“You can learn from teachers, fellow painters, books, videos, seminars and so on. But you won’t really understand the medium until you can use it. Hence, the key to understanding is
practice, practice, practice.”
Tony Smibert, from Chapter 1: Painting Landscapes from your Imagination
Taking this advice to heart today was just that, as I finished Chapter 8
with more of Tony’s exercises in composition, color and confidence.
Today I’m back on my journey through Tony Smibert’s
Painting Landscapes from your Imagination, my project for July.
Chapter 8: Color Confidence.
“The decision making processes for a painting should remain with the artist,” writes Tony. “When you can rely on experience and intuition to guide you, you set yourself free to experiment. And the truly creative person is empowered by freedom. Your color choices are your own.”
Definitely feeling empowered by freedom today, and what a good feeling it is too 🙂
Chapter 7 in Tony Smibert’s Painting Landscapes from your Imagination is all about composition.
“Whether drawn as a crisp outline or sketchy…the result is the same:
a landscape which you evolved from nothing; and only a beginning to the possibilities”
This was certainly the case today particularly using the “Three Line Sketch”, which Tony describes as his “secret weapon…the ultimate planning tool for watercolour.”
In Chapter 2 of Painting Landscapes from your Imagination Tony Smibert describes the Nature of Watercolor:
“The essence of painting in watercolour is to understand and work with the simple mysteries
of suspension, settling and drying, which takes place everytime we lay down a wash.”
He then adds perhaps the perfect mantra for watercolour painting:
“There are no rules in watercolour, only consequences”
Today’s exercises, which are full of “consequences”, some more successful than others, finishes Chapter 6 with more washes, dots, dabs and the addition of knife work to remove the dried paint creating white highlights from the underlying paper.
Worldwatercolormonth Day 6
a mini landscape of the imagination 2.6.16
On my trip this week to Opus Art Supplies, my favourite art store here in Vancouver, I bought some new paints, which included a much appreciated free gift of a tube of Cobalt Blue.
The 4″ x 4″ square of watercolour paper that came with the tube, together with
a mini palette of paints, were extra bonuses and a nice surprise…
…and perfect with which to doodle a mini landscape of the imagination.
Sometimes smaller really is better.
Photinia II 26.05.16
After Part One of The Photinia Story for this week’s Discover Challenge,
Part Two today is all about the leaves.
The green bin’s overflowing contents were collected on Wednesday but some of the leaves made their way into the studio…
…and it was time once again to turn the yard work into art work.
First another ink drawing using those perfect photinia branches to draw with…
…and then it was time for some colour.
And finally as a postscript to this post 🙂 an old painting of mine that dates back to 1974. It resides at the back of a shelf in the studio and I have to confess I had forgotten about it until I started painting the photinia leaves this week.
The title is Autumn on Hampstead Heath a place I used to walk almost every day with my parents during my childhood in London. The painting takes me right back to those distant halcyon days as happy, loving memories of mum and dad come flooding back.
valley trek remembered 18.2.16
valley variation imagined I 12.2.16
Cypress Alley Variation II 8.2.16
thechangingpalette 