Psychedelic Rocks

This was a fun exercise taught by Tim Packer on ArtAcademyLive. Rocks are painted as a single shape at first with colors dropped in. When dry, the first rocks are separated from the herd by painting the shadow that defines where they overlap the rocks behind. This continues as each new rock dries.

The negative approach lets you paint layers of objects. Pretty cool - will have to keep working on this and learn how to further this approach.

Snow and trees

This is from a short video by Sterling Edwards. Check out his website to watch him paint this scene.

The teaches me lots of possibilities in learning wet into wet and snow scenes.

Lighthouse

A quick sketch for my sister who loves lighthouses. But then, who doesn't! :)

Shack in snow

Starting to look a little better. A quick painting without a pencil sketch.

Tree in Winter

Doing a tree the Tony Couch way. Lots of fun with his teaching style. From his book Watercolor Technique.

Camel Walking

Whimsical figure from a book by Fiona Peart called 30 minute art.

Barn with fall colors

Barn scene from book by Richard Taylor. Getting a little better but needing much much more practice.

Bike

Quick sketch from one of my too many watercolor books I bought when I started painting. I love the simplicity of this image, the shadow and expansive white make the bike look as though it was in bright sunlight, at least to me. The fun continues!

Planks

More merging colors to simulate the look of wood planks.

Street scene - Daniel Smith catalogue cover

Simple scene but fun. Came from cover of latest Daniel Smith catalogue. I like the bright walls and shadows, helps me to learn depth in a wc painting.

Shed with fence

This is my version of a piece done by a local watercolor teacher I met at a Tom Jones presentation at Jerry last year. This is another example of the wet in wet technique which I really love. I'll have to keep working and get on to larger pieces as my confidence grows.

Shack No. 1

I've been working on barn wood textures after viewing the work of Sterling Edwards, Tony Couch and other artists who render beautiful barn scenes. This seems to be more a trailer without wheels than a real shack but what the heck! Having fun anyway!

Birch tree

This is from an online free watercolor site called "bigbrush" and is a quick painting done with a few colors and using a credit card to drag the paint across the tree to create the look of peeling bark. Check out Bigbrush. The author offers a few diff lessons for decent price.

Mono house

This was the second painting I did in the class. I got this exercise from one of the many books I bought before I could make myself start painting. It involved only one color (sepia in this case) and showed me how different tones of the same color can infer depth, etc.

Koi I

My first watercolor attempt done in first class I took. It got me hooked just picking up the brush and dropping in color which is all we did for this project after drawing the fish outline and brushing in clear water is spots. Very simple exercise but it worked out well for me.