Monday, September 29, 2008

Watercolor

I took up watercolor several years ago because I wanted to do something other than pen and ink. I have always admired the washy look of watercolors as opposed to the hard lines you get with oils or acrylics. Tim bought me a "How to Paint in Watercolor" from our local art studio as a birthday gift, along with a full set of paints, brushes and other accessories. I still count that as the very best gift he's ever given me. (Sure, I liked the diamond earrings and ring too, but the watercolor was way out of his element and perfect for me.) I took the class and after several days of practising we painted a picture of a Russian Orthodox church, which I never took a picture of, and later gave as a donation to our church for an auction to raise money for missions. My second painting in class, the one where we could pick our own subject, was of my dog Pepsi. It turned out well I think. I learned a lot through the process....some colors can be scrubbed or lifted off, some can't. The amazing thing is black is one of the colors you can lift, veridian green is not. Luckily for me I didn't use any green or the picture would have been a disaster.
If you'll look closely at the dogs right front leg, you can see an area the length of the leg directly below it that has been scrubbed out and then repainted to look like a shadowy background. That's how fat I had the leg originally. Once the picture was completely dry, I wetted the area I wanted to dissapear and then carefully blotted it with dry paper towel to lift the paint. You can also lightly scrub the wet area with a stiff brush or even a soft tooth brush but you have to be careful not to disturb the paper surface too much or the new paint won't look right when you paint over it. Fortunately for me, I was just putting another dark color down so the difference is hard to see.
There, now you know all my secrets! Did you know that when I was younger I had trouble painting hooves and feet so I would always put my animals in tall grass or snow so I wouldn't have to draw the feet. Ha! Another secret.
PS I also sketched out the ears way too large - they are not in proper proportion...but since you don't know how goofy my dogs ears were, you would never have guessed this. Only Kris.

1 comment:

Aunt Krissy said...

you know what?! I was thinking to myself " I didnt remember her ears being so freakishley large" but she often did have one ear up and one down, she was a good dog, other then her "odd" behaivor problems.