A Start on a Vertical Landscape

 This week the Watercoloring challenge tutorial team is painting what ever they want. and I spent some time being lost down the rabbit hole at YouTube finding new artists. I landed on this one from Rachel Parker Varner where she does a tree very loose with a very long bristled brush. She name drops a bunch of Artists names during this video and so, I watched it in bits and pieces because, I googled the other names she mentions. ( and ordered some of those brushes while I was at it, they are supposed to be here Today haha) I then seen this one from John Lovett I loved the colors and the detail with the softness, at the very end he puts on some may be white gouache and brushes it mostly away to soften those edges like doing a Vignette with your photo processing is the way my brain translated it. 

But, the very best video I stumbled across is this one from the American Watercolor Society seen here. By Thomas W. Schaller. This is so interesting and informative and just made sense to me the whole time he is painting. He is someone that I really feel like I was learning all kinds of things. but, one thing that stood out for me right in the beginning was the use of gravity for his painting and the whole paint the whole background with a curved wash. ( by the time I started mine I think I had not enough paint to it and I forgot a few colors) but, I had also started with a piece of cheap paper to just try it because, that was what the original person's video was, if you are not wrecking cheap paper as often as possible how can you know what works when and where? 

But back to the last video. He uses flat brushes to do his building shapes and I could not remember if I have flat brushes. ( I know I have a couple of either 3/4' or 1" ones for doing washes but, I didn't think I had any tiny ones. ) 

Which lead to me going to the jar and looking at the shapes of brushes I have collected since we started this watercoloring weekly challenge at SCS. (not that I started it but, I have played along since almost the beginning.) It's something my mama used to ask me all the time. Did you watercolor it? and I always said no for many years, to me it was only something "real" artists did. ( her mama's gpa was an oil painter) In the back of my mind the fact that I am coloring other peoples art ( stamped images) did not make me an artist. true story. Anyways that's a whole 'nother topic. I am trying to work on that thought and squelch it like a bug. So, I took another shot looking down so that if I were tempted to buy more brushes I could zoom in and see sizes on these.

And I thought OK, there are some smaller almost flat brushes here. ( they say they are spin top ones on the handle but, I think I may be able to use them like he did for dry brushing texture shapes type of a thought) which lead me to looking at my paint drawer. I took 90% of the cheap paints out, the colors are not me, too bright and too opaque and I do not find joy using them. I kept some of the prima sets and some of the shimmer sets but, the ones I started with are all in my re-gift them box.

 And I found all these dot cards in there. So, after this was shot I spent some time actually wetting them so I could see the colors better than what they came in like. not dramatically different but, a little bit. I am debating adding Naples Yellow and possibly Indian Yellow to my pile but, really yellow is not my favorite color to play with it's either hard to see or garishly bright. and I shy away from bold bright colors. 

And I started running out of time to actually PAINT something so, I started with this Artist Loft paper cut to A7 taped to a board so I could use the gravity idea. and I did a curved wash of colors all the way down it. I did have the board in my hand a lot and I think I had not quite enough paint and water but, I did do this. 

 The colors are barely there. but, I started with a yellow and then went to a coral, a red, a purple and then cobalt blue. so, I don't see the colors that well and I just decided to keep going as it was a little wet and it was propped up on the palette for a tiny bit of gravity.

 I don't very often do too many vertical scenes and I like painting trees so, I started with that in the middle of the sheet. the cheap paper was mostly leaning dry when I did that. 

And I dragged some of the blue down under the trees thinking snow. that there needs to be more life in it. maybe even a snowman haha. but, about this time I found out that my husbands hunting buddy was found in his home and this is as far as I got yesterday. His family does not live in this state and they rely on my husband to do all the things. 

 So, I don't have a "thing" to post in the gallery and I may be off line the next few days. We will see how it goes. its still part of that one day at a time deal. Last week was the anniversary of my mama's passing and There is not a day that goes by where I don't think she would have loved this when I see something or think some fairly snarky thought. If you read all that sorry, I know I ramble. I hope you are doing well and Thanks for stopping by. 

So, I could not sleep and I came upstairs to see what it looked like, ( it's still shy of 6 am here and the sun does not come up for a while) 

And this is what I found. When I tape paper ( it can be Arches Cotton, it can be cheap paper it does not matter) If I use this gorilla "delicate surface" masking tape to tape it to a piece of stiff chipboard. it will curl as it dries. So, I don't know if its the board or the tape but, I do not have good luck with these things not curling. I am still thinking about what to add to this scene next. Just thought I would add this is as something to remember to look for. supplies that maybe work better for taping the paper down.