"Mandarin Oranges in Silver Bowl" (watercolor on paper; 11" x 10")

 

"Mandarin Oranges in Silver Bowl"

The following is the description of what we did in the sixth week of the winter term, 2022 for my "Watercolor from Start to Finish" class (my online Zoom class with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA).

Yesterday I talked a lot to inspire you into doing more art and especially more drawing everyday. Bert Dodson's Keys to Drawing is an invaluable drawing resource any aspiring artist should have in her or his bookshelf and do exercises from daily. The fountain pen with waterproof ink (instead of Micron pens) I use when I am traveling or at home is the Platinum Carbon Ink Desk Fountain Pen. It has an extra fine line; the one I have been using for several years extensively shows no wear; I have two (one with black ink and the other, brown).

The brush pen I showed is the Pentel Arts Pocket Brush Pen. There are many similar brush pens in the market and this one is IT. It has a steep learning curve and not everyone's cup of tea. At the end of the day, all you need for drawing practice is a sketchbook and a pencil!

I am not sharing any links for watercolor sketchbooks. There are too many out there to bother and it's a personal choice. You gotta go through several until you find your favorite. And please finish all your sketchbooks so that you can brag about it (very few people do)!

I also talked about drawing in perspective with the aid of a ruler, which is not necessary but I bet opened your eyes. Some of your drawings were definitely wonky. Although I said a wonky drawing is preferable to a sleek, traced drawing, it doesn't mean you have to live with wonky drawings for the rest of your life. Nobody is born with the gift to draw beautifully. Even the great masters practiced incessantly.

After the light pencil drawing was done (erase the construction lines if you have any), we did the line work over with a dip pen and black India ink. This is when I "redraw" where I see drawing errors. Yes, you can draw without the prior pencil drawing. It's a nerve-wrecking, yet exhilarating experience. You have no idea how risky and dangerous an artist's daily life is! You don't have to be a snowboarder. Lol.

You can apply a slight pressure where you want an emphasis (this is called a varied light weight in art lingo). Be careful with this, otherwise you end up with a sprung pen (permanently ruined!). India ink also has a steep learning curve. Just because you felt awkward using the dip pen and ink first time, don't give upon them. Practice!

In the pen and wash technique, the pen line does at least 60% of the work, so the wash (watercolor part) goes fast with minimum fuss. That's why this technique is so popular among travel-journal artists. It has a bit of illustration feel and perhaps that's why so many illustrators use it (or is it the other way around)?

I am not going to tell you what colors I used for that reason. Keep colors of the mandarin oranges bright and glowing (don't forget the alizarin crimson core shadows though)! This glowing illusion comes from leaving the highlights pure white by painting around! (You can do that with the leaves or silver bowl or anything shiny you feel like painting). The darks were the usual mixture of ultramarine blue and crimson. For the silver bowl, I used cobalt blue as the base color and added different paints as fit.

Try to paint the shadow (luminous and beautiful purple, and not dirty-looking; remember overmixing results in dirty colors and it's the curse to the watercolorist) when the base of the bowl is still wet. Your painting should have a flowing look, not a disjointed and disharmonious one. That's why I often start painting the object B right next when the object A is still wet so that watercolor will bleed (yes, definitely nerve-wrecking).

Below is the image of the demo. In the demo, I didn't do any glazing because I ran out of time. It doesn't mean you shouldn't either. When the painting is "finished", assess the situation and do some glazing if deemed necessary. Remember that too many beginners and no-longer-beginners announce their paintings finished too soon! 

 

"Mandarin Oranges in Silver Bowl Class Demo"

 

"Sabrina at Makapuu Point Lighthouse, Oahu" (watercolor on paper; 5" x 7.5")

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"Sabrina at Makapuu Point Lighthouse, Oahu"

 

Belated Happy New Year! I hope this blog post finds you well. I have been gone for 12 days on a long-awaited vacation to Oahu at the beginning of the year. It was supposed to be a celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary (12/15/90); then the first COVID lockdown and various variants followed. Finally, we and our darling daughter decided to take the risk. Armed with the vaccination card, which was required in all indoor places except in some hole-in-the-wall eateries, off we went. A little nervous, but everything was great in the tropical paradise. We came back safe and sound, except a severe jet lag.

For the last 10 days, I have been meaning to share my travel journal pages with you, but one thing or another intervened. Here you go! All the sketches were done in watercolor with occasional black waterproof fountain pen lines. If necessary, white gouache was used discretely. 

Except a few, they were all painted while in Oahu. I spent hours and hours on my travel journal, foregoing naps and walks on the beach. I am a professional artist who draws and paints. Then, I go on a vacation and what do I do? I draw and paint, exactly the same thing. So, I guess my life is a never-ending vacation!

The following images are more or less chronological. I painted a lot of sunsets because they were beautiful and they could be painted quickly. There are some still lifes, flowers and fishes. Only one was done on location, sitting on the side of the crowded Waikiki Beach Boardwalk; the rest, in the comfort of the hotel room using the image of the phone screen as reference.

Although I returned home exhausted from walking (I averaged 10,000 to 15,000 steps per day instead of my usual 5,000 steps!) and non-stop sketching, I am glad that I have done it. These pages bring back happy memories and will be shared with my students in class. Enjoy and if you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate!

 

"Me at Haleiwa Beach Park, Oahu"

 

"Cairns of Volcanic Rocks at Makapuu Beach Park"

"Sunset at Kaena Point State Park"

"Me Hiking on Kaena Point Trail: Western-most Point of Oahu"

"On the Road to Haleiwa, North Shore"

 

 

"French Toast at Waikiki Kangnam Style Restaurant"

"Koi Pond at Hilton Hawaiian Village, Waikiki"

"Hanauma Bay Snorkeling"

"Reef Fish at Hanauma Bay"

"Reef Trigger Fish: the Hawaii State Fish"

"My Hat with Orchids from Goofy Cafe and Dine"

"Strange Bird with Japanese Statue at Hilton Hawaiian Village"

"Sunset Jetty at Waikiki Beach"

"Palm Trees along Waikiki Beach Boardwalk"

"Sabrina Hula Dancing"

"Monkey Orchid on the balcony of Goofy Cafe and Dine"

"Fort DeRussy Military Reservation"

"Waikiki Beach Sunset Looking Toward Diamond Head"

"Lanikai Beach Sunset, Looking toward the Moku Islands"

"Pink Hibiscus"

"Holmes Run Creeks" (watercolor on paper; 12" x 9")

"Holmes Run Rocks" 

 

I decided to blog about my online Zoom classes with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA. This is what we did in the fifth week of the fall term, 2021 for my "Watercolor from Start to Finish" class.

We spent about two hours trying to finish up "Red on Red", but didn't manage. Lol. First, I drew a cherry tomato in graphite to explain the local color, highlight, form shadow, reflected light, and cast shadow. It's easy enough, but once we start painting in color, things can go haywire. I painted around the highlight shape with cadmium red; for the form shadow, I switched to permanent alizarin crimson, but switched back to red for the reflected light. If you use enough paint, you won't need to glaze. When the tomato was dry, we painted the cast shadow with the purple mixture of cobalt blue and crimson.

All the cherry tomatoes and red peppers were painted the same way. As a matter of fact, the vase and apple were painted the same way too, although they may have required a glaze or two; the apple has the belly button and stem area that require some fiddling.

As you put down a wet stroke of one color next to the still wet stroke of another color, make sure you remove the excess water from the brush to avoid runbacks. Don't try to be thrifty by using only one or two sheets of paper towel for the entire painting session. The difficulty of watercolor has everything to do with the control of the ratio between water and paint and the sensitivity to the moisture level in the brush and on the paper. (The other difficulty is the one-way-ticket painting process unique to watercolor, meaning we proceed only in one direction: from light to dark. That's why we have to organize and plan ahead.)

Then we painted the green stems and leaves with the green mixture of Winsor lemon and cobalt blue. Let the first layer dry and do the second layer with a darker green on the shadows along the stem and on the leaves to create form. When the second layer is dry, paint the cast shadows with the purple mixture of crimson and cobalt blue.

For the zinnias, we first drew the overlapping layers of tiny petals with appropriate colors of watercolor pencils and started the first layer of wash in orange (the mixture of red and cadmium yellow pale), permanent rose, red purple (the mixture of rose and a little cobalt blue), etc. When it was dry, we had to redraw the petals because watercolor pencil lines disappeared, giving us one more opportunity to redraw. For the dark crevices, I used the red purple mixture (crimson and cobalt blue).

 

If you wish, you can have fun with the tiny yellow star-like shapes in the center of some zinnias by painting them with the mixture of yellow and white gouache with a rigger brush. Finish the zinnias by painting dark purple cast shadows. Below are the two demo process images and finished painting. 

 

"Red on Red in Progress I"

"Red on Red in Progress II"

"Red on Red" (watercolor, 9" x 12")

This week's main lesson was painting rocks. I first drew the design with watercolor pencils (green, brown, blue, and violet). The shading in the rocks is demonstration only; don't do it yourself. Landscapes can be overwhelming to many students. Think the big shapes first. In this exercise there are five big shapes: the sky and trees, the middle ground cluster of rocks and pebbles on the left, the foreground big rock and pebbles, the big water shape, and the small group of rocks in the middle ground on the right. Group the shapes and cluster them in a meaningful manner that allows the viewer's eye to enter the painting and travel and linger.

I started painting from the top (that's how we generally paint landscapes) on dry paper, with cobalt blue for the sky holes, yellow green (lemon and a bit of cobalt blue) for the tree foliage in the sun, dark green (quinacridone gold and ultramarine blue) for the dark foliage in the shadow, and dark brown (burnt sienna and ultramarine blue) for the shadowy area in the right bottom of the big tree shape.

For the water, I used gold, yellow green (lemon and a little bit of cobalt blue), and warmer gold/burnt sienna as it gets closer to the bottom of the paper. Please develop "Holmes Run Rocks" up to this point. We will finish the painting together next week and move on to the triptych exercise!

 

"Holmes Run Rocks in Progress"

"Antique French Teapot with Poppies" (oil on linen; 12" x 12") sold

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A glorious bouquet of poppies would have been enough. But apricots and cherries also tempt you. There is more! The antique French blue enameled teapot and coffee pot complete chromatically this sumptuous still life. 

"Watercolor from Start to Finish": I Am Teaching Watercolor at The Art League School!

Week 1: Introduction and Painting Donuts!
"Donut Bliss" (watercolor, 7" x 10")
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My dear friend Alice Kale, who teaches watercolor, has been pestering me to do the same for some time, and I finally surrendered to her persuasion. I took over another teacher's slot at The Art League School in Alexandria, VA. It is a six-week-long intensive introduction to watercolor, called "Watercolor from Start to Finish". An enthusiastic class of 18 has been meeting every Saturday from 9:30 to 12:30 for watercolor fun. At this point, we have just one more class to go. And what fun has it been!. This is indeed the beginning of a new chapter in my art career, as I will continue to teach as a regular staff at The Art League School from now on!

The first week I brought donuts to the class, since I thought their simple shapes and fun associations would encourage the beginners (minus two who are experienced watercolorists) to dive into watercolor without fear. And I was right. Some students ate donuts first and painted them from photos!

Week 2: Fruits and Vegetables
"Carrot Bunch" (watercolor, 9" x 12")

Drawing and painting from life is an invaluable training whether the subject is humble everyday things, or a figure. So carrying on the theme of still life of donuts of the first week, the students were asked to bring some fruits and vegetables of their choice for the second class. Several brought a bagful of produce; I love this class! Shapes got a little more complicated, but we are not so worried about drawing for now. (To those who want to improve their drawing skills, I recommend Bert Dodson's Keys to Drawing.) Instead we are focusing on the importance of values, edges and color temperatures in a painting.

Week 3: Landscapes
"Bixby Creek Bridge, Big Sur" (9" x 12")
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Week 4: More Landscapes
"Yaquina Head Lighthouse Sunset" (watercolor and gouache, 9" x 12")
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For the next two weeks, we painted landscapes. I did a demo of gradated/varigated washes and the students were let loose to work with the photos they brought, while getting accustomed to the watercolor terms such as washes, glazes, wet on wet/wet on dry, dry brush, etc. Landscape painting can get overwhelming with so many elements to deal with, so I emphasized that the class should look out for big shapes first. If one breaks down a picture into big shapes, there are usually only three to five. That's not so hard, is it? But landscapes often involve leaf/grass textures; boy, many went astray with them. It's been 23 years since I started painting watercolors and the memories of the excitement and frustrations are all coming back!

Week 5: Animals
"Emperor Penguin Love" (watercolor, 8" x 6")
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Changing gears, we painted animals this week. What fun it was! Several painted their dogs; many others painted colorful birds. It all comes down to this: paint what you know well and hold dear. And it showed. I am definitely keeping the subject of animals as part of my curriculum.

Week 6: Flowers
"Red, White and Blue" (watercolor, 7.5" x 10.5")
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One more week to go. Next week we will be painting flowers. We actually took a vote on this; between flowers, portraits, buildings, flowers won. But I let the class know they can paint whatever they choose for the final week. It's going to be fun and challenging no matter which!

Week 6: My awesome class intently painting flowers

"French Dinner Table with Rose Bouquet" (oil on linen; 12 x 12")

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The table is set for dinner at a shaded courtyard of a farmhouse in Provence, France. A bouquet of pink and white roses, wine glasses, blue plates, and silverware with yellow handles on crisp white linen table cloth beckon us to join in a laughter-filled family time.

Last fall, I took an online painting workshop with Dreama Perry. It took a while to finish the "homework" and I got around to paint "French Dinner Table" only at the beginning of 2018. It is a happy, sunny painting, auspicious as the first painting of the year!

"Kiss Me Twice" (oil on linen; 4" x 5") sold

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Two Hershey's Kisses--dark and milk chocolates--beckon you. Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me twice!

"Claudio Bravo's Eggplants" (oil on linen on panel; 8" x 10") sold

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The painting is the copy of a still life painting by Claudio Bravo (1936 - 2011), a Chilean hyperrealist painter. He was greatly influenced by Renaissance and Baroque artists, as well as Surrealist painters such as Salvador Dalí. He lived and worked in Tangier, Morocco, beginning in 1972. Bravo also lived in Chile, New York and Spain. He was known mainly for his paintings of still lifes, portraits and packages.

The painting is a reminder of how beauty resides in everyday things.

"Hearts and Roses" (oil on stretched linen; 10" x 10")

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How would you like to receive from your sweetheart a heart-shaped chocolate cake frosted with three colors of rosy swirls of icing on a golden plate? That is what happened to me on my birthday in February. Aren't I lucky? I would like to add that eating the cake was A LOT EASIER than painting it!

"Easter Eggnest Cupcake" (oil on linen; 5" x 4") sold

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An Easter egg nest made of coconut flakes and jelly beans, then piled on top of an frosted cupcake. That's what I call an ideal Easter treat!

"Sweetheart Donut" (oil on linen; 4" x 5') sold

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This heart-shaped jelly donut is too pretty to eat, don't you think? Despite the sentiment, I ate it. My bad.

"Apple or Pear" (oil on stretched canvas; 8" x 10")

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A red apple and a green pear on a pear-shaped green porcelain plate. Do you prefer the apple or the pear?

"Dark Kisses and Hugs Swirl" (oil on stretched linen; 10" x 10") sold

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I am on a roll.  For the latest Hershey's Kisses painting, I went back to the violet glass tile for the ground.  Look at the confusing and marvelous reflections!  If you have seen the dark chocolate Kisses, you may realize their foils are actually violet, not magenta as in my rendition.  I had to push their color toward reds to have them stand out in the cool violet negative space.

"Dark Kisses and Hugs" (oil on stretched canvas; 8" x 10")

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I am becoming ambitious with my Kisses series.  This new painting is the largest so far, but I have bigger plans.  I've also added the stripy Hugs chocolate to the mix.  Now I can paint till the end of the world!

"Dark Kisses" (oil on linen; 6" x 8")

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The annual small works show in November at the Art League Gallery in Alexandria, VA is coming up, and I couldn't think of a better subject than Hershey's Kisses.  This year I decided to paint them on a reflective surface (a mauve-colored glass tile used for architecture) for maximum challenge.  Think about it.  Kisses themselves are wrapped in a reflective foil and they are being reflected on the mirror-like surface.  I absolutely love the effect!

"Lady Alice Apples" (oil on stretched canvas; 8" x 10") sold

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According to my teacher Danni Dawson, it is a lot easier to sell a still life than a portrait, since nobody wants to hang a stranger's portrait on his wall.  At auctions, Thomas Eakins's portrait sold for one-and-a-half million dollars, whereas his still life made 10 million!  I don't know whether she is pulling our legs to encourage us to do these still life studies as homework.

Her argument is that even as a portraitist, one has to be able to paint all kinds of things convincingly: flowers, musical instruments, books, furniture, pets, even landscapes!  Still lifes are with which you hone your skills at your convenience.  Do you agree with her?

This week's assignment is paint apples.  Many red apples have green bits as well, just like a
Caucasian skin tone with greenish veins.  As you know, reds and greens are complimentary colors;  mixing them together makes ugly browns, if you are careless.  So one has to learn to lay down red on top of green without making muck.  Do you think I succeeded?

"Yellow Still Life" (oil on stretched canvas; 12" x 9")

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Danni Dawson, my teacher, assigned her portrait painting class a color study of yellow on yellow.  I put together a yellow ensemble of a lemon, banana, clementine, and cherry tomatoes with a Wedgwood oil cruet on an orange cloth.  Perhaps I learned my lesson with the red color study about the value differentiation; this one went much easier.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the painting pulsate with warmth and cheer.  No wonder I like the yellow color!

The Collage of My January 2015 Paintings

The Collage of My January 2015 Paintings

Wow.  Did I really paint all these fabulous paintings?  I am proud!  As I said in yesterday's post, this month I will be painting in oils, perhaps, landscapes and cityscapes.  I don't know where the flight of my creative imagination will take me and you!