Chitty Chitty Bang Bang WIP2

I can't decide whether I am happy with this so far or not. I guess I'll just press on and see how it turns out.

 I have used the same sequence of glazes to create the table top as I used for the background. The 7 or so layers of glazing were applied wet on wet over the reflection detail. This helped to soften the reflections, flatten them slightly and unify them with the table.

Because of the amount of glazing its very hard to get an accurate photo. As usual the camera just seems to latch onto one of the colours used and a lot of photoshopping is needed to get the photo looking even remotely like what the painting looks like in real life. This is the best I can do at this stage. The background is more like the photo in my last post and there is a little more warmth in the table.

Ona

It`s an upside down world!

With the background completed I began painting the  car reflections on the table today working upsidedown (the painting that is not me). It was easier this way to see where and what everything was. It`s a weird angle but makes much more sense especially when I havent yet painted the real car to put the reflection into some sort of perspective. In fact both Alex and the car are hidden under layers of making tape and fluid to keep the paper clean while I finish the reflections and then paint the table.

I thought, for some fun, I`d show you my progress on the painting as I have been staring at it all day.  Yes...Upsidedown!!!

 

I will paint in Alexander`s reflection next and then use glazing to finish the table while helping to soften the reflections. Then I can turn the painting the right way up again.

Ona

...and all because I had this spare frame...

If you remember I had to buy a frame locally for the MEH!! painting because the one I had ordered over the web had not been shipped in time. It has now arrived so, with a spare frame to hand I thought carefully about what I could paint to fit it. I wanted to choose a subject for the painting that not only fitted the frame colour scheme and size wise but also one in which I could have the opportunity to experiment with glazing to create different effects again.

My inspiration for this painting came from an old photo of my son playing with a bright yellow car that he fondly named 'Chitty' after seeing the stage musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. This is a quick snap shot of me adding the final details to the drawing on the watercolour paper. The paper is flat on the table hence the slightly strange persective but it gives you an idea of the size of the painting which is about 24 by 15 inches.

In my reference photo I loved how both the car and Alexander were reflected in our coffee table and it was this that gave me the idea for the title of this painting to be... as both Alex and his reflection stare dreamingly at the car I can almost hear them thinking  'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, we love you!'

Ona

Finished Painting

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull this one off this morning. I had a drastic change of thought regarding the composition. I wasn't happy with the man in the painting. It just felt too cluttered having him there. It also meant that that lovely shaft of smoky light falling onto the chair and surrounding area was partly hidden so I decided to remove him. I'm much happier with the overall effect now and VERY glad that my experiment is finished.

I've made a couple of close ups so you can see the effect created more easily. Firstly the smoky upper section of the painting where I used mostly blues to help accentuate that feeling of height and distance.

secondly the woman crouching by the fire, enjoying its warmth while quietly waiting for the men to return.

I haven't a clue what to call this one. Any ideas?

Ona

Long House WIP 6

  

  It's been slow going over the last few days but the painting is beginning to take shape. I have a little more work to do on the basket next to the chair but other than this I just have the fireplace and people left to paint. Its so hard to get a true reflection of the painting on the screen. Some of the smoky atmosphere is lost in the photo above and the colours are slightly off but I hope you get the idea. Multiple glazes really help to create distance and atmosphere but its so hard to photograph.

Ona

Long House WIP 5

After a few days rest from this while I was sorting out the frame for the NWWS exhibition painting it was good to be able to pick up the brushes again.

I've now finished the background of the long house. Missionaries who visited these long houses often wrote about how dark and smoky the interior of these dwellings were. I wanted to capture that smoky, dimly lit atmosphere so the painting is much darker and more smoky than my reference photo. These traditional buildings were windowless structures between 25 and 30 metres long and six to nine metres wide and high. They were made of poles bent over to form an arbour, which was then covered with bark and saplings. There were low doors at each end and holes in the roof which let smoke out and light in. There were usually three fires in each long house so they would often get extremely smoky. Indeed the smoke often caused eye disease among the old.

I think I am going to paint in the floor of the building next.

Ona

Framed and Ready!

I thought you would like to see the painting "MEH!!" now that it is framed and ready to be sent to the NWWS 71st Annual Open Exhibition.

It has been a stressful week as the frame I had originally ordered had not arrived. I phoned the company and discovered that it had not even been shipped! So yesterday I found a very helpful local supplier Framing Depot who cut the frame to size as I waited. Thank you Framing Depot.

Tomorrow the painting will be packaged up and shipped to Mercer Island WA. The exhibition opens on March 21st and runs through to May 12th.

Ona

Long House WIP 4

Working on this is so exciting. As I add in the grasses and furs and then wash over with the final couple of glazes I am loving the effect that is being created. It's so difficult to capture on the screen the really musty smoky feel that is appearing on the paper. I think this is because on the screen the light is shining from behind which seems to sharpen the image rather than blur it but I hope you get the idea from the photo above.

I am so pleased with how effective glazing is for creating smoky atmospheres and receeding objects further into the background. If you look closely on the left hand side of the photo, you can see that I have completed the furs and grasses in this section. However, I have only laid down the first wash of two on the hanging curved reed. As a result the rope-like reed looks far further forward than the hanging grass, where in reality it is behind it. A couple more washes on this section should do the trick.

I am making the whole scene duskier than in my ref photo because I am planning to not have the extra light shining through the doorway so the light shining through the ceiling and upper window is accentuated thus increasing the smoky atmosphere of the painting...well thats my plan. Fingers crossed I can put the idea I can see in my head onto the paper.

Ona

Long House WIP 3

 The background of this scene is now basically finished. I will need to do a couple more washes in certain areas to bring some of the furs and grasses into the smokey haze once they are painted, especially around the top grasses which will darken the mid top section a little more but other than this the basic atmosphere is created.

 As a whole the process went quite smoothly. There are some things I would do differently if I painted it again (more in the creation rather than altering the final effect) but thats all part of the learning experience isn't it. Glazing certainly works well for creating a smoky atmosphere. I'm really pleased with the effect. I need to do a bit of tidying up now before I begin to put in the grasses, furs, pillars and curtained doorway.

Ona

Using Glazing to Accentuate Distance and Height!

I'm progressing slowly with the background of the long house but I'm learning so much as I paint.

My hypothesis that a glazing technique can be used to help push things into the background or give depth or height to a scene is working well. Basically the further away something is the more glazes you put on after the detail. The closer an object is the more glazes you do before the detail with maybe only a wash or two after.  Glazing over detail helps to soften the edges and blur which helps our minds to read this as further away. Using colour helps too. I have used warm yellows and browns close to us and blues further away. Using these techniques this is how far I have reached as of this evening.

I thought you would like to see how effective this glazing technique is so I took an 'in progress' photo earlier today when I had finished the detailing on the whole of the ceiling section I have been working on but had only painted the 5 or so layers of glazing on half of the section.

Can you see how on the unglazed section the beams appear far further forward than on the glazed section? Also compare the two photos and see how the whole area recedes into the background and develops much more of a feeling of height once the layer of glazing is complete. It also helps to evoke a misty/smoky feel.

I have the really smoky/sunlit section to do next. This is such fun.


Ona

Using Glazing for Effect!

Many people have asked how I paint skin so smooth and silky while using multiple colours to create form, depth, light and shade.

The trick?

 I use multiple wet on damp glazes. As you build up each successive glaze the features underneath, or the underpinning as it is technically called, softens creating the smooth skin. I use the technique too for soft clothing and to soften clothing edges on the darker side. After the skin tone glazes are finished I can then add detail on top in the areas I want the focus to be. 

  In my last painting of Grandpa I wanted to find out if I could use this technique on the front of the engine to help merge it a little into the background. Once I had finished painting it I wet the whole area, engine, background and table and added a glaze of sepia. Once it was dry I repeated with a glaze of perylene green and finally a very light glaze of indigo sepia mix. The resulting effect was just what I had hoped for, the front of the engine seemingly merging into the background. Its features could still be seen but the overall effect was much softer thus drawing our attention back to Grandpa and the area of the engine that he was working on.

 I now want to see how far I can take this technique and what different effects I can create. Can I create a misty, smoky effect? Can I use it to accentuate the feeling of height and distance? Can it really be used as a tool for atmospheric effect whilst helping to draw our attention to our centre of interest? I think it will work and this is why I feel as if I am standing in that doorway to an even more excitingly expressive watercolour world. 

 I spent about 6 hours masking a lot of the detail in the painting before I added about 4 glazes for the background  using Indian Red, Winsor Blue (red shade) and Cerulean Blue to help establish the lights and darks in the painting. Now I’ve just taken all the masking fluid off! This is the painting as it is now with the first few washes laid down and the masking fluid removed.

Now I can begin my exploration of layering washes to create different effects. I’ll explain more about the layering process and my discoveries as I work through the various stages of this painting. 

Ona

Breaking out of your Comfort Zone!

Learning and growing, stretching beyond your comfort zone, that’s how we grow as artists. It’s great to paint what you know, what you feel comfortable with, but it’s all too easy to get into a rut, to churn out the same stuff over and over again.

 I made a vow when I began to paint seriously, always to learn something new, however small, each time I did a painting. It might be mixing certain colours more effectively, it might be strengthening my ability to use tonal ranges, it might be trying a new form of composition, it might be (dare I say it) learning when it’s a good time to break the rules. I’ve worked on using light more effectively, not putting detail in everything (well not so much detail-grin) I’ve worked on big washes, creating pattern or smoothness… the list goes on. I am by no means expert on any of these and will need to revisit them frequently to continue to grow but since I began I know I have improved.

Being an artist is like embarking on an exciting journey into the unknown. Every day there are some things that you know will happen and you are to an extent prepared for them, but there are many, many challenges that you need to overcome too. Being positive and not being overwhelmed by the journey is as vital as is having fun along the way and being prepared to explore new techniques and ideas. 

In the last painting I began playing with a technique that I have used many, many times before in portraiture but haven’t really explored its possibilities to the fullest in other areas. I have to say I only really dabbled with it in the last painting but as I did it felt like I had found a new doorway in my journey and if I had the courage I could pass through this door to an even more exciting watercolour world.

I would say I am hovering in this open doorway just now eager to explore but also anxious to know if I can rise to this new level successfully. There is only one way to find out… so for my next painting I have decided to push myself to the limits to see how far I can take it.

I don’t often do scenes, not because I don’t like painting them but because to paint I have to feel some emotional connection to the subject, something that tells a story to me or conveys a mood. I’ve had this reference photo on my ‘to do’ list for a couple years now and this seems like the golden opportunity to paint my version of it. 

So I’m breaking out of my comfort zone and stepping through the doorway into this new world. I am ready and eager to explore how far I can take this technique, what works and what doesn’t and how I can use it effectively to create the atmosphere I can see in my mind for this painting.

I’ve kept the basic background fairly true to the photo in my outline but have decluttered and added my own foreground interest that, to me, better evokes the mood I want to create. Its drawn out on a full sheet because I want to practice the techniques at this size but I am treating it as a practice piece and just seeing how it turns out. Its great to just take the pressure off now and again, explore and not worry too much about the outcome.

I hope you will enjoy following me in my journey.

Ona

NWWS 71st Annual Open Exhibition Acceptance!

I know... second entry in one day... but I just had to share some exciting news with you all!

My painting 'MEH!!' has been juried into the North West Watercolor Society 71st Annual Exhibition. If you want to see who else has been juried in, have a look here. I am so pleased I just had to share my news with you all. I hope that those of you in the North west of the US will be able to visit the exhibition when it opens.

Ona

Grandpa

I had mixed feelings when I finished the painting this morning. In one respect I was sad because I have really enjoyed painting it and listening to James tell us all about his times with Grandpa  but I was glad too that it was complete and that I was able to transfer the image and feelings that were in my mind onto the paper .  The quote "To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die" (Thomas Campbell) is so true. Grandpa certainly lives on in James's heart and I think all of ours now. He certainly was a master craftsman and engineer.

There is such focus and concentration on Grandpa’s face. …For this moment in time the rest of the world does not exist. It is just him and his model engine as he puts the finishing touches to its creation before lighting its tiny fire for the first time.

Ona

Grandpa WIP 6

Its taking me a while to paint the traction engine. Its by no means technically accurate but I do want to convey a feel of the complexity of the Allchin and the skill and attention to detail that has gone into making it and keeping it in good working order. I'm having to change the lighting on the engine from the reference photo so this is taking more thought too but its gradually appearing on the paper. I hope Grandpa would be forgiving of my mistakes. The photo I am working from is very grainy.

Hopefully I will finish in the next couple of days.

Any ideas for a title?

Ona