golden zorn

 I wonder if I could paint goldy in Zorn?

That's pretty!  I wish I could remember how I got the different shades of red.  I want to try this again. 

tutorial failure

 

I don't know why, but tutorials are probably the worst way for me to learn.  I feel like I'm copying a painting or even steps of a painting.  I think I would do better if I could have the steps but work from life or a phot rather than follow someone else's painting.  

Anyway, this never amounted to anything.  It's also the wrong time of year to be thinking of cherry blossoms when I'm having to keep the frost off the humming bird feeders.  

Goldie

 

Painted him for a friend.

First time using caput mortuum (beautiful rich, granulating opaque watercolour, earth red) but I lost some of the glow so I used some gold paint to give him back some shine before the final layer.

I tried a thing, it kind of worked.  

Trick or Treat

 

You know how I worried I bought the wrong colours in the last post?

Well, it gets worse.  This trio is secondary colours - what a crazy challenge I set myself to paint something with this.  

Same lifting problems as last time.  I tried to use it to my advantage, but I just couldn't get the deep darkness I wanted.  Adding layers to make it darker, lifted the old layer and made it lighter.  It's like opposite to what I would expect watercolours to do.  

The reference I used for this is a photo I took a few years back in the local park.  Dappled light through the leaves and a face that caves in on itself.  Brilliant.

After Halloween, thousands of pumpkins, carved, melted, burnt, and rotting, appear in one of the local parks.  It's a marvelous thing to see.

We like to pretend wildlife eats them all, but in reality the tax dollars clean them up.  Money well spent.  I wonder if the weather will let me go with my paint set instead of just a camera this year?  

deceptive handmade watercolours

 These should be so beautiful.  I had such wonderful results buying handmade watercolour so far, that I thought I would try a different seller on etsy.  They get great reviews.  

They swatch beautifully!  

Not sure this is quite cut out for a chicken.  How about one of my other obsessions?  A hobbit-ish house?

The first layer started off well.  Blending is lovely.  Got some good strong colour right away.

The problem comes with the next layer.  See that window on the right.  Smudge city.  

The paint lifts like crazy.  One layer painting is fine, but I like to layer.  sigh.  They feel like they aren't bonding to the paper like regular watercolours.  Some watercolours lift a bit, but it usually needs more than a hint of water.  These feel like they don't have enough binder.  But maybe I just choose the wrong colours?  

I wonder, how about this limited palette?

 Again with the Beam Paints - more and more I fall in love with them.  Lucky for me the price is about equal or less than most big name paints in the local art shops.  

And my new favourite limited palette.  

Timberwolf (paynes grey)

Mars (caput mortuum)

and Fall Popular (hansa yellow)

For this one, I included a bit of graphite, but meh.  It's not the right addition to this trio.  

(and yes, this is totally a variation on Handsome - glad you noticed.  I use him to try out new colour combinations but mostly I give him back his comb points because poor fella) 

Forever handsome

He used to have the most beautiful comb!  But alas, he's not the wisest when it comes to battle.  But the hens love him and that's what counts in the end.  

I think this is one of my favouite examples of how much personality handmade paints can add to the picture.  I don't think I could get the feathers half way close without it.  

Painting feathers are hard (is hard?)