Deb Ward, GWS, OWS, PWS, WSI - WATERCOLOR/WATER MEDIA - My passion is teaching adult “beginners”. Weekly classes in my home; workshops; classes for Cincinnati Recreation Commission. My work is nationally recognized and published - see “Featured” on my sidebar. I’m a Signature Member of Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana state Watercolor Societies, Cincinnati Art Club, past-President of Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society. Contact info below under “Class Information”

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

CORNY

I have wanted to paint corn for years and never have been able to get what I wanted. This year I took more photos with the digital camera and finally seem to have gotten the hang of it - although I’m not sure what my neighbors thought when they saw me “up close and personal” with the local corn stalks! Perhaps they thought I was a “stalker”!!
Anyway – as you can see, this is a heck of a lot of lines!

The first step was to enlarge the photo and trace it to the paper with Saral. Then the painting was taped down to a plastic board – which I love! – purchased at either Jerry’s or ASW.





Even though there were lines traced on my watercolor paper, they had to make sense to me, so I found it best to utilize a viewfinder which I made (upper left side of photo) to go over the photo (like a grid). I carefully checked out the lines which had been traced – some lines were erased, some added – until I felt comfortable with the image. This was a process! I could only do a small area, about a half hour at a time, so it took several hours over the course of a few days. Then I let it sit upright on my drawing table so I could check it out periodically. When I was finally convinced it looked like corn (!) to me, I began the painting process.

PS:  I'll be out of town a few days and won't post again until next week - I know you will miss me!  I will try to check in from time to time, tho (gotta get my "blog fix"!)
TIP! When I use Saral, sometimes I get a lot of graphite on the paper - if I leave it on the paper it will mix in with the paint and make it look gray-ish. My solution is, after retracing all lines with a pencil, to put my paper in the stationery tub and use a sprayer - that extra graphite goes down the drain before I begin painting.  This also gives me a wet surface to begin pouring or dripping paint - then I let it sit overnight to dry and all the "peaks and valleys" flatten out, leaving a relatively smooth surface (my own version of stretching paper).

8 comments:

Vicki Greene said...

Of course we will miss you and your corny progress (I just had to say that - lol).

Chris Beck said...

Whoa!! This looks SOOOOO complex -- should be fun and challenging!!

Ann Buckner said...

What a detailed drawing and thanks for the excellent tip. I'm looking forward to seeing the stages in this one too. :)

Christiane Kingsley said...

Deb, we are going to miss you! Especially since others are probably as excited as | am to see your progress with this corn painting. It will be very intricate...and this appeals to me.
Come back soon!

Murr Brewster said...

It's amaizing.

Ginny Stiles said...

Oh Deb...I will miss you.
Hope you'll be doing something special and fun.
I always wanted to do corn but have been intimidated! Now I see why!!! OH my gosh. Can't wait to see this underway!

debwardart said...

Thanks ladies - it's good to be missed! While I won't post until next week, I'll be checking in - just gotta get my blog fix!

Deb Léger said...

Wow, this is going to be amazing! Can't wait to see more.