s probably a really stupid one (bear with me 🙂 ) – so to get the snow effects, you painted everything around the pieces of snow, but left the paper white where the snow is?
All questions are good Fiona. Yes, I don’t use masking fluid so I paint around the whites.
I appreciate that you do not rely on masking fluid. This is special. Your narrative is very helpful as well. You must be a wonderful teacher in the studio.
I don’t really like masking fluid Lee. I sometimes add a few dots of white gouache but I try to save the whites.
Well-done!! And your step by step commentary helps to understand the process.
Thanks Veronica! Glad you appreciated it.
Indeed — I have just written this as one of my next exercises to try out… should be fun! Thank you for the information Shari, as you are constantly showing me different ways of painting — and that I appreciate enormously!!! Beautiful 😉
Thanks Jane. I think you’ll have fun trying this one.
Poetry in motion to look at your painting and figure out your approach. Beautiful work! Happy Spring, Chris
Thanks so much Chris. Happy Spring to you too!