Views: 3654....USA & Canada.

Hi...again the Intermediate Class has faced a photo challenge. Even though there aren't many paintings represented...the quality is superior. 

They had a choice of a Seascape Photo to work from or they could work from an actual Still Life that I set up. 

Thank you Painters.
 Enjoy.

Colette:

Watercolor

Watercolor

John:

Watercolor

Mary:

Watercolor...(rough texture)

Mary's paintings done during class:

Watercolor

Watercolor....Crater Lake area
(sorry for the glass glare)

Student Art:

Patty:

Patty is in my Beginning Watercolor Class. She has painted before and knows a lot about it...she just needed to get reintroduced and gain more confidence. 
We were studying oceans and below is her painting. 

In watercolor, the painter must reserve the whites of the paper to have any white showing in the finished painting....there is no white pigment in watercolor. It takes planing to know where those whites are to be placed. Patty used a white crayon to resist the paint and leave the whites. She marked her watercolor paper with the crayon before putting any paint on her paper. Masking fluid, candles, masking tape & crayons can be used as the resist. 

Thanks, Patty

Quote:  "Why fit in when you were born to Stand Out".  Dr Seuss.

Blog Views: This week...USA, Russia, Germany and Colombia.

Viewer Contribution: Mel McRobert is sharing a new Plein Air painting he did at the beach. I love he sent along the view photos. You might remember his other  Plein Air painting he shared with us on September 9.

He said:

" Here is a small plein air painting I did last

 weekend at the beach and the weather was great!

This was done at Nehalem Bay State Park. With this painting I premixed my

colors and started with the sky and painted down to the front.

I'm trying to learn to keep it simple and to finish under an hour. I am

happy how it turned out (but it went one hour and 40 min)."

Thank you, Mel, for sharing.

Blog Views: I added a page view count section on the right...so now you can see how many have looked at it. 

Plein Air: Below is my second attempt at painting Elk Lake Marina. I went back on a weekday and there were less people and dogs. I had all the intentions of using my support horizontally, but after a few thumbnail sketches, I decided to use it vertically. That did present some problems...it was top heavy....24" x 11" of 1/2" thick hardboard.  Since I don't use an easel with watercolors, I had to find a tree stump that was at the right height and at the right location to help hold the long heavy support.  The morning light was steamy, but the reflections were there, unlike my first visit (See Posting Sept. 7).. It was cold...it got down to 28* that night..in August..in Bend!!! Ouch....hence, my short visit.

I changed the composition by: painting only 4 boats, using a very limited palette and adding color to the boats (focal points are to have the color and the most contrast by painting the the dark water behind the boats).

Color Palette: I used only 2 colors for the main part of this painting...then added the colors for the boats. I used Joseph Zbukvic palette, but then only a few of his colors. 

Help...This is not a Test !!!   

Vote for Your Composition Preference: 

Leave a comment.

After arriving back home and looking at this painting for a few days, I decided that the composition may not be correct. It looked okay with my thumbnails. Perhaps, I painted to fast (about 30min) or when I got to the bottom half of the painting the support was harder to balance or I misjudged my composition (that's my vote)?

Below are 3 versions of cropping. Which one do you think is the best composition? Leave a comment. 

Vote for:

A...Original Painting.

B...Little cropped off the bottom.

C...All of the bottom is cropped.

                                                                              A

  

B

C

Vote...by leaving a comment (or e-mailing me).