Monday, January 7, 2008

Avoidance Behavior? Watercolor Play...

Yesterday I had fun playing around with my watercolors, "can we say Avoidance Behavior?!" haha...well I should have been working on a painting but I wanted to test out some colors and tried an experiment with my field kit. Here's a photo of my, um, mess! Well when you're in the middle of working, you know just where everything is. You can click on these for larger views, you can see the painting in the background I want to work on of a kestrel.










It might seem silly, but I think I can write a book for a hundred and one uses for 'sticky tack' or 'blue tack'! I wanted to add more colors to my field kit but there are no more places, so I made some! Where the brush should go, I put three little blobs of sticky tack and smooshed them down. I then put just a bit of wet paint into the divided areas and let it dry. Then the little removable water pan (I mean LITTLE!) I've been using for black paint, so I added a little wall to that and added Naples yellow, I thought it would be good for grasses, people etc. I will let you know if it works, the stuff is amazing, really!

This is a page from a little sketchbook where I tested the colors out. I was comparing reds as you can see, which ones were similar so I didn't have to order new paints. (it's not cheap you know!) The colors at the bottom are tube colors I put into a plastic travel palette, (see it at the bottom of the photo of my 'mess') they're like a repeat of the colors in my large studio palette. I want to see if they'll stay put or will they flake off all over the place? The drawing of the beetle I did from a field guide. I always try to grab something to draw when I know I'll be sitting, wasting time in a waiting room. I have a vinyl 'bible' cover that I picked up at Barnes and Noble that fits a 6"x8" sketchbook and across from it a field guide or other book. I'll post pictures of that sometime, it makes a great little travel kit when outfitted with my 'travel art supplies'.

1 comment:

betty2dogs said...

Great idea with the blue tack! Good luck with your artist's journal...