Painting the Atlantic

A few summers back, I was with my mom at Schoodic Point in Downeast Maine. We were on a mission to do a watercolor painting en plein air. In honor of the recent mother's day, I decided to post a picture of this watercolor I did that day on our trip.

Painting ocean or lake water with the medium watercolor can be tricky. You don't want to reveal too much with a solid line, but I always do feel like I need to indicate some darker tones so the paint reads as the texture of the water's surface. My method for painting the water was to use a rather pale wash of ultramarine blue, with a darker prussian blue added in the background to establish a more definite line for the horizon. Once the ultramarine dried, I overlaid a few more saturated layers on top. After that, I was able to use a small filbert paintbrush to add in some choppier, horizontal lines to show some perspective.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shrinking House

Short Fiction: I came across an elderly man at the local sandwich store. He had swollen ankles and thin gray hair. His skin was white like paper, with the occasional splotch on his face. I made eye contact with him and smiled somewhat kindly, motioning for him to come sit at my table. He didn’t smile but nodded and came over. I asked him if he lived around here, and he said he lived off of MacArthur Boulevard, near the cross section of High Street. I knew this area well. I took casual carpool every day at that corner, and had been to a dinner recently at a house just down the street. Anyways, I asked the elderly man what his name was. He said “Harold” and I introduced myself. He asked me what I did, and I told him I worked as a carpenter at a lumberyard in the hills. He could tell I hated it. I explained to him it wasn't working with metal that bothered me, but the boss and how he treated his workers. Regardless, Harold listened. He told me he enjoyed taking photographs and had t
Read more

Death Valley

Image
In August 2006, my brother and I drove from Maine to California. Once we got to California, we ran into this sign, so I took a reference photo and did a painting of it a few years later. When we were stopped to take the sign and explore the breakdown lane, I found an arrowhead beside a bush of dry desert grasses. The arrowhead was covered in a green limestone which had ridges evenly cut in 45-degree angles along the "grip ridge" of the arrowhead. Maybe it wasn't an arrowhead, but rather a blade for cutting things. I put it in my pocket and we traveled down that road you see to the left of the sign up there; we drove towards "Death Valley". I was wearing heavy denim, and it was hot as hell outside.
Read more

Point Reyes and Inverness Paintings: The In-Process and Final Compositions

Image
Here are some shots of artwork I did based on photos I took and ideas I had while day-tripping to Point Reyes in October 2013: Here you can see that I initially put a little sky-wash in the background and made some horizon lines, too.  I am also making use of the masking out process to help the foreground grasses form. I wanted to see what kind patterns I could get to almost make the same upright blade action of the real grass that was there. Additionally, I used the masking tape to protect some of the finer lines I wanted to preserve along the side of the boat and the cabin. Things were getting a little out of control. The boat was dilapidated in real life. The body of the boat was challenging to paint because the boat itself was 'done up' in a chipping, old, white paint. It was also turning an orange-brown, like the color you see above.  This is a photo of the finished version. I messed with the grass in the front, darkened the cabin of the boat to a light
Read more