Okay, Edward is "Da Man" and I am learning from the best. I learned a ton doing this study of his work. I have included both pictures, as a reference so that I can see my improvements and the glaring mistakes too, Edward Seago's painting (digitally framed). What a wonderful, clean, "not" overworked painting. I chose to make just a few changes that I did not like. His brush strokes on the right hand, bottom side I did not care for in the water. My eye was led to them and I decided to remove them. I also removed the white triangle "thing" in the middle since I had no idea what it was. A sail on a sailboat?
My Cons: 1. The cabin doors. I blew it, what can I say? 2. Overworked sky. I screwed up the top left cobalt sky color. I should have done a complete underpainting below the clouds on the top right too. 3. The cabin shadow, not so much. 4. The background trees are a smidge too dark. My Pros: 1. This is the first painting I have done that I did not have a supporting video to go along with it. I was very excited about that! 2. I'm making great headway on mixing colors. 3. My shadow across the road is a little weak but I still like it. I am fairly satisfied with the turn out! Time to find my next Seago study. I so look forward to it!!!
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I have been having a lot of fun lately watercolor painting. If you stop by here often I do appreciate it!
My latest artist studies have been of Edward Seago and Edward "Ted" Wesson. Two of the most renowned watercolor artists. I have been studying articles about their limited watercolor palettes and how I am working towards using the same paints as they did. Including W & N paints. If it was good enough for them then it is good enough for me. I am noticing more and more that some current artists only use W & N paints. I am not ready to decide on my brushes yet. This is the Hopkins one step program. Forget trying to accomplish twelve of them! Below is how I have my painting desk set up. It is very convenient to paint a stage; hit number four on the overhead fan and walk away to take a break and clear the mechanism. My paintings are coming out to my liking. I have thrown a few away too, but usually I just cut them up into strips of paper to use on the side of a painting to color match what I am wanting. Here's my setup. If you have any questions about any hardware then please ask! I have spent a lot of time researching everything that I am currently using. I was introduced to Edward Seago by Edo Hannema, a YouTube artist and great teacher. He performs great works of art and did a study of Seago's "Dyke" painting. Edo used paper similar to my effort, it was not very rough, so it was difficult to get the same effects that Seago was able to achieve. But, I wanted to paint this painting and I plan on painting it again after I have more time under my belt using watercolors. I loved the color contrasts that Seago presented us with. The colors I painted do not match his colors but I liked the contrast of the orange and blue complimentary colors. The edges are way to sharp throughout the painting. I tried really hard to get dry brush strokes but the Lanaquarelle cold press paper would not pull it off for me. I enjoyed painting this painting. I look forward to giving it another effort later on! Edward Seago (March 31, 1910 – January 19, 1974),
I used 11 x 15 Lanaquarelle cold press paper. I wouldn't suggest doing it this way unless you want to take someones work (Copyright free of course) and modify it to your taste. Which is what I did to this painting a month ago. I painted before I left to Reno and completely forgot about it until I came home. I think I was being too hard on myself after I got done painting it. I like the painterly colors now and how it is not as realistic as some of my other attempts. I hope you like it! I have recently found a wonderful app to frame my paintings with for use on-line. Yes, the image above is a digital frame around my an image of my painting! Amazing huh?
Okay, I am not hooked on phonetics, but I think I am hooked on watercolors. It finally had to happen and I had to ignore my inner voice saying "that's not really painting!". Last month, I took a break from everything and started to look at master watercolor paintings done by current artists... OMG! The main artist that did it for me was Chien Chung Wei. He is from Taiwan and is already world renowned and young too. Look him up on Google images. You "will" be impressed! I have already started seeing good results from my work and that has me excited. I need a "FTW" moment, all the time, instead of this artist "failure syndrome" that has been creeping up onto me. Watercolor, right now is working for me and I have put all the other mediums away in the closet. I may come back, but I may not. THAT is why watercolor has me hooked. I am stimulated by it! Here is a quick 5 x 7 matted painting I cranked out and "it was fun!" I am now on a different course of my journey and will be sure to post more results as I get them matted!
I don't get it? I am no professional and I think over time if I "just focus on watercolor painting" I might get the hang of it.
I discovered the idea of of stretching watercolor paper over stretched canvas and that curators consider this good for showing in galleries. They also like it when you use Dorland Wax as a sealer; instead of having to mount the watercolor art under glass. Nice! Here is my latest. Not that good but it is starting to sink in a little bit. I used Strathmore Mixed Media board. No stretching required. I plan on doing this same painting again on Arches Cold Press 140 to compare the two papers. Here it is. Be gentle! Oil paints. Such fun. Yes, I have a hint of negative there. I failed miserable yesterday and I am tired of beating my head against the wall. Time for some trust-worthy water color painting. Now, that is happy!
Okay... I watched the YouTube video of the lady who had a rag soaked in Linseed oil; that she folded up and put in the corner of her garage. Four hours later, her garage burned down because of the rag. Is it time to rethink through this oil painting "thing"... Again? Once I do all of the leg work behind figuring out a solution to side step the fire danger (and safe solvent free paints) I will do a complete post on how I can continue to paint with oil and have come up with a solution. Watercolor painting and digital water color painting is looking mighty fine right now. Don't get me started on using acrylics that dry in a minute. * Update: read this document to help get good ideas, immediately: www.dfes.wa.gov.au/safetyinformation/fire/fireinthehome/FireintheHomeFactsheets/DFES-Home-Fire-Safety-Info-Note-Spontaneous-Combustion.pdf Okay. No more excuses to not paint with oil paints. Here is the quick, easy way (less time and healthy too!) to clean your brushes after you are done painting. A picture paints a thousand words: Jar #1: 100% Coconut Oil. Jar#2: 50% Coconut Oil, 50% Laundry Detergent you use to wash your clothes. Jar #3: 50% Laundry Detergent, 50% Water. 1. Swish the brushes in each jar (my jars have metal grates in them) by using jar #1, #2, and then #3. 2, After you feel like all of the paint is no longer being pressed out of the brush in jar #3: 3. Rinse the brush with water in the sink. If need be; use a quick amount of brush cleaning soap to put life back into the brush. Hopefully it has a conditioner in it to keep the brushes soft. That is it! It took me seven minutes to clean the eight brushes pictured above. And, the oil did not get all over the place because the cleaning happened inside of the jars. Nice! After some experimentation I have come up with the same "basic" colors that Kathleen uses (Rembrandt Oils) using acrylic paints. It seems the winner is Winsor & Newton Professional Acrylics. The photo below shows Atelier Interactives, Golden Open, Rembrandt Oils, and Winsor & Newton Professional acrylics. I think in person, that the W & N paint swatches are the closest to the Rembrandt paints that Kathleen uses. It is not exact but good enough for mixing. I am going to stick with acrylics right now (because of clean up ease). I need to get my mixing skills down and that is far easier to do using acrylics. Both oils and acrylics perform the same way when mixing. And, because acrylics shift in color after drying this will mean I have to focus on value mixing even closer. The photo below shows the tube for tube match up of W & N and Rembrandt paints. |
Robert HopkinsThanks for stopping by! Archives
May 2019
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