Don't Have An Easel?

   This entry was originally posted on Saturday, May 5, 2012

 

Carrying an easel everywhere you go can be a drag sometimes.

Or you just haven't invested in one that you like.

Instead, just use whatever is handy.

A paper towel roll, a tissue box, a towel, or your brushroll works great for putting your board at a tilt.

Treatment of Brushes

 

This entry was originally posted on Friday,, January 13, 2012.

NEVER EVER LEAVE YOUR BRUSH IN WATER!

First of all, if you leave it in the water, the tip will bend or break.

Or the handle will become waterlogged and crack.

So you don't want to dry it standing up either.

The best way to dry your brush is to lay it flat and leave it flat in between washes. 

The Best Scrub Brush

 This entry was originally posted on Thursday, January 12, 2012.

Sometimes that hard edge is just too stubborn for the synthetic brush.

That is when the big gun needs to come out.

It is THE SCRUB BRUSH

(not to be confused with the soft synthetic scrub brush, of course)

Mine is similar to the Fritch Scrubber that is sold at art stores as a very special scrub brush.

 I once left my Fritch in the water and the handle cracked (oops!) then I lost it (probably on purpose),

then I found myself in Canada with no suppliers of Fritch Scrubbers. Oh no!

What to do?!!! I panicked!! Okay, not really cuz that would be breaking my third rule.

Instead I found a brush that was among my oil brushes but had never been used. It was a hog's hair bristle type brush. And I cut off the end and made it look like my Fritch Scrubber. Only I discovered that it worked better. Ha!

 So you don't need any special brand of brush. Any type of hard brush will work. Just cut off the tip and you can scrub away those little mistakes.

Soft Scrub Brush

 This entry was originally posted on Wednesday, January 11, 2012.

Sometimes you want to soften an edge that has dried or lift a color just slightly. An old synthetic round watercolor brush works great for times such as these.

It is also good for mixing large puddles of paint and you don't want to ruin the tip on your beautiful, expensive kolinsky sable.

Brushes

 This entry was originally posted on Tuesday, January 10, 2012.

I have tried many brushes over the years and I must say that a kolinsky sable brush is worth every penny.

They are more expensive but they keep their point longer than synthetic brushes.

Plus they lift paint better when doing wet in wet work (not to be confused with scrubbing).
My favorites are a #6 round and a #12 round.

Rough Paper

 This entry was originally posted on Monday, January 9, 2012.

Rough watercolor paper has the highest tooth. It is taken directly off a mould and not put through any cylinders.

It is great for drybrush techniques. I especially like it for plein air work when I want to capture texture more quickly.

The Most Important Guideline

This entry was originally posted on Wednesday, January 4, 2012.

The Most Important Guideline that I suggest is to

Have Fun

Painting is a joy.

Smile and enjoy the moments as you get lost in the act of creating.

Winter Roses Online Watercolor Course

Winter Roses

11x14"

I've been working like mad the past couple of weeks to get another online course out. It has been a challenge with Christmas next week. I did it though! Yay! 

The course is of winter roses, also called Hellebore.

It is now available in my online school at watercolor-365.teachable.com

You can watch a promo of the course below.

From the Archives: Passion for Poinsettias

Passion For Poinsettas

watercolor, 2003

       I have always had an affection for dinosaurs and even considered a career as a scientific illustrator of dinosaur bones. While at university in Utah, I spent some time cleaning and caring for dinosaur bones as I pursued my degree in Zoology. Upon graduation, I continued to work with dinosaur bones and taught biology classes at the Natural History Museum of Utah. It was at the museum that I worked with the Utah State paleontologist and discovered that the illustration of dinosaur bones was not for me. Too much math was involved and a move to Boston diverted me from the pursuit.  
     
       However, I still enjoyed dinosaurs (and still do) and painted a few for fun. In 2003, I was approached by Cogstone Resource Management, a California based company, and asked to create an illustration for their Christmas card. Cogstone is a paleontology company that specializes in the removal of dinosaur bones from construction sites. I, of course, was excited by the idea of painting more dinosaurs. After some sketches, the idea for an illustration of a stegosaurus with poinsettias was conceived. Passion for Poinsettias is the finished illustration.

Maddie and Cameron: A Portrait Commission

Maddie and Cameron

11x14"

Commission piece

   Maddie and Cameron is another portrait commission I completed in the spring of this little girl holding her newborn baby brother in her arms. I hope it is a moment that I can help her remember and cherish forever. 

    I finally got around to creating a time-lapse video of the painting process. You can view the video below. 

Portrait of Great Aunt Lois

Lois Brown

16x20"

    This summer, I was commissioned by some family members to paint a portrait of my Great Aunt Lois, who is my mother's aunt and my grandmother's sister. It was her children that commissioned me to paint the portrait. The portrait was to be done from a black and white photograph of her at the age of 18. 

      My great aunt is now 93 years old and is still very active. She spends half the year on cruises, sightseeing the world. I was honored that her children asked me to paint a portrait of their mother and of one of my favorite aunts.  Of course I wanted to change the photograph by adding color to it. I did want the painting the fade out into a gray, as if the painting were a memory coming to life. I also painted it on handmade paper to help give it a vintage look.  I didn't know the color of the dress and was pleased to discover that it was the color I painted it. 

    I was excited to discover that I would be able to present the painting to her at the family reunion where she proceeded to tell the story behind the photograph. 

     Lois explained that the photograph was taken just after she had graduated high school from a small town in Southeastern Idaho. This was when many of her friends had enlisted in the navy and had been shipped off to Europe or Japan to fight in the war (WWII). Lois wanted to cheer them up and to remind them of her so she got all dressed up and wore a special bracelet with an anchor on it (unfortunately I did not know this nor was I told about this) just for the photograph. Lois mentioned that she sent the photograph to these boyfriends hoping they would remember her and write her back. She did get one reply back from a farm boy she liked very much. The reply was that the photo reminded him of home and he could smell the country air and the manure when he saw it.  Lois said that she never wrote that boy again. 

Me presenting the painting to my Great Aunt Lois

November Sunset

November Sunset

10x22"

    I am currently writing this from Moses Lake, Washington.  I have this wonderful opportunity to be able to explore and paint the Columbia Wildlife Refuge and surrounding areas, which is just outside of Moses Lake. The sunsets here are stunning and adds color to an otherwise bleak landscape. By the looks of it, you would never know that there is so much wildlife in the area. It is mostly miles and miles of sagebrush. However, there are also thousands of birds and apparently there is a Sandhill Crane festival in the spring. Something to look forward to. 

    I use to paint on a daily basis and got out of the habit recently with all the changes that have been happening and with my focus being on my online course. To warm up my painting muscles, I decided to do a quick study of one of the area's stunning sunsets. While watching and photographing the sky, I noticed a few mule deer sneaking past me and got some in the shot. Couldn't resist adding her to the painting. 

Morning Illumination

Morning Illumination

11x15"

   If you sign up for my newsletter or saw my promo video for the free course, then you know that I moved to Northeast Washington this past June, just north of Spokane near the Canadian border. My fiancé and I are building a home and studio on a lake. It is a beautiful area with so many painting possibilities. 

   Sunrise over the lake is different each and every day and I love watching it every morning. I did this painting a few months ago but failed to post it until now. Morning Illumination is the view from the front room of the house, which is also where my temporary studio is located while we build the actual studio. My studio will still be located with a view of the lake, just beside the house. 

Sylvan Shore

Sylvan Shore

15x22"

Two weeks ago I taught a workshop on how to paint landscapes. For this workshop, I showed my students some fun techniques for painting foliage and rocks. The image I used to demonstrate these techniques was from Botanical Beach on Vancouver Island. This beach is one of my favorite places to visit and I have gotten a plethora of inspiration exploring these shores. 

To begin the painting, it was first drawn out on a half sheet of watercolor paper.  The sky was painted by first wetting the paper, then adding a wash of yellow and a red across the paper on a diagonal. The yellow I used is something new for me - Winsor & Newton's Transparent Yellow. The red is Daniel Smith's Quinacridone Rose. After I did a wash of the yellow and the rose in the top half of the painting, I then added a mix of Cobalt Blue and Winsor Blue to the top and bottom of the painting. This was laid flat to dry. 

After the wash was dry, I masked out the sky area and what I refer to as "sky holes". These "holes" are the bits of sky seen through the trees.

Then I splattered paint, starting with yellow, moving to green and blue and finally to a dark green by adding the rose to the green.  While splattering, I also sprayed the paint to get it to move and blend the colors. I also splattered some burnt sienna and cadmium scarlet into the trees while working with the different greens.

After the splattered paint dried, the mask was lifted and the rocks were painted. To do the rocks, I used burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue. While wet, plastic wrap was placed on top of the paint. This was allowed to dry and the plastic wrap was removed to reveal rocks. I continued to use the plastic wrap to create more rocks, leaving space between them to allow for the water and seaweed. These rocks were further defined by adding darker paint to create more crevices and shadows. Then the seaweed was painted with transparent yellow and Winsor blue, adding a touch of salt, to create texture. 

Finally I painted in the tree trunks to finish off the painting. 

Toothbrush

Toothbrush Illustration

This illustration appears in the third chapter of the book. Again, it is the combination of photo and painting.

Here is the painted version of the toothbrush:

And the photo:

NWWS Diamond Anniversary Celebration

Me demonstrating at the Northwest Watercolor Society Convention

On July 11, I had the opportunity to demonstrate at the Northwest Watercolor Society's Diamond Celebration in Seattle. What an event! I had a full class of 50 people to watch and help me pour paint.

It was fantastic to meet so many talented and wonderful watercolor zealots. 

Here I am again showing how to move paint around. I had some very willing participants that helped me as well. They did a fabulous job!

This photo is of me being like Julia Child. Since I had so little time to demonstrate and the painting takes so long to dry, I had one all ready to pull out from my magic bag.

These are the different stages of the painting all lined up and drying.

Here I am with some amazing artists, Birgit O'Conner, Judy Morris, and Marcia Giant. So lucky I was able to hang out with these incredibly talented ladies.

Me and the famous Judy Morris standing in front of my painting, Fish Food, that is hung at the Daniel Smith store in Seattle.

And here is the finished painting:

Hotel Don Curro

Malaga, Spain

poured watercolor