Just practice

I got a few new watercolors from Daniel Smith a couple days ago and wanted to try them out. I'll make another post about the watercolors themselves once I've heard from Daniel Smith. I contacted them to ask why one of the colors behaves differently (and by "differently" I mean: turns to plastic on the palette and refuses to re-wet.... really not good).

Anyway, I was looking for an excuse to do a little practice picture, and this was it. I had almost forgotten how much fun it is just to sort of doodle on a piece of paper. This practice thing was made with a small filbert and three of the four colors I ordered (plus a tiny bit of burnt umber). The new colors I got were brown iron oxide, transparent brown oxide, and Monte Amiata natural sienna. The other one I got, Verona Gold Ochre, I couldn't use.  The two oxides are beautiful, and the sienna is going to be one I use often.

I'll try to get a better photo on a day when there's more natural light. For now, though, this will give you an idea of the really beautiful range of shades you can get from just a limited palette.

Oops, looks like I might have used a bit of bloodstone without realizing it (that's what's in the gray-ish areas). This is a tough picture to get a good photo of. Some of the gradients in this are so soft... 

This is on hot press Arches paper cut to 4 X 6 inches. The painted portion is about 3 X 1 1/2 inches. 

Added 12/24:  Here's another little card-size picture I made today. It was my reward to myself for being so dedicated to that stupid blossom picture. Boy, it really is a complete joy to get to work with watercolors this way. This one has sienna, brown oxide, sepia, a little bit of bloodstone, and a little bit of burnt umber, using a small filbert brush. (Ha ha, once again - for the millionth time - I demonstrate that my pictures are really only a personal thing. What's it say when I forget that primary colors exist and find beauty in these colors?) It occurs to me that this picture is yet another example of what I mean when I say I let my mind go "off leash." I had no idea what this would be before I put down the first brush stroke, but once that stroke went in I knew I was onto something that would captivate me. I guess most people who paint get feelings similar to these. Just a wonderful feeling. I can't imagine why so many painters say stuff like, "I feel like painting, but I don't know what to paint...." Huh? I'm always shocked when people search for reference photos, hoping one of them will have an image they want to more or less copy in a painting. Believe me, that was me a while back, searching for inspiration in others' images, slavishly copying stuff, and making nothing but garbage pictures. Now, of course, I make pictures that others might say are garbage, but they're honest pictures and even the crappiest ones have things in them that I learn from. But, man, when they're not crappy.... when they're what I consider good... it's really tough to beat that feeling.

The colors in this photo might be a little bit saturated, but otherwise they're pretty accurate. The transitions in the area of the dark piece are just so wonderful. I love stuff like this.

Added 12/27/14: Here's another small practice picture. It's kind of fun, getting back into making forms that have some overlap and a bit of a dimensional feel. As usual, it's more or less just doodling.

I took two different photos of this one and adjusted each in Pixlr. I think the second one might be more accurate in terms of color and might have better focus. One thing about this little practice picture is kind of important: It illustrates very well how you can get a fine line by using a filbert. I've never understood why anyone uses a rigger brush, when a filbert will give you a really crisp line and can also let you taper the line to a point. The painted portion of this picture is about 3 inches tall, which should give you an idea of how thin some of the lines are.

The part at the top of this makes me want to do a sort of still life picture that has a bunch of stuff resembling plants, but every time I try to do one with a vase it comes out not so good. Maybe that's what I need to practice....

Followup: As noted in the following post, I might return the gold ochre that doesn't want to re-wet. But I decided I'd try an experiment first. I have a small bottle of gum arabic. I mixed a little of that with a bit of the gold ochre and I'll let it dry and see if the re-wetting properties improve. I'd really like to keep this paint, rather than returning it, because if it is anything like W&N gold ochre I know I'll enjoy using it. I don't have any honey on hand. If I did, I'd try mixing it with that as well, because I believe Daniel Smith is using honey as a binder in some of their watercolors. If you've ever used M. Graham watercolors you may have noticed how they separate in the tube after a while, and when you go to squeeze some out you get a big blob of honey before you get any paint. The same thing happens with some of the Daniel Smith paint. (Update: It didn't work. The paint is like a rock. It repels water. Something just isn't right about it.)

I had to just about grind the ochre with a soaking wet angle shader to get any color from it. I actually wondered if they accidentally put acrylic paint in the tube by accident! The other three colors re-wet effortlessly using a #6 round that was barely wet. The sienna is really a lovely color, and that transparent brown oxide is a great gap filler between burnt umber and burnt sienna. So, three out of four isn't bad, but still.... shouldn't it be four out of four?