Black Hole of Calcutta Falls, watercolor

This is a piece I have been meaning to do for a while but it it has just sat in the shelves of my brain waiting to be dusted off. I originally posted my plein air pencil drawing of the Black Hole of Calcutta Falls  about 3 years ago. When I finally decided to recreate it in watercolor, I decided not to just work directly from the pencil drawing, although I did do the preliminary sketches from it, so there are some similar shapes. But to accurately capture the colors and feel of the falls, I needed to make a day trip up to these falls, just off the confluence of the north and middle forks of the American River. Since my last visit 3 years ago, they have built a foot bridge over the creek, but the charm of the falls was the same, other than a lot of other people on the day I went. It even had close to the same average flow of water as it did the last time. I took some reference photos of the falls as well as some other pics for future projects before heading home.

This painting is the first time I used my masking fluid, which seemed necessary to depict the water splashing over the black rocks. I was worried it would never come off since it seemed to become part of the paper as I painted over it, but after the paint dried, it rubbed right off using a clean finger. Then I went back in to lessen the stark white that had been left with some light washes.

Sunrise pedestrian bridge watercolor

Although this doesn't seem like much of a Valentine's day post, the Sunrise pedestrian bridge is one if the places I took my wife on our second date almost 24 years ago. She has always loved this bridge, so I thought I would dedicate this painting to my wife.
 I based this painting on a photo I had taken on the same outing as I had taken photos for Autumn along the river, so the color palette is very similar, and I love the reflections on the calm water of the river.

trees

I first started this "creative journey" of mine back in 2012, and every once in a while, I like going back and looking at some of my older work to see my progress. I came across my painting of "trees" in one of my friends' living room. He had purchased it from a silent auction that I had donated it to. I had never blogged on this painting, but I remember it well. I painted this in February 2013 plein air along the American River. It was a quiet spot at a bend in the channel by the islands near Rio American HS. (Right around the corner from where I had painted plein air painting small rapids almost a year later, one of my favorite areas along the river!)

My friend had told me he had felt a connection to this painting because another friend of his had created a similar watercolor, based on a poem that he had written. Here is the poem that my friend had written:

And here is the painting that his poem inspired:

Autumn along the river

It is finally feeling like fall weather here in Sacramento! Yesterday was a sunny but crisp morning in the 40's and normally I would not venture out in the cold this early (8 am on a Saturday) but my daughter had an appointment to go to, so after dropping her off, a headed down to the river near the Sunrise Blvd river access along the American River. I had most of my painting supplies with me but was only inspired enough to take a few pictures with my phone due to the cold. The leaves of the trees along the river are starting to turn their many colors, and the river, although very low due to a very dry year, was peacefully reflecting those colors. An egret, which was actually sitting in another spot along the river, seemed to be enjoying the early morning calm as much as I was, so it seemed fitting to place him in the painting.

gristmill plein air reworked

Sometimes after letting a painting sit for a while, I will go back and see if I can improve on it.  Usually it doesn't take a month before I do this, but in the case of my Gristmill Plein Air painting, it has been longer than that.
It did not seem quite finished but I could not quite figure out what it needed.  I decided to post it onto a facebook paged where fellow artists critique your work.  Wow, talk about putting myself out there! There was lots of input as to how to improve it.  One of the comments was that the waterline cut the picture right in half, it looked like two different paintings put together, and there was no point of focus.
So I decided to just go for it, and try to apply some of the ideas that had been thrown out there.  I raised the waterline and broke it up with some grasses. I lightened the foreground a bit and darkened the background to try to create more depth in the painting. And I added a point of interest, the fisherman. I rarely put people in my plein aire paintings so this was a big challenge. He looks a little stiff but I think it works.

 

Before

After

American river plein aire, Untitled

Many artists that I have talked to do value studies with a quick pencil sketch before they start a painting. I usually just throw a couple of pencil lines down on my watercolor paper to help with placement but don't really think a whole lot about values. So I decided to give value studies a try to decide if it is a value-able use of time and effort :) 

This pencil sketch only took 5 minutes and I can see how important it would be if I was going to take the painting back to the studio to work on it. Instead, I finished painting all on location and found that it was easier just to refer back to the real scene than my sketch. I did find that some of my artistic choices were thought out ahead of time with the sketch instead of while I was painting.

Since I was experimenting with value studies, I decided to do another sketch that I will take back to the studio and see how that works out...

Gristmill plein air watercolor

The weather here in California is just too nice to paint inside, so I took advantage of a warm February afternoon to head down to the river. My plein air supplies are pretty simple: a pad of watercolor paper, a pencil, a few brushes, my paint palette, and a cup to hold my water. I also grabbed a blanket from the trunk of my car since I forgot my folding chair I usually carry. I found a nice sunny spot on a log near the American River and started to paint. I love the little rapids flowing over the rocks but I am still trying to figure out how to convey that in the painting.

Autumn leaves, watercolor

This is my favorite time of year, and with the beautiful weather here in California, I have been enjoying going for walks along the American River.  The fall leaves have slowly been turning colors, and it just amazes me how the colors just blend into each other on every leaf, each one a little piece of art!
I decided to try my hand at blending the leaf colors together. I worked with wet-on-wet to bleed the colors together, with lots of little accidents along the way...some good and some bad.
And here are the results...

Afternoon fishing on the American River, watercolor

I decided to take my pencil drawing of Afternoon fishing on the American River and turn it into a watercolor. I liked the composition of the drawing and I had all of the light and dark values.  I just needed to put in color.  To simplify things, I took my original drawing and enlarged it on the copier. Then by putting it up on the window (instead of  a light box), I traced my main outlines. From there, I just had to get creative filling in the colors, drawing from what I remembered  a month ago when I was sitting down by the river.

I've got this painting ready to enter into the "Painting Where the Wild Things Are" show at Sacramento Fine arts Center,  art inspired by the American River Parkway.

Plein air painting small rapids

I am taking advantage of this wonderfully warm spring weather...although the down side is that we need more rain. The river is particularly low right now.  I am fascinated with the movement of the water, and the effects it has on the reflections on the water, bouncing light and colors in different ways. So here is my attempt to capture this small section of rapids as it flows over the rocks.

Afternoon fishing on the American River, pencil sketch

I wasn't quite ready to watercolor this scene, so I did a simple pencil sketch...my comfort zone:
 a sketch pad and a #2 pencil!

This guy that was fishing was sitting under the tree talking to his friends more than actually holding his pole, and holding the pole one handed because he had a beer in his other hand, so a little artistic lisence made for a more serene drawing.

Plein air watercolor, shadows and reflections

The weather on this first weekend in spring was just too nice to stay inside to paint, so back outside to paint plein air on the river's edge. Instead of a wide landscape piece that the river lends itself to, I decided to do more of a detailed piece, focusing on the shadows and reflctions of the trees. I am always impressed with paintings that take an ordinary, simple tree or bush and make it artistic. Taking some pointers from a recent watercolor demo, I used some unexpected colors in the foliage, and broke up large areas of the same color.

Plein air painting on the American River

One of my favorite spots to paint is along the American River. It never disappoints. I can always find a beautiful, serene view.  And the weather was a perfect day to be outside. This is at the Howe Avenue River Access, just past the boat ramp. My daughter was with me and asked about how I decide how to simplify all of the details. I told her it was a good question, because that is the part that is the most challenging...to simplify it down to a manageable scene for painting. I did tell her that I generalize the background, and then add in a few details toward the foreground.

This boat was not there while I was painting but after I was finished, it showed up. Maybe I should paint it in...what do you think?

Sailboat on Lake Natoma

What better way to spend a Saturday morning than sitting out by the smooth glassy water of Lake Natoma painting?  We'll let me tell you:  sleeping in and then enjoying a nice cup of coffee with my wife! So I got to the aquatic center on Lake Natoma around 10:30, just in time to see about 30 kids heading down to the dock. The water was smooth, but not for long. I decided to toss out the idea of plein air painting and take a picture before the kid started rowing.  Then I went home and painted in my studio from the picture.

Bridge over the American River

Today was such a beautiful day in Sacramento, I just had to get outside.  I've been cooped up inside because of rain or just being to cold to go out. (Ha, ha! I know I'm talking low 50's here. I'm just spoiled with California weather)  I have just been trying to get over this creative block that prevents me from even getting started.  But the good part of this is that I'm actually caught up on my blogging and I actually did this TODAY! (Not last month or a couple of weeks ago like I normally start) 

 It has been a while since I was out painting along the American River, but I am drawn to this peaceful strip of land amidst the hustle and bustle of Sacramento.  The Watt Avenue Bridge is one of those spots that the two converge.  I particularly liked the pattern of light and dark created by the support beams, and especially the triangles of afternoon light formed by the sun peeking under the bridge.

I've been working on different techniques such as mixing the color directly on the paper and using a dry brush. I like the way the dry brush strokes on the bottom left created the appearance of the sun shimmering off the rapids in the water.  I'm still working on being patient enough to let areas of the painting dry before laying down the next layer. Sometimes the resulting "bleed" creates a nice effect, like the trunk of the tree on the left. Other times its not so good (under the middle of the bridge).  I also feel there are some perspective issues on the bridge...next time I will need to bring a ruler or straight edge to keep my lines and perspective straight!

Wet on wet (on wet!)

On a cold winter Saturday morning, I went down to the American River to practice some wet-on-wet techniques. The sky was more of a dark grey, and the trees were probably not as green as the color I picked, but I was just laying some background color in to represent the far bank of the river. The near bank was just mud and grass so I started with laying down brown and some green highlights.

At this point, I've been wetting just the area of paper that I'm going to color and then laying in the color, moving it around to cover the space, tilting my pad slightly to allow gravity to help. I tried to keep a thin area of dry paper between each section to keep it all from bleeding together (had some trouble with that on the far left). 

And then it started to rain! So my very wet paper started to get even more wet, but each raindrop was creating a nice effect on my painting. (I wonder if I could recreate the effect in a controled environment?)  At some point though, I had to cover it for fear of complete destruction of the peice, but in the process of trying to protect it from the rain I touched the wet paper causing blemishes on the left side.

So the question that I have now: Where do I go from here? Add in details- trees, reeds -to cover the blemishes and finish the scene I started? Or, as I look at this scene now, I'm more reminded of a starry night on Lake Tahoe.  Or just paint the Golden Gate Bridge and make the foreground San Francisco and the background Marin County. What do you think?

William B Pond, again!

March 4, 2012 - I went back to William B Pond, with my family this time, on a lazy Sunday afternoon (the plus side of having a mild winter).  I found a nice quiet spot on the bank by the “Islands” just down river from the bike trail bridge.  I liked the contrast of nature and architecture in this view.

 I really did not spend a lot of time working on reflection on this painting.  One of the hardest parts of watercolor is having patience enough to wait for areas of the painting to dry enough so it doesn’t bleed when I add another layer. When I first started to add reflection, it bled into the water…not the effect I was going for but let’s make all the reflections blurred to match the first one!

I really played with adding an abstract background. I avoided drawing individual trees but put in clumps of color to imply groups of trees. The bridge was a challenge because I couldn’t figure out the color of concrete. In hind sight, I should have just left it a negative space with a few lines to show the shadows because the black is too dark. This will be a spot to return to later to try that!

The geese were all over the place this day and I almost painted one or two right into the foreground. There’s space in that large area of blue at the bottom.  But I had no idea how to draw geese so I did a little “study of a goose” painting.

After I had packed up my painting supplies (which takes about 2 minutes) my family wanted to walk around and see the other areas of the park.  We headed over to the fishing pier by the pond. There on the pier were two other painters doing the same thing I was doing – bringing their paints outside and painting in nature! I couldn’t believe their set up—chairs, easels on tripods, paints and paintbrushes galore. Although I had been working with a minimalist approach when it came to my supplies, I was quite impressed.  One was working with acrylic, which I had never ventured into trying, even back in college. The other artist, who was working in watercolor, was doing a study of the geese! They were quite inspiring on that day.  After talking to them a bit and watching over their shoulder as they painted (I appreciated this because I know having someone watch as I paint is quite nerve-racking), they told me that they were there because of a Meet-Up group called Plein Aire Painters.  I had never even heard of Meet-Up at this time, and up until this point I was just saying I was painting outside. Now I had a name for what I was doing and apparently there was a group of people in Sacramento that was doing the same thing!  So I was anxious to get home and check it out!

William B Pond

The Islands

My next artist excursion a couple of weeks later, was to William B. Pond at the end of Arden Way along the American River. There is just so much variety here, I could go here many more times and be painting totally different scenes (and you will see later that I have returned frequently). With my backpack of basic watercolor supplies, I hiked over to "The Islands" to be inspired. The first painting I was focused on the reflection again but took a much wetter and blurry approach to it instead of creating a mirror image. It worked out because the viewer gets the sense of moving water instead of the placid water that was at my last spot along the river.  Leaving the white between the bank and the water was emphasizing the shoreline, but is there too much of a gap?  The background is vague and the foreground more detailed, but even with the detail, something was missing. I added more color but what it needed was some shadowing. I tried adding a few shadows but the texture of the trees were still a little flat from my over generalization of the trees. I did get the texture in the water, but I felt my perspective was off a little and my horizon was slanting.

Tree at William B Pond

That gave me an idea, though.  I should be putting some pencil lines down first to keep my horizon level and I can see if my perspective is right before putting paint on the paper!  About a hundred yards down stream, a tree caught my fancy. I laid down a few pencil lines to identify the rivers edge and horizon and started again. Starting with the sky (as I always do) I thought I would try putting some clouds in by lifting paint off. There are three, but two got obscured by the tree. I actually spent quite a bit of time on the background, only to be hidden behind the tree! I did very little reflection work this time ( but I really like how the reflection of the grasses turned out). Interpreting the water movement onto paper was my challenge and then figuring out how to draw all of those cobble rocks on the bank.  So with a lot of "artistic license", I created my own bed of rocks, experimenting with shades of grey.  The tree still came across as flat, even with some shading. Over-generalizing the leaves again is my guess. I will have to work on that. I didn't have the courage to shade it almost black (as in the picture) but as the sun went down and the shadows grew, I knew it was time to pack up. My bottom was numb and I'd have to think about bringing a chair or something next time instead of having to make do with a log or rock.

As you can see, I started taking pictures of the scenes with my phone. Its nice to see the comparison but it makes it easier to be more self-critical. It never turns out exact, but that is not my goal.  My artistic interpretation of what I "see" will always be different than a photo. Knowing this, I think I will continue to take the pictures, but not with the intention of comparing, but to remember how and why I perceived it the way I did.

Sutter's Landing

 So I go to Michael's and pick up the bare essentials: a generic watercolor paint set with 12 colors, a generic set of brushes, a small palette, and a pad of watercolor paper. All for under $20, a small investment for unlimited creativity!  Add in a little applesauce cup and a piece of a car wash sponge and I was ready to go. The amount of supplies was key to be able to fit it all into my backpack and carry it where ever the whim took me.  I had a couple of hours of free time on a Saturday, I think it must have been sometime in February 2012 (that's the problem with going back and trying to remember! Ideally, I'll get caught up on this blog and be able to say "yesterday"). Anyways, the explorer in me decided to try a spot along the American River that I had not been to before - Sutter's Landing at the end of 28th Street. After checking out the area, including a dog park, picnic area, and skate park (can you tell I was procrastinating the art part of this excursion?) I finally settled down on a log along the bank, put my headphones on with some music, and started putting some paint on the paper. I don't know why I put music on, because I usually like working with just the quiet of nature around me, but it seemed to keep me focused on this particular day.

I started with the sky and worked my way down. No sketching out an outline. As I worked, I was particularly interested in capturing the reflection of the trees in the water, which meant I had to draw and exact replica of the tree I had just drawn upside-down (or at least that is what my mind told me). I tried to keep a space between the shore and the river to emphasize this reflection. There was not much color (It was March after all) other than the mistletoe bunches in the trees. The train trellis was way off in the distance (about 20th Street) but it challenged me and it became more of a focus point in the painting. The afterthought in the painting was the dead tree branch and the bank. The painting needed some balance.   It does help break up the vast sky I laid down at the beginning of my painting.

I was pleased with the first attempt of working with watercolors in 20 years. It was very relaxing and rejuvenating. I was already planning my next outing with my backpack full of painting supplies!