Blog

Day 4

Paper: 300 lb cold press (Arches)

Colors: Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Quinacridone Red, Burnt Sienna (Utrecth) Lemon Yellow, New Gamboge

There were a lot of lessons learned today.  I decided to use a piece of 300lb 12x16 paper. I cut it into 4 pieces of 6x8 then marked off a 5x7 area for the painting.  I used the paper because I had read it did not need to be stretched and did not buckle if if I was really wet.  I sprayed the back and the front and taped it to my board.  The sky went in like magic, the colors bled at the edges and the gradation from top to bottom was lovely.  I vividly remember the sunset in Algonquin and how the last rays of sun hit the tops of the trees and made them glow.  It was a struggle to make the shapes as interesting as I wanted them to be.  I do not know how to make the brush, water, paper combination behave how I like when it comes to small shapes.  Once again, that is something that will come in time with a lot of practicing.  At one point I went too dark on some of the tree shapes at the bottom, but once it dried I brushed over the area with clean water and patted it dry to lift the extra pigment.  I like how that softened some of the edges and can see how that would be useful to show reflected light.  The paper developed a major buckle which made the drawing even more challenging, so I stopped.

What I learned:

Really wet paper will buckle unless it is secured all the way around.

Creating the sky wash was a good example of getting into the painting, dropping the pigment and then letting the painting cure as it dries.  I need to do that more often.

I like the color combinations and will use this as a study for a larger painting in the future.