June 12, 2010 - Day 306

Da Vinci watercolor on 140 lb Bockingford cold press watercolor paper

I love the way this turned out. I used packing tape to mask the flower before painting the dark background. That seemed to give the petals a nice crisp edge.

June 11, 2010 - Day 305

Da Vinci watercolor on 140 lb Bockingford cold press watercolor paper

Nothing to say tonight.

June 10, 2010 - Day 304

Da Vinci watercolor on 140 lb Bockingford cold press watercolor paper

I discovered with this flower that the key to watercolor (I think) is that the fewer washes the better. I only put on 3 to 6 washes on the flower and was able to get the majority of the flower right the first time. I did the most re-touching on the yellow part of the flower.

I remember reading that in watercolor you want the white of the paper to shine through the layers of paint but I never really understood what that meant until today. Basically, the reason why some of my watercolors look flat and lifeless is because I put on so many layers of paint that the luminosity of the paper could not shine through. The effect was "muddy" and greyed colors.

June 9, 2010 - Day 303

Da Vinci watercolor on 140 lb Bockingford cold press watercolor paper

I decided today that I would continue on with "white" flowers. This peony almost worked but the light parts aren't light enough. I went much darker for the shadow areas in the beginning than I usually do but I still ended up darkening them quite a bit. Then they were too dark so I had to lift some of the color. All in all not too bad for such a complicated flower.

June 8, 2010 - Day 302

Da Vinci watercolor on 140 lb Bockingford cold press paper

I made numerous attempts today to try to create a floral painting by using controlled back-runs or "cauliflowers". I thought if I laid down a dark wash and then added drops of paint or water at the right time that it would create a floral effect. I almost succeeded with one painting but there just wasn't enough contrast. Since that didn't work I decided to just do a straightforward watercolor flower.

June 7, 2010 - Day 301

Da Vinci watercolor & Prismacolor colored pencil on
140lb Bockingford cold press watercolor paper

For the last couple of weeks I have been wanting to go back to watercolor and colored pencil paintings. Usually I would paint the watercolor first and then touch up the painting with colored pencil but today I thought that I would try something different.

I completed the sailboat first in colored pencil and added broad strokes of white colored pencil over the water area and the distant snow-capped mountains. I then applied blue washes over the colored pencil. The wax of the colored pencil acts as a resist and the paint doesn't stick to it. This worked out even better than I thought it would.

I also had a "happy accident" with the middle mountains. As I was darkening the color it created back runs or "cauliflowers" which I think look really good.

June 6, 2010 - Day 300

Ink & Watercolor on 250gsm Stonehenge 100% Cotton Vellum Paper

Day 300 is finally here and I am glad to be finished with the ink and wash. There are some paintings that turned out very nice but on a whole this isn't my favorite medium.

For the last 65 days of this project I am not going to limit myself to a specific medium or subject. One day I may decide to paint a flower in acrylics and the next day might be a still life with watercolor and colored pencil. After spending 300 days experimenting with new subjects and techniques now is the time to follow my heart and paint wherever it leads me.