Lost Gulch panorama

The view from the Lost Gulch trail in Boulder, Colorado is quite dramatic. Way in the distance you can see the white peaks of the Rocky Mountains, appearing and disappearing in the clouds, and below that a series of hills getting darker and greener below me. I didn’t have much time up there — snowflakes were starting to fall — but I managed to grab a few minutes with brushes and paint to capture the drama.  

Mile high panorama

It’s much too nice in Denver. Bright blue skies, trees leafing out, tulips in bloom, people eating at outdoor cafes and wearing shorts. That means it’s sketching outdoors weather. Except I’ve forgotten the accessories required for that, including bulldog clips for holding pages down in the wind. And a hat. It will take a bit of time to adjust to being outside. But all of that is really unimportant when you have a view of the big Colorado sky above the white-capped mountains.  (Excuse the poor iPhone shot please.)

Summer workshops 2015

The value of snow

There’s a retired man in my neighbourhood who is constantly shovelling the snow outside his house. His driveway is immaculate — even during a storm — because he’s always out there with a shovel. In spring I see him shovelling the snow off his lawn and carrying it onto the street. I, on the other hand, eagerly seek out these patches of snow on grass. I love how the remaining whites provide the lightest values in a sketch and in fact, I miss the snow when it’s all gone. You see, snow makes it easy when you are thinking in terms of lights, midtones and darks in a sketch, and even though I am looking forward to spring, I will miss the patches of white that help me compose the picture.

Mario

I don’t know Mario. He was sitting across from me at the doctor’s office this morning. I heard his name several times because he was having a little snooze while waiting to be called, which could explain why he was such a good model. What is the first line you make when you draw a face? For me today, it was the line of the chin. The way his head jutted out of his sweater seemed to define his slouched posture, so I started with that. Of course it is a bit strange to draw the face from the bottom up, but sometimes it just happens like that.

Window of opportunity

Yesterday it was so warm outside that my neighbour washed his car, kids were on bikes and except for the remaining really high snowbanks, there were patches of brown grass and even green shoots coming out of the ground. The streets were alive with activity. But then this morning we woke up to another snowstorm — the tail end of an even bigger system hitting the Maritimes. On the radio I heard a lot of griping about the never-ending winter. And it’s true, it has been long. But I chose to look at it as one last opportunity to paint snow. From my kitchen window I could see the clay pots under my oak tree. They had reappeared yesterday and disappeared again today. As I painted, the snow melted before my eyes so I’m glad I seized the moment.

Spring skiing

It’s starting to look like spring on Mount Royal. I saw one runner, two cyclists, three spring skiers and four very fat raccoons (not counting the one who popped out of the trash and tried to scare me while I was paying for parking.) I think it won’t be long before the gloves come off and we can sketch outdoors again. If the forecast is right, the temperature will be in the double digits tomorrow in Montreal, and for the first time in quite a while, this will be on the positive side of the thermometer. It’s about time.

A new website

It’s been ages that I’ve been thinking about — and finally got around to creating — a new website for my work. I’m so excited to launch it today. The project started with me hoping to hire someone to help me, but that didn’t really work out, so I ended up doing it myself. I’ve been adding bits to it for the past month or so, and there are still sections to come, but I’m pleased to have it at a stage that’s ready for viewing.

You’ll find galleries of paintings, galleries of sketches and a section of paintings for sale. In the next little while I’ll be adding a workshop section, as well as one for materials. Have a look at the site by clicking on the image below or going to http://www.blaukopfwatercolours.com.

This doesn’t mean anything will change with my blog. It will still be the place where I’ll post my day-to-day stuff, whereas the new website will mostly be for finished work. If you have comments or would like to see anything else on the site, let me know.

Sunday tulips

I’ve been missing my (almost) daily posts. These past few weeks I haven’t been posting nearly as much as I want to, but it’s not because I haven’t been drawing… It’s just that I can’t publish anything because I’m working on a video that will come out in early summer (hopefully). It’s pretty exciting because I’ve had so many requests for online courses. I can’t say much more than that, but of course I will post it here first when it comes out. As a break from the video work, I had to paint my bouquet of orange tulips one more time before they fade.

Ten tulips

I think the trick to painting flowers in watercolour is letting the paint and the water do some of the work for you. After all, the last thing you want is for flowers to look dry and wooden. For these tulips, I wet the shapes with clear water and then dropped some fresh paint into the puddles. I like what happened with the paint, how it flowed around and created texture on its own. I had some different colours of red and yellow on the brush, which mixed around on the paper and in some places, even mixed in with the green of the leaves. Resist the urge to muck around in the puddles of colour. Just let the paint and water combine and wait to see what happens when the paper dries. You might like it.