Tag Archives: watercolour

Eraser Stamping

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….another interesting technique from Carla Sonheim’s ‘Crazy Flowers 2’ lessons

Instead of buying expensive stamps you can make stamps from kneadable erasers. Simply knead the eraser into a tube or cone shape and flatten one end till it’s about the size of a quarter. Then press the flat surface into something with texture or add marks with a pointy tool or the edge of a knife.IMG-3625
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Pick up some ink from a stamp pad and try it on a scrap piece of paper first. You can play around with ghost printing and overlapping colours.  Here is my sample sheet of flowers made using this technique.IMG-3627

The next assignment is to use all the techniques taught so far and create three small painting of abstract flowers.

Pattern and Mark Making

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…using 12 unconventional tools

Lesson two in Carla Sonheim’s class, Crazy Flowers 2, we had to come up with 12 tools that you would not normally use in painting and use both ends of the tool to create interesting marks. Here are my 12 tools.fullsizeoutput-7b09

Then we had to create a pattern on a large sheet of watercolour paper using all 12 tools. Since both sides are being used you should end up with 24 different marks on the paper. As you can see the paper became very busy but now I have a reference for future assignments when I want to create an interesting mark for an abstract flower.fullsizeoutput-7b08

Loose Intuitive Painting

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….day 4 of Sketchbook Revival

This lesson was brought to us by Angela Fehr. Her approach to painting is to let the paint take you to the next step. It’s a very zen like experience after you lay down the first color and then let your intuition guide your next step. I used watercolour on watercolour paper. The only thing I would do differently next time is  do it on a larger piece of paper.IMG-2148

Child’s Play

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…Charlie O’Shields from Doodlewash calls colouring with paint child’s play

This is day three from Sketchbook Revival. Charlie O’Shield is trying to get us to tap into our inner child. First I sketched the flowers with my fountain pen and then I added watercolour. The goal was to use only three colours and vary the intensity with water to create a range of shades.fullsizeoutput-7790

Trying to be More Abstract

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….more difficult than I thought

I’ve done two more painting of the cliffs at Howth and I’m trying to be less rigid and looser in my approach with shapes and lines. I’m not there yet but each painting is slightly different from the first one that I attempted a couple of days ago. I’ll keep trying.

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Landscape Studies

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….trying to be less rigid on days 174 and 175

The second assignment with Anita Lehmann was to do a series of landscapes using the same elements we used for our pears. Anita is trying to get us to pull out shapes to create an abstract painting. I chose a photo that I took when I was in Ireland. We took a hike along the cliffs of Howth and I took this photo overlooking the Irish Channel.

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Here are my studies:fullsizeoutput-7524
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The following piece was my first motive painting. I realized as I was painting that I was being too finicky and that I needed to be more relaxed and loose. Some of the comments that I received were ‘You have made some great marks – i would try and go more abstract if that’s the direction you want to take in this class. Just a suggestion of rock, grass and sea..’ and ‘Your many studies become wonderful investigation of the next steps in a landscape and perhaps the mood or mark that becomes true to the concepts you wish to convey.fullsizeoutput-7522

I don’t think I’m quite there yet. I’ve done two more of the same scene that I will share with you tomorrow.

A Study of Pears

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….Days 172 and 173

In Anita Lehmanns’s class, Translating Landscapes, we had to take an object and draw and paint it eight different ways using different elements of design. We had to create a play field and create pleasing shapes while investigating the design elements shape, edges, line, texture, value, space and colour. For our eighth painting we could choose our favourite elements.

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