Tonally Graded Wash
These need more practice, I think. I definitely didn’t attain “smooth” washes anywhere, and perhaps this was a result of the brushes I was using?
I tried synthetic and bristle brushes, and had the best luck with laying down the initial colour with bristle I tried different directional strokes, and found that a diagonal zig-zag led to the best final result.
However, I really did struggle to get the colour to lay down evenly, and my attempts to do so did appear to stress teh paper. You can see that most clearly on the blended attempt, where darker lines can be seen in the middle of each stripe — those are surface texture on the paper.
The large amount of thinner, used, made this feel similar to working with watercolour. But in watercolour I can control a wash significantly easier. Perhaps due to the difference in brushes? perhaps because I can hold a bead of water against the surface?
I do like how the white of the paper shines through. Makes the colours luminous.
When blending, I think I let the red thin out too much. Perhaps holding it stronger to get a better purple in the middle was the point of the exercise?
I realize I didn’t choose associated colours, like the text suggests I should. I had these only my palette and just worked from there.
This almost looks like watercolour to me. The soft pattern of the brush strokes look like fish scales, but how the paint is speckled onto the tooth of the paper reminds me of granulation in watercolour.
I love the luminous quality of these thinned out washes, against the white paper.
Overlaying Washes
I left the final stripe monochrome, because I quite liked that gradient and wanted something to compare against for the Opaque mixing.
As before, I struggled to get the paint move evenly on the surface. In the widest band, I tried “pre-wetting” the paper with white spirits and the flow of paint was greatly improved. This doesn’t feel like the “right” way to do this however, and perhaps goes more to learning better control of paint consistency and speed of the brush. I found the slower I moved the brush, the better the coverage on the paper.
I like how the washes show through each other. I think with better colour choices this could have been more impactful.
Opaque Colour Mixing
This was a significantly easier exercise for me. Blending paint into paint is something I’m reasonably familiar with. On the blue stripes, I think I could have made the top parts of the band darker. Looking at the surface of blue bands, you can see where the white begins to get incorporated — the tooth of the paper is less visible, or perhaps less impacting the colour distribution.
The multi-colour band is where I decided to try the mixing using two paint sticks. Ultramarine, and Alizarin Crimson, just as in the transparent washes. In the middle they blend to black, but really it is purple. I took some white, and mixed it against the excess on the tape to see roughly what colours I was getting — these are the smudges on the left hand side.
Adding white really saps the intensity of the colour compared to the transparent washes. It also seems to pull the warmth out of the ultramarine. I much prefer the colours of the transparent washes, but I like the ease of application of the opaque.
Weeks later: Material observations
The Alizarin/Ultramine band in the above was done with oil sticks, as I’d mentioned. Although I keep them in their tubes, tightly sealed, they do slowly develop a skin and harden. Some time back I’d put some eugenol on tiny cotton balls and inserted them into the caps of the tubes. Eugenol is a potent antioxident, and I’d read that it could slow the drying process.
Well, weeks later, that band is not dry. It doesn’t move, but if I drag my fingertip along it then I end up with a purple fingerprint. I wonder how long it will take for this to completely dry. I’ll keep watch.
Note to self: If I’m using eugenol, use very very little.
Monochrome Study
It is no longer winter here, and the trees are vibrant with their summer frocks. However, I had visited my parents in January, and we had gone for a walk at a conservation area amidst a snow flurry. I had been struck by the quiet beauty of the area, and took a series of photos to remind myself.
Mostly they are blurry, which is fine, as my intent was around later use for landscape exercises during this course. Planning ahead — my corporate life is useful for some things.
The two trees on the left of this photo will be my subjects. They are out of focus, and distant enough that details won’t get in the way.
I also love the colours of the grasses on the right, and the distant swath of trees, but those can be for another time. Also, they make me think of teeth. Disturbing.
Well. I suppose we all make choices in life. The colour choice of the above study is definitely one of those. I won’t claim it was a good choice. “Painting with mustard” was what was going through my mind as I put this together. Its very apocalyptic looking, if I’m charitable. I think I could have made the background wash much thinner.
I diverged a bit from the exercise brief, and intend to redo. That said, I do like how I was able to pick out the highlights in the branches. Makes the tree seem quite a bit more solid. I mostly worked with a small round synthetic brush, but also used a rag quite a bit to work back the paint into transparency. It was definitely a lot of fun.
No. No very much no.
Bad choices were made. Luckily, we can always start over. I do like the first painting. But the mustard is too much here.
Practice Makes Better
Starting over, and sticking closer to the syllabus. Perhaps, just perhaps, the exercise is written with suggestions that work instead of leaving students to fumble through colours that do not work well together. Anyway.
On a walk with my husband, we encountered an ash tree that had succumbed to ash borer beetles. It stood against a backdrop of pine trees, and was awfully forlorn. Perfect subject matter.
Colours chosen this time are burnt sienna and ultramarine, mixed to form a grey. Much more in line with the syllabus’ suggestions. Its interesting how brown this mix turns against the light background, and white grey it turns when mixed with white.
I really enjoyed the process of painting on the white background. Building up the tree, and then coming back in and adding the bark highlights. It was very meditative.
I tried an number of brushes, and a synthetic round was clearly the winner for painting the thin branches. I need practice in applying the right level of pressure.
Observations:
- I used a different brand of oil paper here. It has a tooth that tries to mimic the weave of canvas. I very much dislike it on the dark background. It shows too much
- Of the two, the dark-background tree has a more interesting trunk. Less straight and pillar-like.
- I’m not sure I did the dark background painting “right” but I found it quite interesting how I could drag the handle of a brush through the sky to draw thin branches.
- Painting the negative spaces in the tree resulted in curves and movement. The tree is dancing. I really like this.
- I like painting with rags, and the unexpected and uncontrollable shapes that arise.
When my husband saw the dark-wash background tree he described it as “Horror movie aesthetic”. I hadn’t considered that, but I think I can see it.
The morning following my work on the above, a Mondrian painting showed up on my social feeds.
The trees, here, I found captivating. It feels like the dark-wash exercise above — painting in the light of sky, and the reflections of sky in the water, on dark background.
This lead me down a rabbit hole of diving into Mondrian’s Cubist trees. I first encountered these decades ago in Highschool art history. They fall in and out of my memory, so I’m very happy to have ‘rediscovered’ them again. And here, again, I see the negative space painting and more parallels to the shapes I have in my own painted tree.
Mythic Broccoli
My neighborhood is filled with great trees. Fewer than there used to be due to the depredations of climate change: ice storms, and epic windstorms, but great elders remain.
I’ve found myself noticing them more, these last few days following my work on the exercises above. Funny how that is.
They remind me of broccoli. Great mythic broccoli.