Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Koi Joy!

From my watercolor archive. 22"X30", 140lb. cold press. Painted wet- on- dry and wet-on-wet with smooth assured strokes. Water color painting is not for the bashful and timid. You need to get tight and break loose. Practice, fail, practice, fail a little less, practice and begin to succeed...not always but most of the time. Study Asian brush painting. What a medium! Look for some future watercolor posts. I'm practicing for a workshop gig next year in Reno, Nevada.

10 comments:

Autumn Leaves said...

Such gorgeous fish! Beautifully painted, David. Tight and loose? Now if that doesn't confuse the timid! LOLOL

Arti said...

This is absolutely gorgeous!Lovely darks and perfect contrast.Would love to see more of your watercolors, David.

Barbara Muir said...

Love these. How do you get those dark darks in watercolour? I had a teacher who said the dark areas are what make it. It certainly seems to be true here.

Take care,

Barbara

Meera Rao said...

Love the movement, color, the sparkling whites and dark darks! How true: 'get tight and break loose!' For me, the unpredictability/inability to control in watercolor makes it fun as well as frustrating.

Janet Belich said...

BOFO ! ;)

David Lobenberg said...

Autumn, Thank you. "Tight" meaning getting a handle on technique and "Loose" meaning using it boldly and creatively.

David Lobenberg said...

Arti, You and my wife say the same thing. I'll be posting more watercolors this month.

David Lobenberg said...

Barbara, The dark areas are made up of several wet-on-wet glazes of darkish hues.

David Lobenberg said...

Meera, you are spot on about watercolor...a medium both challenging and frustrating. I guess all mediums are like that, but with watercolor, it is almost impossible to fix mistakes.

David Lobenberg said...

Janet, we gotta bring that stage word into the lexicon of art!