Comments on: boulders beach watercolour project

By: swatch

swatch — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 08:25:53 +0000

Hi K – That little foreground corner is really quite important. I suppose it is more green than yellow. I want to try it again with similar colours a little more saturated. Good – I will leave it un-cropped. The input from everyone here is so useful to me. There is a lot I don’t see myself.
I am with you in the stretching department. I also work on heavier Arches and usually, in my studio at least I don’t fasten it at all for larger pieces (full and half size). Smaller pieces slide around a bit so I stick them to my board with masking tape. It is really great that you get to use your father’s drawing board. We buy and throw away so much so easily. My grandfather was an avid watercolourist but I don’t have any of his work or materials (maybe his temperament – which is another story).

By: lookingforbeauty

lookingforbeauty — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 23:32:07 +0000

I especially love the sea colour as it blends from Fr. Ultramarine to cerulean or manganese blues and then that wonderful creator of sunshine in this image – the yellow as you call it, or green in my books, bit of sea in the foreground shore. It really brings sunshine into this picture.
I find that white rock in the distance just great for providing your perspective; It’s missing in the cropped one and then the picture looks less grand and magnificent, more up close and personal. Both work, but I vote for the full sheet of paper, no cropping. I think it also may be because I love the use of the almost pure Fr. Ultramarine in the top portion of the image.

I don’t stretch my paper anymore. I’m far too lazy. I use 300 pound paper – the Arches rough, and I either push-pin it to the drawing board (my dad’s old draughting board). In my latest large watercolour, I didn’t even to that. I used fold-back clips and just concentrate the number of them in the areas where I have larger washes. It worked just fine.
When I go to frame it, the framers have a press that they will leave it in for an hour or two and any small curvings of the paper will come out flat.
K

By: swatch

swatch — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 06:25:24 +0000

Thanks Leslie

By: lesliepaints

lesliepaints — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 04:34:33 +0000

Beautiful.

By: swatch

swatch — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:08:05 +0000

Hey Forrester – thanks hey – yes I have been putting updates to the paintings on the same posting, as they are complete.
Thanks so much for your comments. Hugeness is worth working towards though I don’t find it easy to recreate. Your comments are valuable to me and I appreciate you putting them down here. Feeling small at the beach is an evocative theme and I have painted watercolours with this unarticluated idea in mind. Something to consider for another project.
Thanks hey – S

By: Forrester McLeod

Forrester McLeod — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:45:03 +0000

Hey! Did you add more to this than was here on the original post? I was in a rush the other day and might have missed the final picture.

I LOVE IT. I am a total ocean person and I could look at your painting for hours and hours the way I look at the ocean. It’s so full and rich. For whatever it’s worth, I like it uncropped. I love the HUGENESS of nature and the sea. I like feeling small at the beach, and although the intimacy of your cropped versions is lovely….I personally prefer the other.

Hope the delirium passed. Arg. It’s so rough when they get sick like that! Mine’s grown now, but I remember those days.

Thank You!

By: swatch

swatch — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:53:49 +0000

Hi C – we should all do a painting of where we work maybe – that would be a fun group project. Thanks – the water works hey? I am not sure if the perspective is so good but I will leave it for now.
I started at the top of the rocks by wiping the brush on its side across the dry paper to get the texture, then I wet it in places to soften the edges – which may not have been the best thing. I worked the darker areas with a heavy wash, keeping it wet, something like I mentioned on your site. What happens with this is the paint separates and creates a beautiful granular texture that gets lost if I do the same thing with lots of glazes. I am feeling the need to build up the darks but am resisting this as much as possible.
The family are still out of it but the temperatures are down – thanks hey. They didn’t eat all their pizza even – that is how bad they are. I have to agree with you – it is VERY healthy stuff.

By: swatch

swatch — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:46:19 +0000

It is coming on hey? Wait till you see my new board for stretching. I did a season with a local artist Ryno Swart who insisted that we stretch our paper. I ignored this until he told me that if I came the next time with unstretched paper he would not let me paint. A bit heavy handed but I did it. I produced some really average work but it was a good learning experience being in a class never the less.

By: Carol King

Carol King — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:46:08 +0000

SQ, love taking a peek into your studio. The water looks divine and how did you do the rocks like that with only one wash?

Hope the family is feeling better. Pizza has wonderful healing properties!

By: lesliepaints

lesliepaints — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:59:38 +0000

Beautiful, Stephen. And stretched paper! I’m humbled!