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Welcome to my on-line art gallery, featuring my history, and my evolution as a watercolor artist! |
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It is January 2019. My journey as an artist, especially a watercolor artist, continues to be challenging as I strive for my vision of beautiful art, which has changed over time. |
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Up to a few years ago I went through great pains to render highly realistic scenes of crystal and glass. About 6 years ago I began to see many watercolors that had less detail in the supporting areas of the composition. The effect for me was to feel a sense of mood and atmosphere. |
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I decided that I wanted to bring that into my paintings.
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Though my process as a studio artist is generally unchanged in that I prefer to work from photos, I find myself experimenting more with rearranging compositions, changing the light or even the dominant color of a scene as well as purposefully set lost and found edges, which I believe is a major factor in the success of a painting. |
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The biggest change was to work with a much larger brush and even hold it more towards the tip of the handle to prevent me from getting hung up in the details. |
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Here are the lessons: perspective still reigns, even if only general details on the buildings are present. Proportionate people are absolutely required. The head can’t be too big or too small. Understanding where to put sharp details and let everything else blur is paramount. I am like a conductor of the composition while letting the watercolor sing as it blends on the paper. |
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I’m inspired by my surroundings whether it is in Central Kentucky where I live, or elsewhere in the world. I keep a camera with me at all times because I never know when the light will make the area interesting. |
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My process is still to plan the composition, practice it with value studies, and try it on a small scale first. I make use of different programs on the iPad to assist with this. One is to help see value, another is to try out the composition digitally. I also have a program to help crop, change the contrast, etc. Another program will create a grid of my choosing on top of it. These are all great time-saving utilities, essential for the part-time artist! |
