watercolor of downtown sf w/ still life

[daarken]

quick watercolor painting i did last night after being inspired by joseph zbukvic

http://www.daarken.com/flash2003/fineart/downtown.jpg

still life i did. trying to paint really loose and then mix it with some harder edges. the composition was actually twice as wide, but i fucked it up so i had to crop it down to this...now its nice and dead center...yay

http://www.daarken.com/flash2003/fineart/lemon.jpg

[pandawhipped]

I haven't touched watercolor in years, its so intimidating! You've handled it really well. The perspective on the two cars in the front look a little strange, but I'm not sure why. Other than that its got a great sense of depth. I love what you did with the light rail lines. The elements are so ambiguous yet they have just enough information to read correctly. Great job man, its been awesome watching you progress.

[Lukias]

Great work man... I'm watching you!

[endregan]

i concur.

sweet man. wouldnt think of the oil man using watercolours

very cool

[U2DeathBear]

very cool

:)

[daarken]

u2deathbear: thanks :D i expect to see more of your stuff up here soon

endregan: haha, the oil man. i really enjoy using watercolors as well. it allows me to free up more i think.

lukias: :O i am watching you as well!

panda: yeah they might be a little wonky looking, but thanks for the nice comments. i actually kinda messed up on some of the rail lines...they dont go off in the correct perspective.

[Dom]

Great work. Especially the still life. Shows you have control

Do you use wax at all?

Joseph Zbukivic is great, great inspiration.

[daarken]

dom: thanks! wax?? no i dont use wax. ive never heard of wax being used with watercolor before, thats interesting

[el coro]

is that kearny and sutter? it sure looks like it...if it is, i used to work in that corner building when it waws a record store long ago. great work man. very nice watercolor stuff. i hate watercolors, but respect people who know how to use it. good work daarken.-c36

[danteort]

Originally posted by daarken
dom: thanks! wax?? no i dont use wax. ive never heard of wax being used with watercolor before, thats interesting
You can use wax as a resist (either from a crayon or just a cheap birthday candle), in order to save out areas you don't want the paint to cover. It's a neat effect when used well. The nice thing is you don't have to just save out white. You can lay down a color, then put the wax over it, then paint another color on top, and the wax saves your first color.

I like your paintings a lot. I'm just getting into watercolor myself, so keep this in mind.

One thing I'd watch out for is making sure you don't have consistently hard edges throughout your paintings. Take the still life, for example. In life, if I'm looking at one of the pieces of fruit, then the rest of the objects have to be a little blurred. On the other hand, if I want to focus on the plant, then the fruit has to be a little blurred. I see that you have hard edges on the fruit as well as on the furthest leaf, which in reality cannot happen and flattens your painting.

You have a handle on this, I think, but I'm not sure if it's something you're consciously aware of or not, so I thought I'd bring it up.

[Dom]

What he said ^

Wax is very quick to work with. Great artists used it throughout the centuries, including Sargent. Us a candle to block in the white you want to remain the color of the paper. The you dont have to worry about water affecting that area.

Cheers

[fukifino]

First off, Daarken, those paintings kick ass. I've always been a fan of watercolor and that city scene rocks.

Second, about the wax...do you normally remove it when the paintings done (via scaping or something?) or do you generally leave it on? Just curious because wouldn't scraping it off potentially scrape off some paint too? And leaving it on, even if it's generally clear...wouldn't that still be pretty visible? Maybe not enough to matter.

[danteort]

Originally posted by fukifino
Second, about the wax...do you normally remove it when the paintings done (via scaping or something?) or do you generally leave it on? Just curious because wouldn't scraping it off potentially scrape off some paint too? And leaving it on, even if it's generally clear...wouldn't that still be pretty visible? Maybe not enough to matter.
Wax is usually left on, since the reason you'd use it in the first place is for the particular effect it creates.

Generally, to get white areas you just save out the white (paint around it). Wax is for particular instances when you want something a little different than that. Basically, you have to try it to see what it does.