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”

Thursday, July 14, 2011

ALL MIXED UP - 1

This painting began with a photo from the local farm show.
I cropped and enlarged the photo, traced and then reworked the drawing and went over my lines, let it sit for a few days to review, making a few adjustments here and there and then finally began painting!  
My final drawing, taped to a plastic board.
In the next photo I have wet the entire paper and dropped some colors onto the wet paper, allowing them to float around, generally in the areas that will ultimately be those colors.  Note how the paper is buckling and you might be able to see a shine - I get my paper really wet at this point.


The next photo shows the paper the next day - you can see that allowing it to dry naturally overnight allows the paper to shrink back down and get flat.  Essentially I "stretch" my paper this way, but without the soaking and stapling, and with getting my first light washes onto the painting.  The key is to ALLOW THE PAINTING TO DRY NATURALLY - no hair dryers!  This usually will take an overnight wait.
The next photo shows the beginning of the paint application - I usually begin pretty light and, as I say  "sneak up on the color"!

The next couple of posts will show the progression of the painting.

7 comments:

Christiane Kingsley said...

Thank you so much, Deb, for sharing those progression photos! Do you tape/staple the paper once you start your painting, after the initial natural stretching that you mention?

Carol Blackburn said...

OK now Deb, that would totally mess with my mind trying to sort this one out to paint all the individual components. I am in awe!

Nancy Van Blaricom said...

OMG, makes me dizzy just thinking about me painting a challenge like this ... having said that I know you love a good watercolor challenge and will make this painting shine like the rest of your work. Can't wait to see the finished results.

Maria Kovalenko Leysens said...

Nice to see your process. I enjoy getting reference from local farm and stem engine shows... but I do people. Some are old and worn, full of character, use and knowledge, like you images too.

debwardart said...

Christiane - the paper was taped down in this instance - it will remain taped down until I'm finished with the painting. Once the paper dries and flattens out, I then just paint.
Carol - so glad you are in awe!! (ha,ha)
Nancy - please don't mention the word "dizzy" around me!! It was actually very zen-like and - hold onto your hat - relaxing!!!
Thanks, Maria - you are quite good. How nice that you are able to teach.

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

I love the idea of you sneaking up on your washes with fresh new colour! Thanks for the WIP - your technqiue is very inspirational and something I'd like to put into practice one day to help get the wet on wet effect of painting outside the line.

debwardart said...

Joan - I'm a sneaky little thing!! Glad you like the WIP and can learn from it.