Bald eagle

 At Lake Brighton, the best
photo I could manage
 with my cell phone :)

Post #200! I have been thinking about the bald eagle a lot recently. During my latest road trip to Burney Falls, we saw a bald eagle nest just above the falls, and then later saw the eagle circling Lake Brighton just down from the falls.  It also happens to be the mascot of the school that I work at.  The last time I drew an eagle (with pastel), it was a couple of years ago, just before I found out that I was coming to this school, and then I saw them that same summer at Lake Tahoe.  They just keep coming into my life. I'm thinking I should listen to what it is telling me:

When an eagle appears, you are on notice to be courageous and stretch your limits. Do not accept the status quo, but rather reach higher and become more than you believe you are capable of. Look at things from a new, higher perspective. 

Bridalveil Falls and Leaning Tower, watercolor

Yosemite has always been one of my favorite places, although I have never used it for inspiration in my paintings. Luckily Sacramento is just close enough to make it a spur of the moment day trip ( a very long day!) I had actually packed all of my gear for plein air painting, but once I got to the valley floor, afternoon thundershowers were threatening, so I decided to just take some pictures and not risk getting soaked. So here is the first of several Yosemite inspired paintings.
Bridalveil Falls was flowing very strong, as to be expected in the spring. You could only get so close before getting wet from the spray. The lone outcropping next to it is called Leaning Tower. (Even having been to Yosemite many times, I did not know this.)

I used masking fluid on the falls and the spray to keep it white but then went back in and added some shadows and a few trees in front of the spray after it had been removed. The falls are so majestic in person, I hope I have done them justice.

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.

Painting mist with watercolor

After watching a free video tutorial by Jean Lurssen on how to paint mist with watercolors, here is my attempt. It is very moody and definitly not like my usual landscapes, but I like its simplicity. In fact, it is quite the opposite of my last piece, fantasy landscape watercolor, which is very colorful and playful. I used a half sized page so it is only 7" x 11" and a limited palette of mostly payne's grey and a little ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.

Portrait of a Dog

Portraits have never been my forte so I keep practicing, this time with a dog. I worked from a photo of this Labrador German shepard, which is my daughter's boyfriend's dog. I don't know the dog personally, so I wish I had a better picture, or at least a couple of different reference photos to better determine his coloring. Being a mostly black dog makes it challenging. The highlights in the photo come off as white and every shade in between, similar to my experience with my drawing of Darth Vader. This time, though, I was working with watercolor and fur.  I think I did a good representation of the dog that is in my reference photo, but I'm not sure if the reference photo accurately represented who the dog is.

Fantasy watercolor landscape

 I usually base my landscapes on a photo I've taken, but this landscape was fabricated from my imagination. Well, maybe not completely from my imagination because I did use about 4 different reference pictures and combined them into this fantasy landscape.

Figuring out where the light souce comes from is one of the most challenging parts of creating an imaginary landscape. It seems kind of like a night scene with the stars and "moon", but the rest of it seems like daytime. Maybe I should go darker with the sky and redo the stars to make them stand out more. I will let it sit for a while and come bake to it...what do you think?

Cosmos, spraying watercolor

OK...finally left Maui and back to mainland mind. Nothing like getting back on track than my Artist's Way group. They always stretch me out of my comfort zone and try something new. This month, one of the artists in the group brought liquid watercolors in spray bottles. They were the little travel size bottles with a little pump on the top. I had to let go of any control and just let the sprayed paint land where it may. Trying not to get too much water on the paper was a challenge. Once it started coming together like a starry sky, my mind envisioned seeing the Milky Way from the top of Mt. Haleakala...oops, Maui reference.

The last couple of steps that I did was to splatter some white onto it with a bristled brush, and then spray it with an iridescent gold. It all depends on what angle the light hits the painting as to whether the gold shines or not.

I later saw this image online of NASA's largest picture ever taken and it reminded me of my painting!

Santa Cruz seascapes in watercolor

So here is the watercolor of my lighthouse sketch. I added the sailboat to add some interest to the right side of the painting.  I really like the effect I got with the marine layer (payne's grey) and the blue sky. I simplified the waves, and darken the lighthouse...maybe a little too dark.  

Some watercolor painters it's tell me they work on more than one plaiting at a time. So while waiting for one to dry, they work on the next. As I worked on my second Santa Cruz inspired painting, I realized that in order for painting more than one painting at a time to be effective, they need to have similar palettes. I kept having to completely rinse off each brush.

 This second seascape was done from a photo I had taken. I needed to crop more of the foreground out.  On this painting I tried to put more focus on the waves.

Portrait of a pug

I recently went to a demonstration by Steve Walters and one of his tips to keep energy, passion, and spirit in a painting is to put bold colors down first as a kind of abstract under painting.  I thought I would give it a try with a photo of a pug that a fellow artist, Michael Salmon, shared. I think that the colors help keep the painting whimsical and it helped break up some of the black.

Portrait practice, sketch and watercolor

It has been more than 6 months since I have painting from a live model so I'm a little out of practice. I headed over to Patris' Studio since it was the second Saturday of the month which is when they usually have a clothed model doing a long sitting. When I got there, they told me they have not done the model on second Saturday since the beginning of the year, but they just happened to have a model doing a long sitting for another artist that was there that day. Just my luck that I showed on the right day of tje right month.
I decided to start with a quick pencil sketch, just to get some practice with proportions. I think I was off a little bit. The other artist that was there used the word "unresolved". The sketch is still unresolved!

I decided to move on to watercolor. With an overhead spotlight, her eyes fell into dark shadow, which gave her an odd look, but overall I think it turned out well. Her eye on the right though is still... unresolved!

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...

Kiva beach, plein aire

There are so many opportunities to paint plein air at Lake Tahoe, sometimes I get overwhelmed. I just want to soak it in mentally, take pictures, and say I'll do it later at home. That defeats the purpose of plein air though. So on a beautiful fall afternoon, I finally decided on a spot out on the Camp Richardson pier...the beach was all shady and cold. The sun seemed to be going down really quick and the shadows were changing even quicker. I did the majority of this piece in an hour. When I was finished, I was looking straight into the sun.
My goal was to make it look like the foreground trees were all in shadow with the light filtering through. I tweaked the details a little more once I was home. I think I could have gone even darker for the shadows, but I always worry it will go too dark and lose the color. 

The fun part of this was that every 10 minutes or so, people would be walking down the pier, stop and watch for a few minutes, make a few comments to each other about my painting and then keep walking. At first it was a little intimidating but then I got over myself and enjoyed the commentary.

Experimenting with watercolors

I taught a class about water coloring to my Artist Way group, focusing on different effects that can be created with watercolor. We started by talking about the different consistencies of the paint, depending on the water-paint ratio: tea, milk, or cream.  Start with tea, and work your way up to cream.  We discussed the nature of water always going to where it is dry...going from wet brush to dry paper, or wet paper to dry brush. I showed how to do washes and wet on wet blending of color, as well as resist with crayon, blotting, and even trying a salt effect. Sometimes I think I know just enough to be dangerous! It was just a fun night of playing with watercolor. Here are a couple of pieces I created...there was no plan, both of these just developed into something from trial and error.

Tree on the edge of a field

Another beautiful day for outdoor painting in Georgia. I took advantage of some quiet time while 2 of the grandkids are at school and the other one is napping.  
I got so caught up in creating the background, and then most of it ends up covered by the tree in the foreground. I might go and paint just the field tomorrow.
I liked the detail of the gourd birdhouse hanging from the tree. It was actually hanging on the other side of the tree, but when I moved it to the left, I put the shadow on the wrong side of the gourd!

Plein air watercolor barn in Georgia

Another day plein air painting in Georgia. The barn was just begging to be painted. The clouds were kind or threatening to storm, as they have been every afternoon this week, so I got to finish most of the painting outside, but then had to finish it up inside.

I debated whether to but the lines on the barn to show the wood planking. The barn looked a little flat without it, but a little busy with them...

Stand of pine trees, Plein air watercolor

While on vacation to visit the grand kids in Georgia, it's challenging to find time to paint. Sneaking off to the edge of the property, I found a stand of pine trees to paint. It only lasted a short while before my 4 year old granddaughter found me and wanted to paint, too. With a little help, I got her set up with some paint brushes and paper to paint with me. She had to share my palette though, so that made things a little tougher. This piece still needs a little more detail work, but I figure I can do that later when I have more time and less distractions.

Portrait practice at Patris' Studio

It seems like it's been awhile since I went to Patris' studio for the 2nd Saturday long pose.  Drawing people really takes continuous practice. My first piece of just the head went pretty quick so I decided to do a quick full body piece as well.
On the first painting, I'm not sure what happened with her face...I aged her about 20 years! I was working on 140 # paper with I realized it is quite forgiving, whether lifting color or just moving it around. Reworking an area is much easier.

On my second painting, I started with just a quick sketch, and then focused on the fabrics more. I worked on the face last, but realized that the head wasn't quite the right shape. I was working with  a pad of 90 # paper on this one, and color saturates into the paper much quicker and any reworking that I did made the paper start falling apart.

Mt. Tallac in watercolor, Plein air

An iconic feature of South Lake Tahoe, Mt. Tallac can be seen from most anywhere in town. It is quickly recognized by the snow in the shape of a cross.  This snow used to be there year round but recently has started to melt more in the summer...global warming? In my painting, I was generous with the snow in the cross.

In the late afternoon, my family went down to the lake, specifically the west end of Kiva Beach, and while they played on the beach, I painted. The afternoon sun tends to shade a lot of the peak, so the colors are a little darker than they would have been in the morning.
I started out with a quick pencil sketch as I usually do, then added in the sky and clouds (since they move so quickly!)  and continued working down adding in the foreground trees last. When I was finished, I kind of wished I had made the piece vertical so that I could have included Taylor Creek in the foreground.

Reference photo...before the clouds floated away

Pencil sketch

Finished painting drying on easel

Next time...vertical format including Taylor Creek. (Clouds are already gone...)

Finished painting

Zephyr Cove reworked

It's interesting how things look different once you have different lighting on a painting. I realized that my Zephyr Cove painting did not have very much contrast...probably because I was out in the bright sun when I was painting it.
Once I got inside, I knew I needed to put more color into the water, but then I also worked more color into the mountains so that the white rocks would stand out more.

I also noticed how I "squished" the scenery in the photo to fit my painting and make the composition look better... artistic license! Next time maybe I will try using half of a horizontal sheet so I can stretch out the scenery more accurately.

Plein air at Zephyr Cove

Post 100 on my blog! Continuing my Tahoe vacation, I spent the day at Zephyr Cove hanging out at the beach getting thoroughly sunburned. This has always been one of my favorite spots on the lake because of the rock formations that jut out into the lake.

After completing the painting, I checked my reference photos and realized that my values were off...the sky was a lighter blue, the mountains were darker than the sky, but lighter than the distant lake. I will need to rework this one later, but I think I just need to add more color to the water to finish this one for now.