More watercolour adventures

A few weeks back I dug up my drawing pad to do some sketching and came across a drawing I had created last time I was at Edithburgh on the Yorke Peninsula (February, beachhouse, arting in the sun).

I also found a couple of the prepwork images I had used to design seagulls for the picture. If you look closely below the first bird you can see my seagull stick figures I was using to get perspective correct.

The circle was a plate from the house we were staying at, turned upside down and traced around (I had no compass to draw one with) and then I simply filled the circle up with a stylised ocean and a tribute to the many seagulls that I could see out the window (onto the ocean, I love that beach house). I distinctly didn’t want to go realistic, I wanted to use some of my design skills to create simplistic but elegant and recognisable shapes.

And I was designing for watercolour. I don’t take my acrylics on holiday much anymore, just too much to carry, and my jewellery equipment has taken some of that room up too. So I pack my watercolours, ignoring the fact that I am so amateur with watercolours when compared to my acrylics that it is hilarious and like going back to school. But I take them anyway and it gives me an excuse to try this new medium when I don’t have access to my studio.

So I drew this design, was really happy with it, and because I didn’t have access to my studio, I wasn’t brave enough to paint directly over the top of the design. I wanted to keep it and that required a photocopier to create a copy I could then use to trace down for the final piece. Poop! So I stuffed it in my drawing pad and promptly forgot about it when I got home.

But now I’ve found it and I’ve got a snazzy new A3 scanner/printer to play with. So I finally traced it down onto watercolour paper.

Of course, I did spend quite a bit of time staring at it and trying to work out whether I should go ahead with watercolour or switch back to acrylics, or even dig up some gouache. The design lends itself to all of these and I may do another version (hence the need to make a copy and not destroy the original drawing). But I wanted to try out my new Copic multiliners and outline the work (there was a brief discussion with myself about outlining it with the new masking fluid pen I came across recently and just had to buy, but basics first, girly, you don’t know what you’re doing, remember?) So outlined watercolour painting it is.

So here be my work-in-progress shots.

Penwork…

Two nights ago I got out the watercolours. Apologies for the atrocious photo quality, I still haven’t got my new camera (though I have it on order, yay!)

 

Last night I was tired and only managed to do one layer of shells (there are a lot of shells in this design and I had to go over them many times).

 

But tonight I was determined to finish it in time for my Paint Party Friday post, so I steamed through. And here is the final piece 😀

 

The blues aren’t quite right in the photo, they are more turquoise and aqua with hints of green, and consequently the original does look better than this. It was a bit of fun and lots of shells. I’m happy with it in some ways, but not in others. And yes, I cheated with a little watercolour pencil and white acrylic marker on the shells.

So here is my art for the week and my submission to Paint Party Friday – don’t forget to drop around and check out the wonderful artists to be found over there 😀

And I have been featured over at Orange you Glad it’s Friday. I’m tagging this post for my submission to Orange you Glad it’s Friday, because it is a prime example of the blue vs orange technique I mentioned in last week’s post. There is almost as much orange in this painting as there is blue and it is there for a that very reason that they are opposites. In fact, most of this painting is half and half of my two favourite colours from last week 😀 Don’t forget to drop by and discover all things orange.

If you have a moment, I would love it if you could comment and let me know what you think of this crazy attempt. And if you’d like to join my art journey and see what else I come up with, you can enter your email in the subscribe box on my blog (right side, up towards the top) and get my art in your inbox 😀 Or if you have a RSS reader, you can find my feed here.

Art Always!

Best wishes,
Liz