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Day 7

Paper: Strathmore Bristol Plate, 4 ply

Colors: Ultramarine Blue, Quinacridone Red, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Red (Utrecht) New Gamboge, Cobalt, Hookers Green (Windsor Newton) Opera, Chinese White, (Holbein)

One of the great benefits since I began this challenge is all the terrific tips and generous information people have been sharing with me.  Someone suggested I visit James Gurneys blog to learn about watercolor.  Wow, were they ever right!  I have always liked his work and his articles in International Artist Magazine, but his blog is packed with beautiful images and fantastic tips on painting.  The painting today was inspired by his blog post “Painting into the Soup.”  In this post he talks about how a wash of gouache laid into the light areas can give a feeling of a dreary day.  In southeast Michigan, where I live, we have more than our share of gray days.  As much as I like a sunny blue sky there is a melancholy beauty to our somber weather and I was excited to try out this technique.  I wanted to work on Bristol Plate which is a very smooth surface, because I did not want the paint to sink in.  That way I could control where I wanted the opaque and transparent passages to mix.  I washed the sky in over the house with white and a tiny bit of opera, I added blue and white as I moved into the trees.  The front of the building was washed in with white, new gamboge and a touch of blue.  For the snow I laid in broad washes of all these colors.  The shadow side of the building and the background were laid in with transparent washes but I let the edges mix with the opaque.  I loved the effect, I think it is the first time I felt I really captured the unique beauty of a gray day. 

What I learned:

Using Chinese white in the light areas gives a feeling of muted light. 

If you use white then you should leave passages transparent too.  This is very much like oils.

An old splayed brush can be used to dry-brush fine twigs and trees in the background.  I may come back and work on those more in the future.

Here is the blog from James Gurney http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2013/10/painting-into-soup.html

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