Lightning Bolt

Watercolor on arches paper, 40 x 30 cm

Another scene inspired by the Olympic games. This one and the previous watercolor were done without  a pencil drawing, directly with the brush and paint. I started to understand Jean Haines' words that this method gives you more freedom. You build the scene gradually one shape at a time and can change and move things around, not confined by pencil lines. There is a bigger risk of getting the proportions wrong, of course, but it is so much fun when things turn out right.
I'm planning to explore a few more sport disciplines ...

Motion

The sprint, watercolor on arches paper, 30 x 40 cm

watercolor sketch of sprinters

I am still on the subject of motion. And what better time for that!? 

Yesterday I tried to sketch athletes, while watching the games on TV. This proved harder than even sketching moving figures live. Not only the figures were moving very fast, but the camera would change every few seconds and show a different perspective. Even using stick-man figures didn't make the task much easier.

Eventually I saved several good frames from a recorded program and started working from them. These athletes in all kinds of sports present a great opportunity to exercise painting figures and motion and hopefully I keep my enthusiasm for at least a while.

Dervish dance 2

Dancing Dervishes, watercolor, 30 x 23 cm

Dancing Dervish, watercolor, 35 x 25 cm

My Muse, had disappeared somewhere lately, scared by the stress and frustrations at work, I guess. I tried to find her, by revisiting this subject, which I did before in pastel. The bottom one follows the pastel version quite closely, but I made a mess of the background. The top one was done without any drawing or expectations and I think I like it better.
Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Canada geese

A few small and quick sketches that I did last weekend. You see these birds everywhere here in the parks and ponds. And even sometimes crossing the streets in a long solemn procession, stopping the traffic for a while. I did these sketches in the sun at over 30C heat, which forced me to work really quick.

Rug sale

The rug, watercolor on arches paper, 50 x 40 cm

I have been planning to paint this scene for a while. Its challenge is in the rug. I wanted it to be the focal point, so I had to put enough detail in it. Yesterday I had a whole day off, and decided to give it a try. There is much to be desired. For example, I could have thought over the colors of the surrounding objects to create a better contrast. But on the other hand, this is my first painting with this large size, so I'm happy with it.

Dervish dance

Dervish dance, dry pastel on paper

At an old caravansary in Capadocia we attended an authentic Dervish ceremony. Photographing was not allowed, so I made a number of sketches during the beautiful dance of gentle movement and swirling white skirts. I have been planning to use these sketches as a reference for a painting, in which to capture the movement, but so far I didn't have a clear idea how to do that. Until a couple of days ago when I saw Lydie's pastel of a gymnast and it led me to the ArtTutor lesson on depicting movement.

I decided to try this in pastel first, as it is easiest to stick close to the lesson, even though I have no experience with pastels. I like the result, I think it has much movement in it and I think I know how this could turn into a watercolor too.

Shades of white

Porcelain bisque vases 1, arches, 38 x 28 cm

Porcelain bisque vases 2, 30 x 23 cm

I tried these two still-lifes in slightly different techniques. The first - with softened edges and color transitions, while in the second my goal was to try glazing pale but pure colors.

I used the same drawing, done from a section of a photo I took at a pottery shop in Turkey. While the group was marveling at the elaborately painted finished product, my attention was on the unfinished mate vases still in the bisque phase (before being painted and glazed). Pottery has always fascinated me. I even tried it at one point, until I realized it requires some strength in the arms and hands.

The library at Ephesus

Library at Ephesus, Arches, 36 x 28 cm

Here is another site from my Turkish tour. Ephesus must be the most visited place in Turkey, and the facade of the library - it's most beautiful structure.

This was a pretty complex subject and while drawing it, I was thinking "This has to turn out well, as I am not drawing it again!"  And then, of course, forget looseness and spontaneity... So, the bottom line, I don't much enjoy complex architectural subjects. They are a challenge, but not the type of challenge, from which I learn. Not for now, at least...

Studies of water

These are a few small watercolors, which I did in order to study painting water and reflections in water.

The geese in the willow pond are done entirely wet-in-wet with quite thick paint. I mostly let the paint spread by itself on the wet paper, but also did some dabbing for the horizontal lines at the bottom half while it was all wet.
 

The red boat I like the most. I first painted the water wet on dry. Added a few ripples while wet. Then let it dry completely before painting the boat and its reflections.

And the rowing boat, the same view as in the previous post, I did in a mixture of wet and dry with much dabbing, so the colors got muddy. i started with this one and I like it the least.

Rowing and more Yupo experiments

 This is a small sketch of a Canada Day rowing regatta on the Toronto island.

Watercolor on paper

And some more experiments with Yupo. I still have trouble with fingerprints, despite the attempts to clean them with alcohol. Any pressure on the surface leaves a mark which then acts as resist too. Nice thing is that wax crayons work well for contours. Slightly soapy water causes all the pigment to move away very rapidly. It is so uncontrollable, but it is exiting to play with it nevertheless.

Watercolor and crayon on yupo

Watercolor on yupo. It really causes ultramarine to granulate