The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ....

I did some painting last night and had lots of fun doing it. I learned a lot and decided to post it all here - the good, the bad and the ugly.
















First thing I learned right away is that cold pressed illustration board is NOT the same as high plate illustration board. It would be kind of like expecting the same results from hot pressed paper as from cold pressed paper. So, I"m going to order some high plate illustration board from Curry's. (And a few other things with it of course - I mean, WHO can order just one thing from an art store???)

Second, I need to gray down the rocks. They won't stay that blue, so .......

I'm not sure I like the fence in the background, but it's an important part of this area. And it goes different angles a lot because of the rock and very hilly countryside. (I had to say that so you didn't think I was drawing them in crooked! LOL!)

I should have left more whites on the background rocks. But, all in all, for the first time trying out this technique, I'm happy with the results.

Most of the sky area now seen as blue will be filled with trees - I'll just leave blue sky over the water area in the background. Those two large rolls of masking tape are what the upper edge of the painting are propped up on for gravity when I spray the rocks right after applying the paint.















Here's a closeup of some of the rocks. Once the rushing water is formed around them, I think they'll look better. Something I don't like about this board is how it is curving from the water. (The water I'm applying with a brush, not the water in the painting! LOL)















The above shot shows a closeup of some of the rushing water. I'm liking how this part is looking.

Here's my colour swatches. I have this pad of 100 sheets of Sennelier watercolour paper (student grade) that I received in a package deal of brushes and paint through an ebay seller. I love Sennelier paint but I do not like this paper at all. So, I use it for colour swatches for each painting. I learned the hard way that it pays off (bigtime) to make a colour swatch page like this at the beginning of each painting and show the names and brands of paint being used. Later, if I put that painting aside for a while, I will forget which paint I've used and then match it up with the wrong one.

So anyways, the colours used so far are WN Antwerp, DS French Ultramarine, WN Cobalt, WN Raw Umber, WN Burnt Umber. I think I will use Pelikan Graphic White for rushing water white highlights but that won't be until the painting is done. (If you click on those shots above, you should see them larger.)

Years ago, I went to a workshop in Kitchener with Joe Vloothuis. I had started this painting on my own and took it with me because of the problems I had with rocks. Joe turned it into a demo and showed me how to do the rocks and the water. (He is the artist of this one because he did so much of it.) So, I propped this up in front of me to remind me while I painted.