I have this idea that paintings are Psychic Teleporters.
Great paintings can send you a mental journey. Drawing you in and transporting you somewhere. It’s even more interesting when that place doesn’t really exist. You’re picked up and transported somewhere – even if it’s just into a mood the artist has set down.
I think this is a universal ability. To anyone born with sight. But it might be something you can get better at over time? Being a skilled viewer of paintings.
Being able to look at a painting and getting drawn in – even if that painting isn’t necessarily realistic. At first, we need completely realized paintings to be transported. But the more we look at art, the more we’re able to go into an imaginary place.
A while back we finally got around to hanging some paintings in our dining room. Now, every morning across the table, there are these portals to other places. I can spend a few minutes diving into each one.
Want to practice your high level teleporting? Here are some totally abstract places :)
This one isn’t my favorite. Though it does have some nice areas.
Each time, I look at the work before and see if I can push it a little bit. Eventually, I push something too far. I think this is maybe enough with the blacks.
I think I’m using Neutral Tint mixed with a Lamp Black. Can’t be sure what was in the mix, as, I have different blacks – but all the mixing cups look the same after a while :) Probably should have labeled them.
But you can’t read black marker on cups of black paint :)
This is the nature of a series of work right? Set some parameters and start producing work quickly – staying (mostly) within the guidelines, but testing out variations. Each time they will be versions of the theme. You won’t always like every single one.
Sometimes though, the ones you don’t like at first, end up being favorites later. Have you ever have that happen with an album? The song I always skip ends up being the only one I play a year later.
~m
Day Five : #30x30DirectWatercolor2019 : Melt Water
I have always thought oil paints were better suited to detail and realism. Because of their ability to correct themselves in so many ways. Now I suppose I would add digital art to that. If I wanted realism, I’d absolutely be working in 3D these days.
Watercolor, on the other hand, is naturally suited to seascapes, clouds, anything fluid and dynamic.
I’ve never been to the Antarctic sea. But I’m pretty sure this is what it looks like.
Day Four : #30x30DirectWatercolor2019 : The Divide
“The Divide”, 18×18″
I should talk about premixed paint.
These paintings are all 18” square. Not unusually large, but larger than I would normally paint in the field.
When I’m on location, of course, I only have a folding palette. I learned to paint with only the small mixing areas in the lid of the paint box. Often I pull paint right from the pan and mix it on the paper – not in the palette. As long as I’m painting smaller than half-sheet, this usually works. But – it does tend to push me towards smaller sizes. The amount of generous wet paint I have on hand is limited by the size of the paint box.
WELL, THAT HAS ALL CHANGED!
I started something new for these which is *Mixing Cups*!!! I’m using 30ml medicine cups. The ones for dispensing pills or liquid meds – I happened to have some sleeves of them handed down from the parents’ job at the hospital. I’m sure you can buy these online or at a pharmacy.
All I do is squeeze a dollop of paint and mix in the bottom of the cup. I used to talk about Tea/Milk/Honey – but now I am using what I call Wasabi Consistency.
You know the green horseradish paste you get with sushi? If you’ve ever mixed that – the idea is a dab of paste and one or two drops of soy sauce. (I use one or two spritz of water from my mini-atomizer bottle). Mix that tiny amount of water into the tube color (I use a needle pointed palette knife) and you get a nice gummy paste. Like a sludgy consistency. You do not want to just toss your wasabi blob into the soy (water) – or all you get is a diluted watery mess with floating flecks of un-mixed wasabi. Yuck. Don’t do that to your expensive sushi. You want a nice smooth paste. I’m sure there’s another cooking analogy here – but the idea is – the thickest possible gummy mix.
The Wasabi mix is too thick to actually paint with. (Except I do – in the dark black/brown here I actually do). But what I do is keep that sludge in the bottom of the cup, adding to it when necessary so I never run out. When I need paint, I take a brush loaded with the right amount of water, or the right amount of another pigment, and pull out a measure of wasabi, blending it on the side-walls of its own cup.
It’s a bit weird. But it’s like each cup is its own little palette. This does dilute and/or tint the paint in the bottom, but that stuff is so concentrated you can’t really lose your intended color.
If I need a volume of tea – for a sky or something – I just take a new cup and make a batch of thinned paint. Periodically I take all these little staining-dregs and pour them together, or just find a place to use them on the painting. I end up with quite a collection of these cups in play. Maybe 10-15 at the most. I do have a traditional paint box, but I only use the mixing areas occasionally. Mostly its straight from these cups onto the page.
This is not quite pouring – but it’s close. I can bring the cup right over the paper and add large amounts of paint incredibly quickly. So yes – this isn’t something I could do on location. There’d be nowhere to put all these little mixing cups.
Alrighty. That’s it for me. See you tomorrow? Hit me up in the comments with your early-marathon pieces!
~m
“You Can’t Step in it Twice”, 18×18″.
I’ve been painting in oils for a year or so > Instagram Link < which has been the longest break I’ve taken from watercolor in – what – 15 years?
But getting back into water media was not a problem in the slightest. If anything, I feel better at it than when I left. Not sure how that works. Magically *any* kind of painting seems to make you better at *all* kinds of painting? That’s good news.
This sort of thing has actually happened to me before. One year, back in the days of art directing, I was managing a big project and didn’t draw for an entire year. Magically, when I got back to it, I was better than before. Weird hey? I was thinking about drawing the entire time. Maybe that’s enough.
Anyway – watercolor > OMG it’s SO FAST. It’s crazy how much faster you have to move compared to oils. I’m literally running for fresh water at times. Literally leaping across the studio to grab paper towels when a bad drip happens (That was just bad planning). Frantically adjusting the tilt of my clunky tripod.
Watercolor flows instantly. You can cover a whole painting in seconds. Nothing like the calm, steady, stroke-by-stroke buildup of oils. I’m paranoid about waiting too long for a touch, losing the wet window. Once the paper dries, it’s never the same. But at the same time, you can’t paint back into a wash too soon. If it’s soggy, you don’t get any interesting edges.
This might be what separates Direct Watercolorists from Oil Painters. It might be too stressful for some people :)
I always felt this is why Sargent switched to watercolor in later life. (Pet theory). For a person who liked alla-prima painting with big brushes – a watercolor wash is the biggest brush you’ll ever have.
Doing these thick, densely pigmented surfaces, I feel like I’m breaking the rules of watercolor. I’m using such rich paint, it ends up looking chalky in areas. But I don’t mind. I’ve always felt like pale, tentative watercolors were a plague on young artists. My mantra is “More Paint, Less Water’.
I should note: I keep two large jars of water, so always have a dirty and a fresh water. I don’t want to have an emergency and not have clean water. I always find a reasonable time to change it out, so I have that backup. If you need to lay clear water – to draw out pigment (edge-pulling, [as per this video], or to lift an overly aggressive mark – or if you switch from a dark sedimentary color to a clear bright color – you can’t use dirty grey water.
So – always keep one water clean! That’s why, in the field, I use three small Nalgene water jars instead of one big one. So I have two backups to try and make it through a sketch.
Ok, that’s it for today! Let me know how your marathon is going? Is it hard to get started? Or hard to get your everyday things done once you start painting? :)
~m
If you are not tired of hearing me talk – Uma Kelkar has posted a short interview with me, myself – part of our mutual getting-to-know-each-other for #30x30DirectWatercolor2019.
Have a read on Uma’s blog RIGHT HERE>
It’s short :) Mostly about my in-progress attempt to be a painter, and about the relevance of watercolor in today’s culture.
~thx!
Some people have been interested in the digital sketching process – so – here’s a video export.
I used the app ProCreate on the IPad. One of its neat features is the ability to automatically make these replays of every brush stroke. If only it was this easy to record a watercolor!
[^ Just a screenshot ^]
Things to note:
Big brushes: I use the biggest brushes I can. Even bigger relative to the image size than with real-world media, because digital makes it possible. In real life, this would have to a 6” diameter Japanese calligraphy brush. And it would take a bucket of paint. This would be pretty messy and expensive (so much paint!).
Layer/Draw/Erase loop > A: Swipe and Erase: This is something I do all the time. It’s essential to my approach to digital painting.
- Use a new layer so I can lay a big swipe of color across the painting.
- Erase it back to the shape I really wanted. I just find this more accurate – and I get more interesting edges than if I tried to force the software to draw exactly the right shape in one stroke. Especially for something tiny like this ribbon of light onto horizon.
- I use the ‘Jagged Brush’ preset in ProCreate quite a bit – (it’s like a splayed mop) and I use the same brush on the eraser, so none of my digital mark-making has that ‘overly clean’ look of digital drawing.
- Stay away from the generic mono-weight digital pen stroke!
Swipe and Smudge:
- Make a new layer,
- Sketch in some lines, patterns of dots, or just draw a brush swipe,
- Smear the edge of that shape with the smudge tool (shaped like a finger).
- This is similar to the stroke-erasing method, but gives a different edge quality. It’s sort of how you expect blending to work in oils, but much cleaner. More perfect amount of blend. You can also adjust the size and pressure of the blend tool.
I should also say – I do not use an iPencil or other stylus. I prefer to just paint with my fingers. I can’t be bothered keeping the pen charged etc, and – you’re always doing things like [two-finger pinch and zoom] or [two-tap for undo], [three-tap for redo]. I find it annoying to put down and pick up the pen all the time. I just finger paint the whole thing and I have gesture controls – at my finger tips! <wooomp wahhhh – dad joke]
Anyway. I find digital painting terrific for studies. I’m not sure I’ve figured out using it for finished work yet. But one day! I keep hoping it will become a wonderful new art form. It has so much promise for ease-of-use and instant sharing.
Feel free to post any of your own digital art in the comments!
~m
Day One : #30x30DirectWatercolor2019 : Stormy Skies
Ok! Here we go with thirty paintings in thirty days! Wish me luck and you’ll have that goodwill back in spades for your own painting marathon :)
This was my very first sketch. It was the first idea for the entire series, containing everything all in one painting. The massive black shapes, the high contrast glints, in a way, this is the first drawing and the best one in the series.
At this point I’ve done 45 or so black and white digital sketches like this, and am just starting to translate them into watercolor. I’m very interested to see what actually happens. My hope is, I can take these black and white shape sketches and add color instinctively. With no plan when I start, just instinct.
It’s quite a gamble, to do the entire project based on this theory :)
That’s probably why I did three versions of this right off the bat. All painted on the same day. These cloudscapes can go pretty quickly. There’s so little drawing to do, I can simply start filling the page with color.
Each one of these uses wet-on-dry painting. That is, starting with dry paper. I paint the sky all in one go, trying to preserve the whites as little gaps in my huge brush strokes.
I leave a little dry edge so it doesn’t bleed into the sea, and repeat the process – painting the lower half, all in one go.
The biggest difference is the use of granulating blacks in the second piece.
I’m using Lunar Black. A pigment from Daniel Smith. Here, I probably mixed it with Turquoise, which is giving a blue-tinted bleed.
Lunar Black in an incredibly granular pigment that just falls out of the washes in this pebbly effect. It’s hard to control if you want a specific effect, but I love it for what it does on its own.
Now. This third one. I intend to show it like this.
It’s a perfect painting of a field of dirty snow. Something I know quite well from living in Alberta.
It is, of course, the third variation of the sky. But I happened to put it down on the table flipped, and found out by accident that I like it.
I don’t know what you think about flipping a painting and saying – “Oh yes, I meant to do that. This is perfect”. But A: I don’t care, I like it. And B: I don’t care, I like it. :)
I mean – it works! There’s kind of a weird psychological kink among *some painters*, where a thing has to be as hard as possible or it isn’t worth doing. If something came accidentally, then it’s not valid. Because you didn’t sweat for it. I think it’s tied to the idea that the number of hours something takes is how you measure its value.
I just don’t think art is measured per hour like plumbing or legal representation. Art has an inherent value. The mystic power of a painted image to create an imaginary world into which your mind can travel. This has nothing to do with whether “it happened by accident”, or, “it took me a hundred hours to paint it”. Because of course, accident isn’t always accident – it can be experience. The ability to see something and make a decision to accept it.
Besides. If I’d never told you, you’d never have known.
Oops. Meant to publish in the AM. Ok no problem – we start a few hours early :) ~m
Good morning everyone! It’s the first day of #30x30DirectWatercolor2019!
I wanted to start out easy with a mini interview with our co-organizer Uma Kelkar. (NOTE: All the paintings in this post are Uma’s work.). I’ve been getting to know her better during the ramp up to #30×30 – so I took the chance to ask her some pointed questions.
MARC:
This is the second year we will be doing 30×30 together. I know we both have big plans. (Find out more about Uma’s Project Vivify)
I want to ask you a few things that are on my mind. And I hope new readers can learn a bit about you.
I know you do both watercolor and iPad paintings. We both have worked in tech, and know the power of new media. So my first question: Why do you persist in making art ‘by hand’? (paper, pigment, and brush) – versus committing to making images ‘with technology’. (Software, photography).
UMA:
Art is primarily selfish and I enjoy pleasing myself with it. All self-pleasurable things build on themselves – and especially watercolor painting which is never the same as the day before.
It keeps giving the self-satisfaction – even self-consolation at times. My relationship with painting is almost sexual – when the brush touches the paper and I get the right value and smooth gradient with a brush, it’s akin to sexual pleasure.
MARC:
I certainly appreciated Uma’s answer :) but I asked her for some more about digital painting – because it’s on my mind this year, considering my own strategy for 30×30.
UMA:
“The brush touch is better than an iPad touch. The ‘feedback’ – the drag of the paper and the spring of the brush. In comparison, the iPad feels cold. The glass surface is too slick, to un-yielding”.
“There’s pleasure in controlling something that doesn’t want to be controlled.” (watercolor). Digital drawing takes away this risk and therefore makes it less thrilling. Also – it’s faster – 30 minutes of watercolor gets you so much more than 30 minutes of digital”.
(Ed. note; paraphrasing a chat) In fact, Uma says she tried to enjoy digital with every generation of the iPad, but it just wasn’t good enough until the introduction of the iPencil in 2017. It is only with the new pressure and tilt control that she finds the iPad to be a real tool for art.
MARC:
Assuming you are painting primarily ‘from life’ – (I see mostly “places” in your published work) why is this your subject matter of choice? Is it simply convenience, is it a question of skill-building, or is it driven by (your belief about) what other people like?
UMA:
“When we spoke this morning Marc, you hit the nail on its head calling art as a stand-in for virtual travel.
Painting rescued me when I was a new mother by being this intimate activity I could do just for me, where no one else’s opinion mattered but mine and the watercolor usually reacted to my emotions.
My older son was still young and I couldn’t travel. A full-time startup job and there were no more hours in the week to make trips. So, painting beautiful scenes was my escape. I’ve always wanted to live among trees (I am a complete wimp about rats/mice/bugs but I think I will overcome this fear). Trees calm me down.
Hiking is another family past time. Hiking and drawing is a way to make time for art. With a young family whose day time was precious, we could unwind in nature and I could get a quick painting in.
This is the story of why I became a ‘landscape’ painter primarily in the eyes of the viewer. For the record, I draw absolutely everything and my collection of bathroom sketches is extensive. Where do you think new moms draw? Bathrooms!
Anyhow, Silicon Valley lifestyle led to another skill: I spend about 2-3 hours daily in mind-numbing commute. Which means, if I see a good composition, I can actively see, note it to memory and then repeat the looking either next day or the next time I pass by the composition.
I recall this scene when I paint next. I front load my memory with the scenes I have seen and when I am back in the studio (yes, got a studio in 2018) I can put down the atmosphere I felt onto paper.
At least that’s what I’d like to think I can do.”
MARC:
Later in a chat, Uma said some more about how she balances work, life and art. She says it’s actually an advantage to have a busy life. That she would not make the art she does if it were not a conscious decision to make time every week.
Being a working mother forces her to be present and ready to create when it’s time. It sounds like a good solution to never having artist’s block.
Uma also talked about the importance of building a supportive circle around your art.
UMA:
“You need a supportive family – even the kids – they see you happy, so they want to make the time for you to work – that’s important. To make them part of your art practice”.
Uma says – and I think this is genius – she consciously trained her family, but at the same time they want her to succeed and make art, so it’s a positive, virtuous feedback loop.
I asked her if she ever resents her career and family – many female artists have been vocal about the sacrifices they had to make in order to be artists. Uma says this is not the case. It works for her, and it is not her ambition to be a full-time artist. The proper balance of art, a tech job, and family is exactly what she wants.
Very interesting answer! I don’t hear that often in artist interviews.
MARC:
Last question: Is it necessary for art to have narrative or conceptual content? (Story, Politics). Or is it sufficient that it be a physical/visual experience for the viewer? Is painting propaganda, or is it a message for the viewer? (or a roller coaster ride).
UMA:
”Art has to work for the creator. Eventually, as long as the artist does the job of sharing her/his work, the requisite audience pools around artists whose work they connect with.”
I think she slightly dodged my question – which was aimed at ‘what is the message behind your art’. But she said later in the chat that this isn’t really relevant or important for her.
Her work doesn’t have a pre-determined agenda because it’s a reflection of her experiences. She is producing art as part of her life. Her work is a projection of her feelings when she’s in a place. The world around her is reflected back in her paintings.
“This is a kind of ‘documentary’ or ‘journaling’ art practice that I think is the core of plein air painting or urban sketching or any of the various movements where the artist is going out into the world to see what they can find.
There is more ‘out there’ to inspire than back in the four walls of the studio”.
>>>>
So that was a fascinating discussion! It’s been great to learn more about what goes on inside the head of one of my favorite painters.
I can’t wait to see what Uma does with this year’s 30×30 painting marathon.
My Goals for #30x30DirectWatercolor2019
I’ve been thinking about my goals for #30×30.
If any of you guys are participating this year – maybe you are also planning right now?
It’s an interesting working model – a 30 day marathon. A self-contained chunk of time. Significantly longer than a week-long sprint (for instance #OneWeek100People). 30 days is long enough to complete something major, but short enough that you can pose yourself an interesting (risky?) problem. Maybe one that won’t have a solution. Or won’t become the mainstream of your art practice.
If you succeed – great. If you fail – ah well, not the end of the world. :)
To that end I’ve set myself some simple-but-ambitious goals for #30x30DirectWatercolor2019.
- Main Goal: Paint 30 watercolors in a new body of work, with a consistent theme/style. This is going to be the next logical step for me and Direct Watercolor. I’m working in the studio, as opposed to on location, working from invented compositions rather than life, and, working with larger brushes and pre-mixed paint, as opposed to my plien-air field kit.
- Bonus Goal: Extract two pieces to enter into our national competition (CSPWC) which happens to be due at the end of June.
- Double Bonus Goal: Produce a monograph about the project. Kind of a companion pice to the first Direct Watercolor book, but even less of an art-instruction and more of an art-art book.
- Prep Work: (Already Complete!) This year I wanted to be ready *before* the first day with at least 30 preliminary sketches. (Final set is somewhere around 45). I chose to make monochrome studies – sometimes called Notan sketches. Though a true Notan is pure black and white (with no halftone) I’ve allowed the colors to smudge. I did these sketches digitally, (Procreate on iPad) in order to work rapidly, and with the ultimate in flexibility.
Ok! That’s my plan.
What about you guys – does anyone have a specific project this year?
It’s ok if not. “I just want to do 30 in 30” is totally fine :)
But if you *are* doing something structured please drop me a comment or email – it’ll be interesting to hear what people are up to. I would like to keep track of any interesting slash ambitious projects.
Our co-moderator Uma Kelkar has a very interesting project which she is calling VIVIFY. This is going to be a scientific study into the effects of music on painting. Do you listen to music? or paint in silence? I personally listen to podcasts when painting. A habit I picked up from my days as a digital illustrator. But – I’m participating in the study myself and I’ve been assigned to the silence group! It’ll be interesting to see how that feels.
If you want to find out more – or volunteer to join the study – check out her project notes.
Ok – see you next weekend for #30x30DirectWatercolor2019!
-m
Citizen Sketcher 