always learning... staying humble.

My "wrecked" Yupo - I lost the fluidity of the reflections.

   I really messed up that fall scene - bother - the foreground got WAY overworked, and I really thought I had it, too. Hubris, that's what it is when I think I've got everything under control. And then I remind myself that too much control is what wrecks a fresh watercolor. Since it's on Yupo, I think I can just wipe it off and start again on the reflections, but it's too late to do it tonight. I had chorus this evening (we are starting rehearsals for the Christmas concert), and so didn't get in my after dinner work session. So here's the mess that faces me tomorrow...

Detail of tree texture example, this is about 2.5" x 4"

 I had my watercolor technique class this morning - I am really loving teaching. Since the fall colors are still out, I picked a scene that shows the fall trees near the shore, and we worked on filling in the background colors like a sideways-moving wash, letting gold, orange, pale greens and darker greens blend/bleed together with soft edges as we filled the entire "block" of trees. Then, simplifying the whole area into just three tones, we studied the richer colors for texture, and then deep blue shadows to define the tree forms. Here is what I painted as an example of "how to" - you can see that just small sections are done - I just had to get them started with the technique of "pushing paint" and scribbling/scuffing with the brush to delineate the abstract textures and forms of the trees. This study was done VERY quickly (under pressure with them standing around me watching >yikes<) and so it wasn't about the strict tree shapes, but more about the brush technique of being free with the scribbles and textures.