Category: Water Color
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Nimishillen Creek: #5
I drive through Spiker Park three times a week, to take Norah to swim, or Winnie to dance. The West Branch of Nimishillen Creek goes through Spiker Park, and I drive over it on the way. Almost every time I do, I am struck by the strong contrast in the reflections on the water. When…
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Bluebirds & Random Drawings
I honestly dont feel like writing about these, because I just typed a metric tonne about that Homer drawing. But I also want to publish these paintings, because I want to document my progress. Like I said, Im really tired after working all day, then painting, then writing a ginormous blog post I want to…
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Bargue Plate: Homer
Its been a while! I havent posted recently because I got Covid, and Ive been playing catch up ever since. If you are curious, read on. Skip ahead if you dont care about Covid. TL/DR; Covid is real, and really dangerous for some people – but Im fine and I never got terribly sick. My…
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Drawing Practice
I have decided to put a more concerted effort toward being a better draftsman, because of all the things I have tried, nothing has improved my paintings more than practicing drawing. I dont know how to practice drawing. I have seen a thousand videos of people drawing. Ive watched dozens of tutorials explaining perspective, edges,…
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Farm Road: End of Year 3
Well, Ive been painting for three years now. Its time for me to do my little progress check. When I first started painting, I decided to try to paint the same thing every day for one month. It was the first watercolor painting I had ever really tried, and I figured painting it over and…
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Monarch Butterfly: #1
Well, I am often too hard on myself when it comes to my paintings, but today, I finished a painting that I am happy with. Actually, I am very happy with this painting. Ill go so far as to say Im proud of this painting. One of the things that I think makes this painting…
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Lobelia Cardinalis: #1
This painting has been haunting my mind for years: This is by Oleg Kozak, a Ukrainian watercolor artist who unfortunately passed away in November, 2017. This man had the ability to capture light in a way that I havent seen in many other painters. I decided to try to look deeper into his paintings to…
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Nostalgia Blossom: #1
I have decided to take a brief two week hiatus from watercolor. I think a small break will help me bump past this plateau Ive been stuck at for the past few months. In the meantime, Ive been working on some other creative endeavors. I think by exploring other media, Ill improve at watercolor by…
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Tufted Titmouse: #1
My friends Tyler and Shanti want a tufted Titmouse painting, so I went for it today. I didnt bother taking any progress photos because I wanted to focus on the painting itself. I find that when Im painting I get all worked up thinking about what am I going to write about on my blog…
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Bluebird: #2
I have been feeling stuck in a bit of a plateau for a while now. I decided to take a break from painting for a bit because my lack of progress was troubling me. I then watched a video on YouTube that convinced me that I need to put more effort into understanding construction and…
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Bluebird: #1
Ok. I have excuses. This is a painting of a bluebird. First things first: its awful. Ok. Fine. Now that the self defeatism is done with: what can I learn? Well, three big things jump out at me: 1. The composition is flat flat flat. I liked the effect I got with one of the…
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Red-Bellied Woodpecker
The next painting in the series of bird paintings for my friends Tyler and Shanti is a Red-Bellied Woodpecker. I LOVE seeing this guy show up at my bird feeder, so I was pretty excited to paint him. One thing – in case you dont know. The red-bellied woodpecker has a red head, yes. But…
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Barred Owl: #1-4
My friends Tyler and Shanti asked me to paint some pictures of birds for them. I agreed to do so, as long as they agreed to just tell me that the final paintings were good, regardless of their true quality. (Kidding, I didnt make them agree to anything.) The first (largest) painting they wanted was…
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Ray Hendershot Exercise: Lighthouse #1
I have been absolutely stuck for the past few weeks. Every time I sit down to paint, nothing comes to mind. Nothing inspires me, I have no intention. But, just as an act of discipline, I paint anyway. The results are nothing to write about. Its all very ugly, muddy, cliche… just nothing that Im…
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Crappie Weather: #1
I have been wanting to get out and go fishing for quite a long time, and this past weekend, I finally did. The ice has thawed, and they are letting Nimisilla fill with the ice melt. So, on Saturday, I dropped my kayak from the ceiling, loaded it on the car, and drove to the…
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Self Portrait: #Something
This looks like a painting I would laugh at if I came across it in Magic: The Gathering. (Which I have never played, but want to.) The artist who painted this was clearly trying really hard, and clearly didnt know where to start or what to omit, and as a result we have a sloppy…
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Buttermilk Falls: #3
I hate this painting. No… I loathe this painting. This painting actually made me mad at it when I was finished last night, because I knew it was ruined as soon as I laid down the first wash in the sky. I kept going likes dummy, hoping it would somehow fix itself. It didnt. I…
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Buttermilk Falls: #2
I bought the game Parks the other day, and was inspired by the artwork in the game. The cards contain images styled after the WPA posters for the National Parks that were created in the 1930s. I was enamored by the designs and imagery, so I decided to try making something that fit into that…
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Buttermilk Falls: #1
When I think about the past, everything is either polluted with a frenetic purple anxiety, or its a soft marigold mist of peaceful contentment. There doesnt seem to be any in-between. I dont know if this is peculiar to me, or if everyone has such a bipolar memory, but for me it seems all the…
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Reflections in Water: #1
The other day, I watched Joseph Zbukvics Rural France in Watercolor for the thirsty-eleventh time. I figure it was more expensive than any other movie Ive ever paid for, so I might as well watch it over and over and over… I decided to try his water lilly painting. It came out fairly nice, though…