Watercolour paper - does it matter what type you get?

I recently did things the old fashioned way and I have to say, sometimes, the basic fundamentals prove themselves to be the best.

What am I talking about? - well... PAPER

I had a whole supply of watercolour paper that I've collected over the years - different sizes - but mostly the same manufacturer.
Mostly - bought from a stationery store. (Not dissimilar to many of you readers from this blog...)

So, with all that paper around, I made a firm committment not to buy any more watercolour paper until I had used it all up.
Then I got a sheet of Art Store paper and went through the whole process of wetting and stretching the paper with gum tape. (more about that later)
 And I painted on the stretched paper - thouroughly enjoying the experience again for the first time in years.
Did I get lazy inbetween, or was I just sucked into the clever marketing or ease of mass produced paper?

The point is, at the time I painted on the art store sheet of paper that I'd so lovingly stretched- I also bought another pad of paper too.
I have to say, the manufacturer hasn't done themselves any favours. There is a definite lack of quality from the pad of paper I bought last month - to the comparison of the pad I bought a few years back.

So now I'm spoilt and am going back to doing things the old fashioned way and enjoying the benefit of a better quality paper.

Does it improve my painting skills? Hehe, we'll have to wait and see on that one.

painting people - watercolour

Another watercolour - originally landscape - cropped and framed to portrait...

painting people in watercolour

Trying to keep things simple here and not be so realistic...
This was done from a photo I took last year.

My thoughts were to capture the essence of sitting outside in the sun, watching Southern Right whales - to give as a gift.





I first started with a simple drawing of the elements I wanted to include

then came a basic/light wash of cobalt
whilst the paint was still wet, I put a blob of raw sienna where the faces are. you'll notice how it expanded...
when that was all dry, I painted the background mountains of Hermanus in ultramarine - making sure that they gradiated light to darker.

painting people - process

I was going to incorporate the foliage of the plant you can see in the photo, but then that is the beauty about painting - you're in charge, so you can decide what elements to incorporate and what elements you want left out.
Had I included the foliage, I think it would have come out in the painting looking like a shadowy monster that detracts from the essence of what I wanted to show.


more to follow...

Rusty Talent...

limited colours

It's been a good few months since I spent some time with watercolour paints and my first foray into the medium after this results in this pic. Putting it in a frame thankfully detracts from the 'schoolboy' art of the painting...

I used only a few 'basic' colours to keep things simple and it was a fun little experiment.


Art Expression

yatch - watercolour

Mucking around with colour and painting the sky at a vertical angle.
This is not an original picture, but copied from an art flyer...



Art Expression

watercolour painting of my Art Tools

This weeks theme was a still life of some of my art tools.

Drawing skills are a little off - the pot looks lopsided but the painting still took me half an hour to complete.




Art Expression

On the road to Culverden

This was a picture I always wanted to capture - a clump of trees on the dry hills of the Hurinui district NZ.

It was looking rather washed out so I used guash to paint over it in places - done quickly and in frustration, but then I think it works...

Culverden, Hurinui district

Art Expression

Storm Approaching - watercolour

Capturing the stormy skies of Kaikoura NZ, I took artistic licence in painting the 'cliffs'.

Scraping the wet colour with the edge of a credit card gave definition which quite surprised me.




Art Expression

Hoar Frost - watercolour

It always amazes me how some of the fastest painted pictures produce some interesting results.
Again, I used the credit card to scrape paint off the paper - for the house roof - bottom left, the definition of branches in the trees and the ground to the bottom right.
Have tried to recreate this painting on a larger scale, but those attempts have been cut up for bookmarks...




Art Expression

Seascape

Another fast painting that surprised me...
Running white guash through the wet sea produced an interesting foam to the waves.




Art Expression

Watercolour - whale at Kaikoura

This was done a few years ago from a postcard.

I touched it up last week by darkening the sky at the top.

Limiting the colours I used was a fun experiment.


Art Expression

Bowl of Apples - Watercolour

This I 'cropped' since the rest of the picture didn't work for me - it was a bowl of apples on a chair...
Painting over the apples with a blob of red made them stand out rather than looking washed out.
Putting the brown paint at the base of the fruit and around the bowl rim (to me), gives it grounding.





Art Expression