Then I just did a few daffodils freehand, just to try working it out ... Will try again tomorrow, when, perhaps, it'll be quieter!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Then I just did a few daffodils freehand, just to try working it out ... Will try again tomorrow, when, perhaps, it'll be quieter!
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4 comments:
I'm amazed you got any painting done at all, with the hammering and sawing going on. I think I would have hightailed it to the bookstore...
My feeling is that an alla prima approach is better suited to the character of daffodils, but that's just one person's opinion. I love what you did in the freehand study! Those touches of turqoise are a wonderful contrast to the yellows and oranges.
Hope you have a quiet day tomorrow :)
I agree with Mineke that alla prima is the best way though I've never heard of that term applied to watercolors (maybe I don't pay attention to methods).
I sketched some daffodils last week as much to be near the smell as to draw. It wasn't a very complete composition so I went in with some watercolor pencil and found that I used both a cool (for the perianth) and a cadmium yellow for the cup. But mine were all yellow.
It's a challenge to get the intense yellows, transparencies and shadows but with your approach, I think you can do so beautifully.
Sounds like a lot of excitement at your house;. Hope the workmen are pleasant enough and the results are satisfactory.
Just wondering - do you always sketch first and then fill in? Your quote by Sargent suggests that traveling the knife edge of emergency is what makes great art. I go back and forth and found I need a 100 images to make one look spontaneous. Love your latest works.
I agree with you, Mineke, alla prima works best. For me, anyway, it keeps me from being too "careful" and allows for things to happen on their own.
The watercolor pencil's a good idea, Suzanne. I should get mine out and keep them on my painting table, then maybe I'll think to use them!
I go back and forth too, Bill. And I fall into old, bad habits when I paint a lot by myself ... like "filling in"! I don't always draw first, especially not for figures or flowers, but the problem for me is not so much the restriction of the pencil line as it is the way I touch the brush to the paper: in my "bad" paintings, I paint with the tip and fill in; in good ones, I press the brush down to the ferrule and pull it! (There's a good description of this in one of the Charles Reid books; I'll look it up as soon as I can get to my books--everything covered in drop cloths here!)
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