Tuesday, July 20, 2010

next up ...

(11x15)
I added more rigging to and behind the Lucky Danny (I know it looks like Lucky Penny, which is also okay!) and contemplated doing more to define the apparatus on all the boats, but decided to skip it here, mainly for the reason that, when I look at my photos, I'm not really sure what I'm looking at. I may need to consult a commercial fisherman!
There's such a tumble of lines and unidentifiable things, that I can't pick them all out. I'll have to settle for the suggestion ... and call it done.

(11x15)
I also started a larger redo of the scene that I messed up earlier (below). This time I started with the windows, which I was so unhappy with and washed out (big mistake: there's no going back) in the earlier version. The ones above are okay; though I don't like how uniform they are and think perhaps I should have broken a few of the edges and let the paint run out ... But I'm not going to meddle them with now, as I'm sure that would not be a help. "Don't correct," just move on.
Windows are hit-or-miss for me. Sometimes they work so well; othertimes they're ugly black holes! Sometimes I just draw two sides of a window, or the shadows the frames cast. I find the more thoroughly I try to describe them, the worse they look to me.
Does anyone have a preferred method for painting windows?



 
(7x11)

 Today I got some new brushes in the mail, recommended to me by my friend Shelby, whose teacher recommended them to her. They're Pearl Paints Tribeca brushes: synthetic (so inexpensive), with big bellies that hold lots of water, and nice fine points.
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13 comments:

Joyfulartist said...

I love your boats! Whenever I paint boats they get sort of short and "cute", I call them girly boats. Yours are not that.

Diana said...

Beautiful Boats! I love them,Diana

Carol said...

Laura, they're beautiful! I couldn't even attempt those! I always like to hear about new brushes. My all-time favorite was a freebie from Cheap Joe. I've used it for years & it finally lost its point.

A Brush with Color said...

Laura! These, and the post below, are awesome! They are beautiful. I think boat paintings are so difficult, especially for some of what you mention here--they're so complicated. Yours look very credible but definitely expressive. Well done!!

Teresa said...

Your painting is coming along wonderfully. I recently took some photos of shrimp trawler with the idea of painting it one day... but will have to do some simplifying... there's lots of unidentifiable stuff on board that boat too.

Sharon said...

Your patience paid off, Laura. This is a lovely painting!

Autumn Leaves said...

Man, Laura! You are just so good! I think the windows look perfect. They should be neat and orderly and squared, shouldn't they? These paintings are so pretty, so frameworthy, so hang on my wall worthy!!! Lovely!

Cathy Gatland said...

I know exactly the angst of working in stages Laura, but these boats - and the reflections, wow! - have turned out beautifully, no false moves at all!

Barbra Joan said...

Laura, what I usually do to paint a window (which is not that often) is use a flat brush the size of the window and one quick swipe .. done. You can then go in with a fine brush to define a shadow line .

Marie Theron said...

Lovely boats, Laura! Bright contrasting colours look so nice on water. You have very good watercolour technique, too! Thank you for the visit and comment about my wedding painting!

cathyswatercolors said...

Hi laura, really great boat painting. I really the it was finished before but now when I look at this painting it is clearly different, improved and finished. Thanks for the tips on the brushes.

M R Anand said...

The boats have come out beautifully. I also enjoyed your work of the irises!

RH Carpenter said...

The thing I was told by a teacher about windows is give them a warm color at the tops and a cool color at the bottoms - it works, if for no other reason than you change your colors more than you normally would. So a touch of warm or another color in a couple of these would break the similarity, if you want to try that. I am glad you stopped at your boat mastings when you did - if you can't tell what they are, we can't - and don't need to - we just need to know they are lines and masts and rigging.