Playful experimentation

Sometimes, I just like to sit down with my art supplies, and simply experiment. Usually, any paitings and drawings created in these endeavours are very loose (at least for me), and not necessarily accurate with respect to colours, shapes, proportions, shadows, etc. Just simple play and discovery.

Not long ago, I decided to test out Derwent Chromaflow pencils on Legion Lenox cotton paper. Decided to draw a simple, small cherry, since the paper I have is very tiny - you know, one of those mini pads we've all seen (about 2.5" x 3.75" in size). Liked the pencils - they reminded me very much of Prismacolor Premier in feel, but maybe a tiny bit less buttery, and more easy to smear. Liked the paper very much. I am in the market for a nice cotton paper good for colour pencil work. Unfortunately, considering the current political and economic climate, it may not be the most optimal option for me, as it is produced in United States, and I live in Canada.

Also decided to try Louise Fletcher's free Creative Reset workshop. Lots of experimentation encouraged there. So, I decided to paint something using only palette knife and a couple of silicone paint shapers, since I've never tried doing that before. I figured I'd paint an onion, since the shape is simple and easy. Well, wasn't as easy, as I thought it would be. An uphill battle of sorts, to be honest. It was a bit labour intensive to build up and spread the paint. I used Liquitex Basics, so that definitely played a role, too. Also, the hue shades sometimes don't produce results you'd expect when mixing. The onion came out looking unbelievably rustic, but I'm not mad at it. Has its charm. Reminds me of an oil pastel painting.

I also wanted to try coloured pencils on a wash of watercolour. Here, I was going for a bit of a rustic feel as well. I picked Schmincke's Horadam Aquarell super granulating colours, laid them on thick and very wet, hoping for some nice cauliflowers, but... nooooo. The paper (Canson Montval) just kept slurping up the water so quickly. No matter how much I pre-wetted it and how much, or little, water I added, and how much I directly misted it with water. Just didn't come out rustic enough. I did a light wash of colours over the onion, too. After it dried, I loosely layered Prismacolor Scholar pencils for added depth, color and detail.  It was fun to experiment with and I reminded myself that I'm really not too crazy about the Scholar pencils. But, they're ok for basic applications.

Watercolour pear

Hello! Today, I present a painting of a pear I made some time ago. I always wanted to become better at using watercolours, but found this medium to be too hard to control and unpredictable overall, especially comparing to acrylics. At first, I just tried to get a better understanding of the basics, so I enrolled in a short, yet very effective online course from Michele Webber - "Basic Watercolor Techniques." Afterwards, feeling like I could probably tackle something more complicated, yet not feeling confident in terms of painting something completely original, I decided to try one of Anna Mason's tutorials - The Pear, as I like botanical subject matter and how her paintings turn out. The fact that this tutorial was free and the painting itself did not seem too complicated was an added bonus. 

Although Anna provided a comprehensive list of needed materials and paint colours, I just used what I already had available, i.e. my own brushes, Arches Hot Pressed Watercolor paper and Roman Szmal paints.

Because I painted this a while back, and I treated it as a practice painting, I only took one 'in progress' photo of the pear:

 And here is the finished painting:

Overall, it definitely wasn't too hard, yet challenging enough for a watercolour beginner to get a satisfying learning and fun experience. 

Wishing everyone a nice day. See you in the next post.

Portrait of a young boy

Hello! Today I show a portrait of a young lad that I painted last year. Although I used a variety of acrylic paints, I mainly relied on Liquitex Basics and Golden Fluid. Although it's not very large, it took several months to complete, as I took breaks in between stages. 

Here is how I built the painting in a nutshell.
After staining the pre-stretched canvas with a diluted sienna, and transferring the main outlines onto the surface, I established the main values using Paynes Gray. Then, I lightly underpainted with orange for under skin and clothing, blue in the background, and violet for under the hair. Afterwards, I began building up the actual colors, starting with the face.

 

Here are the main colours laid out. From this point on, it's mainly fine tuning the shapes and adding in details.

 

And here it is about 75% done. At this stage, what's left are adjustments of shapes, colours, values and more glazing.

And that is that. Thank you so much for visiting. Wishing everyone a great day.