Still working on backgrounds and getting a feel for how wet on wet watercolor behaves. This is a painting that has been percolating in my mind for months. I will eventually do it in acrylic as a "painterly" piece, but I thought it would be interesting to see how to handle the ocean in watercolor and experiment with the composition as well.I masked off the skimmer before I did the background. I am finding working with masking fluid a little frustrating - it is hard to get a perfectly sharp/smooth outline, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually. I played with a number of watercolor techniques including salt, drops of alcohol, and lightly spraying the painted paper with water and then tilting the paper to control the direction of the paint drips. Once I used a hairdryer to dry the piece, and scraped off the masking fluid, I went back in and painted the skimmer with a fairly dry brush.
The next go-round on this painting, I'd like to have a more clearly defined fore-, mid- and background. Right now it looks a little flat to me. But overall I'm pleased and I definitely see the potential for a big painting of this idea.
4 comments:
Isn't it cool to see potential coming out of a "try-it-out-first piece?! Like all the colors you've captured in the background and angle of the bird! Looking forward to the next one!
A lovely painting! Your blues are so pleasing. The bird adds such a nice contrast.
...great skimmer. I love their bills...they are so interesting, and you've nailed it! The background colors totally make me feel like I'm back there on Hilton Head Island watching the ocean underneath the Royal Terns.
Watercolor does take so much patience - but it's so much fun!
I love the expansive qulaity of your compostion - makes me feel like I'm flying over the ocean too.
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