Rainbow Bisque

It takes a lot of water to get smooth washes and even tones in watercolor. There's a strange balancing act that occurs between the water in the palette, water in the paper, and water in the brush - too much or too little in any of those areas will be met with chaotic results. Working on large scenes like this one (even at 8.5x11") will require larger brushes than the ones I have been using.

This painting marks the first time I managed to miss my own self-imposed deadline. This isn't a habit I want to get into. Painting has been such a great learning experience, it would be a shame to slow down. In my previous daily project, I would sometimes get behind when I couldn't think of anything to draw (which is a silly excuse I still cling onto occasionally). This time, I had a painting planned out, but I was kind of scared to paint the thing. I would like to go ahead and analyze that previous thought - I was afraid to paint. Resistance is a tricky, ever-changing beast; it has somehow convinced me that something I love doing is harmful. What is my biggest fear in all of this? I am afraid of doing work that outs me as a fraud. I am scared that the next painting will point out what resistance has told me so many times: that I'm not good enough, and I never will be. I don't actually believe any of that (not all the time, anyway). Good or bad, every time I sit d...

I wanted to try some new things with color this time. To be honest, the only thing that I really like is in the left iris. The eyelashes and pretty much the entire right eye could use improvement. I'll bet there is a way that the lines that make up the eyelashes could each be one stroke - it would make them look less dry and labored. I could benefit from some time just practicing brush strokes.

I made an attempt at masking using laminate film. The first time I did this, it worked perfectly. This time around, it betrayed me. I like using this stuff because it is easy to remove from cold press paper without tearing. I dislike using laminate (this time anyway), because it is so easy to remove from cold press paper. I really like what happened with the color this time though. I would like to try this again sometime.

I brought you in from the rain and put you in a safe place. In my heart I knew it wouldn't be long - your color would fade and your petals would wilt. With pencil and brush I set out to preserve the memory of that beauty. I got lost in the details as every surface curled and twisted into another. Every time I thought I had figured you out, I looked at my old marks and discovered how wrong I had been. You are gorgeous without even realizing it - and my silly lines and colors could never truly describe you. Yet I walk away with a precious truth: it was good to have known you and learned about you, even if the experience was fleeting.

I cut up a Granny Smith apple for lunch today, the core seemed...um...ripe for painting. Sorry. I still have a long way to go when it comes to mixing colors. There is still a great bit to learn about glazing. Nevertheless, it was fun to mix up color, throw together a quick drawing, and paint to my heart's content.

This time I wanted to try saturating the paper with water and working with the chaos of diffusing color. The result is pretty strange. The paper I use doesn't really hold up to the stress of water all that well. My final experiment with this technique was to combine it with solid lines (black flair-tip marker). I always liked the contrast between diffused color and solid line; though I'm not too sure I really succeeded this time. Those eyes are huge.