I’m going to begin this post with a little confession…… around 12 years ago I bought myself a pack of 12 Windsor & Newton professional watercolours and it’s only in the last 6 months that I have actually started making proper use of them… ! I’m also pretty sure that I’m not the only person who’s done that… !!
Out of that set of 12 colours there are 2 greens: Hookers Green and Sap Green. These are both colours that I have virtually never used. Like many artists, if I need green I prefer to mix my own from blues and yellows. Last week I decided to have a little play with those greens….
I started by mixing Hookers Green with Prussian Blue and some lovely ocean colours began to emerge. I continued by mixing the Hookers Green with Phthalo Blue…. more lovely ocean colours….
I went on to do exactly the same with the Sap Green….
…. even more lovely, lovely ocean colours emerged! I love these colours ~ they inspire me. I may not use those greens for foliage but they are certainly going to start featuring in some seascapes in the future.
So…. are you one of those people (like me!) who’ve had a set of paints in a drawer or cupboard for over 10 years and never used them? Why not get them out and have a play with them? Go on, you know you want to…. !! You don’t have to create a masterpiece ~ just play with them ~ mix some colours ~ let them run together, mingle ~ have some FUN with them….
A quick and simple wet in wet watercolour seascape sketch. It took me about 10 minutes. It measures just 5″ x 3.5″. I used just blue paints, apart from a tiny touch of white guache for the sails of the boat…
Colours used: Prussian Blue, Indigo, Phthalo Blue, Cobalt Teal Blue
Today I managed to find an hour to do a couple of quick watercolour seascape sketches….
Above is a watercolour sketch of St. Clements Isle, just off the coast of Mousehole, Cornwall, UK. This is one of those paintings that is best viewed from a slight distance. This watercolour is loosely based on the photo below:
This is the other watercolour sketch I did this afternoon:
This watercolour is of nowhere in particular and just came straight out of my imagination. I started this by wanting to just use up the left over paint in my palette and it kind of turned into a seascape…
I enjoyed doing these quick seascapes this afternoon. Both measure approximately 6″ x 4″ – just the right size to go into my watercolour sketchbook. Both were done on 140 lb watercolour paper.
Today I spent a couple of hours redesigning my blog. I’ve been fiddling with different blog designs on and off for months now but I finally found one I liked. A simple clean light design that I can easily customize if I feel the need for a change. I hope you like the changes here….
Here are four post card size creative seascapes. Just loose washes of watercolour in some bright and some pastel seaside colours and they are best viewed large (click on the images)….
Phthalo Blue, Emerald, Raw Sienna….A touch of permanent Rose for a slightly evening, dusk touch…and a little Prussian Blue ~ one of my favourite blues….These will all assume their rightful places in my watercolour sketchbook….
I have just finished my samples for the Surface Treatment Workshop for this week (which I’m hoping to post tomorrow) and had some acrylic paint left in my palette. So, not wanting to waste the paint, I decided to do a quick mini acrylic seascape on canvas. It’s veering slightly towards the abstract side….
My painting measures 7 cm x 7 cm. So the photo is actually quite a bit bigger than the original painting but that does mean that you can see the detail, especially if you click on the image twice. Acrylic colours used were: Prussian Blue, Indigo, Pale Power Blue, Turquoise, Cerulean Blue, Pale Olive and White. So for a small painting that is actually quite a lot of colours but I do like to do lots of layers of colour with acrylic paints….
This is my very first ever watercolour seascape. It measures 15 cm x 11.5 cm and was painted on watercolour paper (140 lbs Cold Press). You can click the image to view larger. It’s a very simple seascape and loosely based on this image of Woolacombe Sands, North Devon:
I added a little more colour to my watercolour than what’s in the original image. I used just 3 colours – Cerulean Blue Hue, Indigo and Raw Sienna. When I took the photo the very bright hazy sunlight bleached most of the colour from the seascape.
As far as watercolour painting goes I am very much a beginner – very much to learn… ! I’ve always loved watercolour paint – I love the loose washes of colour that so readily mingle with each other, I love both the rich bold colours and the delicate pastel shades too and I love how the watercolour paint flows so effortlessly across the paper…
I have stuck my watercolour seascape into my dedicated watercolour sketchbook. And there will be more watercolour paintings in the future…
This week for the Surface Treatment Workshop we are combining week 7 with week 10 as they both focus on gels and speciality gels respectively, variations of the same thing.
Last week I gathered some textured things for making my own speciality gels with. I gathered some black peppercorns and some sharp sand from my garage . This is what I did with them:
A Distant Shore
In the sample above I used the black peppercorns in the top half, the “sea” part of the image and the sharp sand in the “sand” part of the image. I just laid a thickish layer of matt gel onto my surface and tipped the peppercorns and sand onto the gel. Then I just tipped off any excess. I let the gel dry and then coated the top of the textures surface with more matt gel. When the gel had dried I painted the suface – the sea is painted with indigo and touches of turquoise and the sand is painted with yellow ochre. The sand and peppercorns created some lovely surface texture and the matt gel over the top of them made the surface easy to paint.
Next a completely experimental piece! I had this idea in my head, I had no idea how it would turn out – it was either going to be very good or very bad. How did it turn out? Judge for yourself:
Turbulent Seas
For this sample I used a polythene label off a 4 pint plastic milk bottle. I stuck it to my surface with matt gel in a scrunched kind of way. I let the gel dry a bit first and then I blasted it with a heat gun till the plastic label crinkled and melted. I let it cool down then I coated the top with more matt gel. When that had dried I coated it with 2 coats of white acrylic paint to blot out the remaining writing and colour from the label. The texture created from the melted plastic is awesome. I used loose washes of watercolour paint in shades of Intense Blue and Emerald, when they mixed they created a lovely shade of turquoise. I finished this sample with a coat of gloss gel, which then served to fix the watercolour in place.
Ocean Wave
Something else I gathered last week to use in these samples was some crushed seashells. Again I stuck them to my painted surface with matt gel. To be honest, they looked so lovely I didn’t have the heart to paint over them – I just couldn’t bring myself to do it! So all I did to them was coat them with gloss gel mixed with a little pearl mica (a shade called Diamond Dust) to give a little extra sparkle. You can see it catching the light in the images above and below…
Seascape
In the above sample you will also notice I also used some netting from a bag of veges! I stuck it down with matt gel. The photos above of the crushed seashell samples don’t really do them justice. The reality of them is so much better…
Pebbles
For the above sample I used some black and some white organza, stuck it down with matt gel and melted it with a heat gun – it crinkled up lovely. I then covered it with more matt gel. When dry I finished with a coat of gloss gel mixed with pearl mica for the colour.
Click on any of the images to view them larger…
I really like using gels, they are so useful for so many things – too many to explore in this post. Gels will have a permanent home in my little work room. Next week the Surface Treatment Workshop focuses on Fiber Paste – it’s going to be interesting… !
Seaside scenes ~ things you see at the seaside ~ the harbour, fishing boats, a pier, the lighthouse….
beautiful clear turquoise waters to dip your toes in….
lots of lovely colours and textures on the boats in the harbour ~ they all inspire creative thoughts…
beautiful shades of blue and rusty browns…
I always find lots of creative inspiration at the sea ~ there’s always a never ending supply of lovely textures and colours that blend and complement each other so beautifully…
… the sound of the waves crashing on the shore, the salty sea air, seaweed scents are all so relaxing and peaceful ~ they help creative thoughts come flooding forth…
A black diamond in a shimmering sapphire ocean under an aquamarine sky…
St. Clements Isle, just off the shore of Mousehole, Cornwall, UK, on a beautiful sunny day. I love the blue tones…
A very vintage and creative view of St. Ives, Cornwall, UK. I used one of the photographed papers from my Winter Erosion Bundle as a texture over a St. Ives photo. I love the vintage effect and colours…
