February 2010
7 posts
Good bye Casein, Hello watercolor
I finished the last casein in my industrial architecture group — I could have developed this one further but I like it at this point. And I took the picture with my phone and now can see how much better my camera is for this! I can really tell the difference.
I set this piece aside to breathe, swept the floor and petted Smooch, then went directly over to the watercolor table. It was a...
Finishing
I’ll punch up a few areas of this painting but it is nearing completion. The orange board below is the underpainting for the next piece. I put a couple of thin coats of casein on the board before starting my drawing.
Casein is such a slow medium for me. It seems that the physical painting takes a long time and that I do more pondering before I paint. I’m comparing to watercolor...
Why do we do what we do?
I’m continuing to develop this painting. It’s interesting how photographing these pieces at the end of each painting session is helpful. It’s a little strange to see them midway like this away from the drawing table, but not a totally bad thing.
One of the most telling decision an artist makes is their subject matter - or choice of no subject matter. I can only speak from my...
A new casein
I’m sticking with the old sugar mill subject. The plan is to do the exterior and two interiors of this old structure in Louisiana, so this is painting number two. We visited this wonderful building a couple of years ago but it didn’t seem like an interesting subject for watercolor - I’ve been waiting till I “got to it” with casein.
This is the first day of...
Such as it is...
I thought I was basically finished with this today but I’ll probably work on it a few hours tomorrow. And I shouldn’t. It is what it is and it’s time to move on! I still have a nagging belief that there is is a way to improve this piece or make it work better -so I’m sure I”ll tinker with it tomorrow. I think I need to focus on big block areas and the overall...
Picky picky
I think I’ve figured out what my problem is with this piece. Large block shapes that are only made interesting with lots of picky icky detail. For me, the large shapes should hold the viewers attention without the help of tiny lines and realistic detail. And I should have realized this before I started this piece - in fact, I knew I had selected a marginal subject. A flat subject with...
I don't have a clue....
I don’t have a clue where this painting is going! This one could very definitely tank - I’m preparing myself for that. Feeling my way along and probably working too cautiously is not helping matters. I guess the fact that I’m aware of that is a good thing. So there! I got the self doubt out of my system. One of the things I’ve had to learn is to not take myself too...