Landscape Compositions
Regardless of the scene, there are few things as frustrating as knowing what you want to paint but not knowing how to portray it. Landscape artist Johannes Vloothuis is passionate about painting landscape scenes in watercolor, pastel acrylic, and oil
Practical Advice for Compositions
Ethereal Landscapes
Shores, Seas and Skies of Anne Packard
Over the course of six decades, contemporary artist Anne Packard has honed her creative voice into an inspired convergence of image and imagination. Her distilled views of Cape Cod capture the essence of shore, sea and sky.
Where Image and Imagination Merge
How to Create a Visual Melody
Painting Landscapes with Buildings
Painting subjects with buildings is one of the most popular themes for artists. Humans readily identify themselves with man-made structures because buildings are part of our environment, like nests are to birds.
How You Ensure Visual Melody
Watercolor and Colored Pencil
Her goal was to create a study of form, color and composition, using elegant fabric and the graceful line of ribbon using both watercolor and colored pencil.
Combining Watercolor and Colored Pencil
10 Rising Stars
These aren't all watercolors, but there is a wide range of topics, techniques and approaches.
10 Paintings from 10 Rising Stars
Watercolor Portrait Tuteria
This is a very detailed video of the process of producing a lifelike portrait in watercolor. Not photo-realistic but pretty darn good.
Watercolor Portrait
Pigments, Pigments, Pigments
As I watched this video, I vacillated between wanting one of each and running away as fast as possible.
Check it out and you will see exactly what I mean.
Tokyo Art Shop
Daniel Smith Half Pan Sets
For those of you that prefer pans to tubes, some or all of the time, DS now has sets for sale. I haven't checked them out myself, but I tend to like most things about their products.
Hand Poured Watercolor Half Pan Sets
Wendy Yoshimura
An American still life watercolor painter better known for her involvement with the Symbionese Liberation Army. She was born in a World War II-era California internment camp, and raised in Japan and California's Central Valley. She encountered and became involved in radical politics during her last year of art college as a result of meeting Willie Brandt, founder of the Revolutionary Army in Berkeley, California.
Gallery
Wikipedia
Rumor has it that she is teaching out at the Hamilton Rec Center in Japantown, but I have not been able to confirm.
Reception for Cafe Seventy8 Show
This Saturday
Nov 09
5 - 7 pm
Paint It Red
Lipstick. Strawberry Frappuccino. Pirate booty. Navajo rugs. British Redcoats. They’re all connected. A tiny shriveled bit of matter gives them all their distinctive and highly desirable red color. And, although it had a name, until the microscope was invented, nobody outside Mexico knew what that little dried thing called Cochineal really was.
Cochineal, the Wonder Bug
Watercolor Techniques
At least I feel that way. I set myself a goal this week—I wanted to learn a few new watercolor painting techniques because I feel like when I contemplate working in watercolor, I only know the “first gear” approaches.
3 Watercolor Techniques
Creative Resources
E-book for artists, designers and photographers. This is an amazing list of online resources for many, if not all, of your artistic interests.
Ultimate Resource Guide for Creatives
Thank you, Pam
Jesse's Open Studio
Sanchez Studio Artists' Open Studios, which will begin with a Preview Party on Friday, Nov 2, from 6 to 9 pm, and continue on Saturday, Nov 3, from 11 am to 5 pm. Twenty-seven artists will open their studios. Come meet the artists, see their studios, and browse the artworks, which include painting, printmaking, jewelry, encaustic, sculpture, photography, textiles, and mixed media.
Sanchez Art Center is located at 1220 Linda Mar Blvd, about a mile east of Highway 1.
How To Improve Your Composition
Since this is the main topic of our Tuesday group, I thought you all would be interested in one way to look at how you might be able to work on a painting that you are just does not satisfy you.
This is using a landscape painting as an example, and acrylic as the medium, but it has very useful information for all types of watercolor paintings, as well.
In this video critique, Bob Davies (from the Art Tutor blog) makes adjustments to a acrylic landscape by Cliff Roper to help improve composition. With a number of useful tips, this video will help you to understand how best to lead the viewer's eyes through your painting.
Member Artwork Critique: How To Improve Your Composition
Drawing Inks
"Good, old-fashioned drawing ink from our iconic little bottles. Fast-drying, water resistant and transparent - they can be used with a brush, dip pen or airbrush. We've created 26 colours, including Liquid Indian Ink - a water-based solution of traditional Chinese stick ink. All the colours are intermixable and you can overlay different colours for new effects and shades."
A nice color chart to have handy!
Drawing Inks from Winsor & Newton
Keiko Tanabe and Thomas Schaller
Here Schaller and Tanabe share their experiences and understandings of watercolor supplies – the essential quartet of paper, pencil, pigment and brush – and unpack a bit of the magic and mystery behind how they put the four together for their own perfect mix.
How They Choose Their Watercolor Supplies
Create Wildlife Paintings
Wildlife PaintingsArtists with an interest in creating wildlife paintings can take heed of this focus and spend quality time observing their environment and recording it with any and all materials that call to them. In fact it might be your natural world and how you interpret it with your materials that could lead you to your next breakthrough in terms of your art materials.
Wildlife Paintings with 6 Tips
Artists and Their Studios
Imagine visiting the most intimate interiors of 125 artists from all four corners of the world! Enjoy this eclectic and truly global mix of artists and their studios, organized geographically starting with the artist of North America, and take note of how you can visit for yourself all these extraordinary studios and workplaces where artists lived and created!
Here is an article about it: 125 Artists and Their Historic Studios
PBS has a series about this called:
Historic Artists' Homes and Studios
Check it out. Thank you ArtistsNetwork.
How To Paint Daisies In Watercolour
This tutorial from Sian Dudley focuses on a question she gets asked a lot as an artist...
- How to create textural marks
- Blending
- Different ways to use the brush to create effects
- Using masking fluid
- What materials to use
How To Paint Daisies In Watercolour
Light it Up
Celebrating Light and Dark
For those of us who love visual drama in painting, an explosion of color against darkness creates an almost entrancing effect and draws in your eye. This contrast of light and dark is one of the powerful ways to bring attention to your focal point. The viewer’s eye will follow this contrast, helping to draw his or her eye into your art in a similar way fireworks keep us looking up at the sky.
Contrast
Black Goes with Everything
Many art instructors advise their students to avoid using black altogether, as it can easily overpower a painting, but the color has been essential to art since humans first started making marks. It was one of the first colors used in cave paintings, with charcoal being among the easiest media to produce.
Black Goes with Everything
Thank you, Artist Network
Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours
A recreation of the original 1821 color guidebook with new cross references, photographic examples, and posters designed by Nicholas Rougeux. Check out the examples of where these colors are found in nature.
Nomenclature of Colours
Thank you, Pam
The Murky History of the Colour Yellow
Indian Yellow was created by a process that allegedly restricted cows to a diet of mango leaves, leaving them in a state of near starvation. Kelly Grovier looks at the masterpieces which used the pigment.
I have recently read an article in the NewYorker that questions the veracity of the mistreated-animal origin of this pigment. It may have been a romantic story to create marketing interest.
Indian Yellow
Thank you, Marlene
Birgit's Corner
Traveling w/Art Supplies from Birgit O'Connor
Simplifying your supply list also helps.
Traveling w/Art Supplies from Birgit O'Connor
Thank you, Pam
“You can create wonderful magical paintings
by simplifying the composition.“ Birgit O’Connor
A very timely quote. Thank you,Marjorie
Winsor & Newton Masterclass Collection
A great resource for all kinds of product information, including the following one on mixing primaries and why it can produce mud and not the wonderful color you were going for.
Winsor & Newton Masterclass Collection
Jake Winkle
Watercolour paintings should be bold and translucent! Known for his dramatic wildlife and horse racing watercolours, Jake Winkle captures both of these qualities as he paints subjects from overseas and also nearer to his home, in Dorset. His enthusiasm for watercolour painting is infectious and inspired as he constantly searches for new and exciting ways to render his subject, direct and uncluttered - with passion and energy!
Winkle Art Gallery-3
8 Best Podcasts for Artsts
Some artists work in a busy studio with other people chatting, some like to work with their favorite music playing to help get in the flow, some like to create art while the brain is being entertained by information, novel thoughts and ideas.
8 Best Podcasts for Artsts
This is my favorite: The Lonely Palette
This post is from a great site called the Color Lovers Club. It has all sorts of pertinent tidbits that may interest you. Some product endorsement included, but pretty benign.
We love art of all kinds, especially watercolor painting, digital illustration and anything that is bright and fun.
Color Lovers Club
Etchr Art Satchel
This is for the lovers of all things organized and flexible and beautifully made. Price-y, to be sure.
Art Satchel
Etchr Art Satchel Function Demo
Composition Guide by Phil Starke
This is a printable, online PDF of some composition ideas. Heads up - there is promo nudges but it covers some basics.
Composition Guide
Thank you, Pam
How To Paint Windows
"
There's a lot of detail to choose from but rather than including everything, I'm focusing on the arched window and in particular the counter-change created by the shadows from the shutters onto the window itself."
How To Paint Windows in Watercolour
Julie Karlsson and Daniel Smith / Seas and Skies
I found this article interesting because of of the tip at the end: If you ever need to reclaim lost white highlights, try using a fine tipped paintbrush loaded with Titanium White Watercolor Ground! A tiny bit of water can be added as needed to make it easier to apply those fine lines. You can also paint more watercolor over the Titanium White Watercolor Ground!
Daniel Smith Watercolors for Seas and Skies
The Focal Point in Art
The focal point isn’t just wherever the eye chooses to see. In paintings, we don’t want the eye to just choose to see what it wants to look for. On the contrary, it’s the painter’s responsibility to direct the eye, to orchestrate its movement within the painting through the usage of linear paths. After the artist has manipulated the viewer, they reward them using some or all of the these elements mentioned.
8 Ways to Create a Focal Point
The Color of Music
Kandinsky believed abstract painting was the best way to replicate the melodic, spiritual and poetic power found in music. He spent his career applying the symphonic principles of music to the arrangement of color notes and chords.
Using principles of music to advance composition and color
The Rare Blue the Mayans Invented
During colonisation native materials like Maya blue and cochineal were exploited along with every other resource of the land and its people in the New World.
Mayan Blue
Strathmore - Toned Blue Mixed Media Pads
I have not tried this paper, but thought it might interet some of you. I tend to tone my own paper, to get the exact color I want, but it would be a challenge to work with pre-toned paper.
This is some of the blurb: "Introducing the new Strathmore steel blue mixed media pads. This beautiful mid-toned paper is designed specifically for use with light and dark media. The paper is manufactured to withstand both dry and wet media like watercolor, gouache and acrylic."
Video - Toned Blue Mixed Media Demo with Artist Minnie Small
Using Just 8 Colours by Bob Davies
Pam has been playing around with this palette, so if she thinks it worthy of attention, it must have value. From reading the list, it looks like it is working the warm/cool hues.
Ultramarine Blue
Pthalo Blue (Green Shade) or Prussian Blue or Monestial Blue
Cadmium Red or Vermillion or Scarlet Lake
Permanent Rose or Alizarin Crimson or Quinacridone Rose
Cadmium Yellow or New Gamboge
Lemon Yellow or Cadmium Yellow Light
Burnt Umber or Burnt Sienna
Yellow Ochre or Raw Sienna
This is the link to the post: Achieve amazing watercolour paintings using just 8 colours.
Everyday Objects Perfect for Mixed Media Artists
This article is right up my alley. I am always on the lookout for mark making objects and here are some good ideas. There is a book promo for more info, but the article has enough examples to stir the adventurer in you.
Common Tools and Found Objects for Mixed Media Art
Tyrus Wong
I have posted about this artist before, but just came across his book, called Water to Paper, Paint to Sky. I don't keep a lot of books around, Google and the library fill most of my needs. But he is one of my favorite artists and wanted to share him with you, again. If you Google image his name or the name of his book, you will see wonderful pictures of his art.
This is just a sample:
This is a great video about him:
Remembering "Bambi" artist Tyrus Wong
After retirement, he built some wonderful, whimsical kites that he flew in Santa Monica.
Art Studio Playlists
Artists Magazine asked readers to suggest songs for the entire creative process, whether you’re warming up creativity or winding down from a seriously productive painting session. And their recommendations did not disappoint.
Get ready to add some new tunes to your art studio playlists. But be warned, artists, some of these may just get stuck in your head! Enjoy!
Songs for Your Creative Process
When the Rules Don't Work for You - Break Them
Eric Wiegardt on Breaking Composition Rules
Rules of composition and the theorizing that often goes with it are rigid and not all that helpful. Because the rules never seemed to fit his watercolor painting at hand, Wiegardt devised a simple process for evaluating his paintings that has worked well for him over the years and a way to focus in on an area of dominance to assure you catch a viewer’s attention.
Breaking Composition Rules
Thank you, Artist Network, for both links.
Pastels At the Goat
Angus McEwan
Artist, Lecturer, Curator
"I love watercolours vibrancy, its matt quality, its ability to dry quickly and its calligraphic quality as well as the capacity to allow me to express myself clearly in the manner that suits my personality. "
Angus McEwan
Painting All Things Seascape
"Art hacks for all things seascape to assure every artist smooth sailing and no need for an SOS signal of any kind, from alternative brushes and the tropics in a glass."
There is a promo for a workshop at the end of the article, but some fun things before that.
Art Hacks for Smooth Sailing
20 Art Inspiration Ideas for Creativity
How to Overcome Artist's Block
It is not an unusual experience for an artist’s imagination or creativity to dry up. To bring inspiration back into your practice, you will need a lot of persistence and a willingness to play within new boundaries. Doing creative exercises, taking workshops, travel, seeing new places, starting some new research or applying to a residency can all help. At the end of the day, you just need to keep at it.
How to Overcome Artist's Block
10 Ways to Stop Artist’s Block
Whether you’re not feeling inspired, worrying that a piece isn’t going to be good enough, or just can’t think of anything to draw, we’ve all had creative block before. We get it during work projects, when we just want to draw for fun, when we’re writing posts about it (ahem…) Ahh, yes: the creative struggle is very real. But the biggest mistake we can make with creative block is to let it get to us.
10 Ways to Stop Artist’s Block
WORLD WATERCOLOR MONTH
World Watercolor Month is a national holiday to inspire people to paint with watercolor while raising awareness for the importance of art and creativity in the world. This celebration is also a benefit for The Dreaming Zebra Foundation! You can also join us in celebrating by donating watercolor supplies to support underprivileged young artists worldwide! With your help, we can provide much needed support for kids in need. Visit www.worldwatercolor.com to learn more!
