We all need someone to look up to, to emulate to a certain extent...or...maybe not. I love seeing bright, rich, and a deft use of color in paintings and artists like Collin Page, Karen Jurick, and Carol Marine (they are all on my blog roll). I want to use color like them. Some artists out there, and maybe you dear reader, are already dialed in in this regard, but I, am still dialing and especially with my acrylic work. Hey, look at my history! TRUE STORY: When I was in the first or second grade, the school nurse called my parents and suggested that I might need some psychological help. Why?...because unlike the other tikes, I did all of my art in black pencil and crayon...no colors! To my parent's great credit, they blew off the nurse's advice. And by golly, how right they were, because at that young and tender age, I already knew that paintings are built upon a foundation of values, and an artist needs to know how to manipulate value! Color follows value and way, way, waaay back when I was in first (or second) grade, I instinctively knew that!
So here is another semi-sorry attempt at using color. I worked from a ref. photo I took at the Monterey Boat Works next door to the Monterey Aquarium. My colors are a hybrid of the colors I saw in the photo and some I made up. It's the making up part that I struggle with. Hmmm...maybe that school nurse was being my crystal ball into the future...I would later need counseling and training in color!
This is a recent watercolor commission painted on 140lb cold press watercolor paper. I rarely (never) stretch my paper. This entire image was painted wet (sometimes VERY WET) on dry (meaning the dry watercolor paper). I started by laying down a medium toned color of cool blue, a touch of green and brown. I used a large round sable brush. Every time, before I dip my brush into color, I dip it into clean water and shake off the excess so that it is saturated but not dripping flooded. After the preliminary cool colors dried, I laid down another glaze of dark- toned horse colors letting them all intermingle wet-on-wet. I also tilted my drafting board about forty five degree, so that after I applied the paint, the washes would RUN (see the horse's ass). Now this is what watercolor painting is all about! This is taking advantage of the transparent fluid nature of the medium. Note in the third photo (click on it to enlarge) how the color I applied around the hoof is running down into the STILL WET cast shadow area on the ground. In the forth image, you can see how I was still working on the rider after having applied some energetic splatter work on the ground. The last photo is the watercolor completed. Notice the minimal amount of hard edges and dry looking paint...it's WET! For me, a watercolor painting must have a modicum of wet looking passages (a condition where the different color pigments can freely move about and intermingle). Isn't that why we define watercolor painting as CONTROLLING THE FLOOD?!
