William
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Viewing 3 posts - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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Throwing us "into the deep end" of Beebe Lake (!) on the first day of class, with the exercise of drawing the bird, was a great idea! The instruction then was a little vague on whether to just draw the warbler and leave it at that, or to actually go on and apply watercolor. My initial pencil sketch and then my end-of-course color version, based on a new sketch, are inserted below. The biggest lesson I learned between that first class and the conclusion with the warbler was that I could add a final coat of a different yellow to make the image of the bird stand out more. Note that the early sketch is on white paper but my photograph tinted it.
Here are my and-of-course sketches in the final watercolor, which needs work but I am afraid of overworking it.
The bill and eye are all wrong, I did them last. As the critical part of the image next time they will be done first.
Wow! There are some wonderful images below.
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I like being able to use different shading techniques, and especially the blending which is new to me. Thank you. I found that some objects are easier to shade/shadow than others. For example, a lightly tanned potato was difficult because the smooth skin mostly looked the same from any angle. The image inserted below shows what I selected as a difficult object--for a beginner--to draw, namely a piece of firewood (which I had sawn and chopped for our wood stove!) I would appreciate a critique, please. When all the colors are similar shades of brown and gray, how do we differentiate? Suggestion: Could Liz or a colleague present a demonstration video on how to shade complex objects, such as a log?In other words, could the class have an additional video that applies our basic skills in shading the ball, chiaroscuro, to show how to tackle a more difficult object, please?
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Being able to sketch and paint outdoors has been something I have wanted to learn for the last year. Especially as a skill for when we travel. Amazingly, my wife gave me the Cornell course as a Christmas 2022 gift. What a wonderful surprise! I share two things that I did once I started to get familiar with the online course material: first, since these are watercolors that I am seeing for the first time, I painted a color chart, pictured in the lower right corner of the image below. How different some of the paints appear on paper as opposed to being in the pans in the travel kit. Secondly, I personalized the Canson sketchbook by doing my first-ever water brush composition of a scene drawn from memory, also pictured below. I separated the page and pasted it on the front cover of the book. As a beginning watercolorist, these paints on the course supply list and the water brushes are new to me. The piece below is the "loosest" that I have ever done! All those conservation and taxonomy classes in Fernow Hall prepared me to start out with a very representational approach! Thanks for a great set of beginning exercises!--Bill, January 4, 2023
Here are my and-of-course sketches in the final watercolor, which needs work but I am afraid of overworking it.
The bill and eye are all wrong, I did them last. As the critical part of the image next time they will be done first.
Wow! There are some wonderful images below.
Viewing 3 posts - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)