Drawn to Water!!

I played with my paint all Saturday afternoon and as everything was still out in my conservatory, the sun was shining and the garden is looking beautiful, I needed to carry on yesterday. I finished one of the landscapes I had been working on but they are very much practices and works in progress.. I need to stumble upon my way of painting them and though I am getting closer I am not satisfied with what they are looking like at the moment. I figure that the more I practice the more likely I am to create something whether intentionally or by chance that I will be pleased with and which tell me the direction I need to go in!!

In the meantime I was being drawn all the time to soak the paper and paint completely wet in wet as I did with the painting "Moving On." I don't know whether it is the challenge of working like this but wet in wet has never been how I paint... this isn't just like adding the sky wet in wet or painting small areas which I have done before, it is a whole new way for me at least... knowing just when the paper is at the right moment during the various stages of drying and then knowing how wet I need the paint to be to either to keep it flowing or get it to stay and in the meantime trying to manage a whole piece of wet paper!! Techniques such as  lifting off, to keep the whites, all the time trying to get the shape of my subject as in both cases I didn't draw, all different ways of working to my normal methods.

I had an image of a small white jug, and I used

Prussian blue
Alizarin Crimson
Burnt Sienna
Raw Sienna

I thoroughly soaked the whole page then started by dropping in a mix of colours to the bg and defining bits of the jug but didn't like what was happening so sprayed it all and started again...this is much more possible while the paper is soaking wet and the strange thing is that while everything is so wet, working in with the brush(though not too much)  is also possible without getting mud....so again I slowly added the darks and lifted out the lights..... the wetter the paper the stronger the paint needs to be to have the slightest chance of "staying put" and blue tends to move and run less than  other colours. Likewise as the paper dries, the concentration of paint can be slightly less to stay so these are things I am learning and trying to analyse...I am at the stage where I have a good idea as to just how wet or dry the paint needs to be and the more you practice the more instinctive it becomes.  I find I am drying the brush to various degrees depending on what I am looking to do and it is now a sort of inbuilt knowledge which if I am ever going to teach this way of painting I need to understand and be able to verbalise what is happening and why!!

So here is my little practice piece... Charla van Vlack has described it as "soft but powerful" which I think is hugely complimentary but also I think describes why I like this way of painting, still on my journey to create loose watercolours and using every tool at my disposal... let me know what you think!!

Moving On!!

I often get asked at workshops about do I paint wet in wet and in the main I don't although I do use a lot of water. The way I use the water gives me slightly more control than a pure wet in wet approach so even though I may end up with an even wetter painting I use the water to direct the flow of the paint, something I learned from Jean Haines a few years ago (Joanne also uses water in a similar way) and which works well for me. But I do admire the really wet in wet approach and feel I have reached a stage where it is time and have been working up to having a go. Another of Alex Lee Johnson's photos seemed a perfect choice... his images are wonderful, do check him out if you haven't already!! As some of you will know I love nudes (or semi nudes) and also like back views but to try and do this in a loose watercolour way was going to be a challenge!!

I started this by soaking a piece 200lb Bockingford rough both sides then letting it dry a bit. I didn't draw any of this as I knew I would have time to alter and play with the image if I didn't get it quite right. I used

Perylene Green
UB
Burnt Sienna
Touch of Alizarin Crimson

I added a wash of the green and blue, vaguely leaving areas for the shoulders and the head. Working like this does allow a lot of lifting for areas where the paint has sneaked into where it shouldn't and also leaves lots of soft edges so I do like the effects but does need a bit of practice to keep an element of control over what is happening. Bit of a duel edged sword because part of the beauty of watercolour is that very lack of control which produces all the wonderful effects we get when we let the paint and water do their magic on the paper but if we want to give some definition to something then we do have to step in and take control sometimes!!

I worked on this for the best part while the paper was still wet going in, darkening some areas, lifting others until I could see the image appearing, and constantly tweaking it to get the proportions reasonable. Not my usual way at all and not how I teach my students but to any of them who might be reading this, I didn't mess with my brush so no mud!! I do feel this is a progression for me as it is a completely different way and a way I haven't had much success with in the past so to say I'm a little bit excited about how this has turned out is something of an understatement!! As always I will leave this to stand for a while in case I feel it needs any more as it fully dries but am liking it so far and believe me that doesn't often happen!! Might do a little bit to the bg looking at it on here....

Would be really interested to hear what you think of this one!!