Category: Year 1
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Open Ocean Exercise 1: #1
This is the next exercise in Ron Hazells Painting Water with Watercolor. I really really struggled with this one. Before I go too deep, heres what it looks like in the book, this is what Im trying to paint. In order to paint that, Ron Hazell first provides an exercise on painting waves…
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Rough Water Exercise 4: #1
Mark the calendar. Today is the first time since I started painting (seven months ago) that I am happy with the end result. There are still things I would change, but I am proud of this one. This is another exercise from Ron Hazells Painting Water with Watercolor, so I cant take credit for the…
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Water Glitter Exercise 2: #1
This is another exercise from Ron Hazells Painting Water with Watercolors. I must say, I find myself less interested in painting water now than when I started, but I am learning so much – about everything – by working through this book that Im definitely going to keep plugging away at it. This exercise is…
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Knifed Rocks Exercise: #1
After the exercise on painting rough water, Ron Hazells book provides instruction on painting rocks. He proposes two methods, one in which you glaze successively richer tones over the rocks, and a second where you knife out the highlights on the rocks. I have never found success with knifing, so I tried it here. This…
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Rough Water Exercise 3: #1
I got a really bad cold for a bit there, and worked on a painting a friend asked me to make which Ill post later. This one is a continuation through Ron Hazells How to Paint Water with Watercolor. This exercise is just a quick wave. Im sure I didnt quite capture the technique, so…
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Prom Queen: #5
A bit of History before I talk about this painting… In My Favorite Murder, Episode #162 (Prom Queen), Karen and Georgia jokingly told people to paint this picture McKenzie Brelyn posted on Instagram. I’ve been practicing watercolor for a while now, and Rachel and I will be seeing them live in Pittsburgh on Friday, so…
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Prom Queen: #4
A bit of History before I talk about this painting… In My Favorite Murder, Episode #162 (Prom Queen), Karen and Georgia jokingly told people to paint this picture McKenzie Brelyn posted on Instagram. I’ve been practicing watercolor for a while now, and Rachel and I will be seeing them live in Pittsburgh on Friday, so…
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Prom Queen: #3
A bit of History before I talk about this painting… In My Favorite Murder, Episode #162 (Prom Queen), Karen and Georgia jokingly told people to paint this picture McKenzie Brelyn posted on Instagram. I’ve been practicing watercolor for a while now, and Rachel and I will be seeing them live in Pittsburgh on Friday, so…
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Prom Queen: #2
A bit of History before I talk about this painting… In My Favorite Murder, Episode #162 (Prom Queen), Karen and Georgia jokingly told people to paint this picture McKenzie Brelyn posted on Instagram. I’ve been practicing watercolor for a while now, and Rachel and I will be seeing them live in Pittsburgh on Friday, so…
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Prom Queen: #1
In My Favorite Murder, Episode #162 (Prom Queen), Karen and Georgia jokingly told people to paint this picture McKenzie Brelyn posted on Instagram. I’ve been practicing watercolor for a while now, and Rachel and I will be seeing them live in Pittsburgh on Friday, so I decided I’d give it a go. Here’s a link…
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WAL Hand Plane: #1
I wanted some more practice with glazing and realistic painting. This hand plane seemed like a good subject because its a simple shape and allows an opportunity to practice getting a bit of the luminescence that comes with glazing, but its still an interesting subject. (And, I love hand planes.) I started by putting three…
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Rough Water Exercise 2: #1
Dang it I just typed up a whole comment on this and fell asleep before I hit send, and it got erased. Lessons learned here: 1) I dont like paintings of sunsets. 2) I think my pigments retain their color more as they dry than the pigments Ron uses – I should ease off a…
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Rough Water Exercise 1: #2
Apparently, I never typed up lessons learned on this one. I’ll have to come back to this later.
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Rough Water Exercise 1: #1
I didnt quite understand how to paint the waves according to the instructions in Ron Hazells book for this one. After painting the waves I found a video of him demonstrating his technique and I think I understand it better now. There were two mistakes I made at the outset that I can fix on…
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Rippled Water Exercise 2: #3
This one is a little better. The water is a bit over worked, and the cracks are darker than I like. The trees… mmmm not sure. I do like the clump of grass in the lower right though. I think I unlocked a bit of understanding on the rippled water. I was afraid of painting…
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Rippled Water Exercise 2: #2
Welp, strike 2. This one is far better than the previous attempt, but it isnt what I intended. I started getting really REALLY muddy on the left, and called it. For a few reasons I am struggling with this exercise. 1) I am not planning enough. Im trying to capture the spontaneity I see in…
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Rippled Water Exercise 2: #1
I hear often, I learn the most from my failures. I wonder if thats true. I did learn a lot on this painting, maybe I learned more than I have learned on successful paintings if we just count number of things learned. But, the quality of the lessons I learn on a failed painting are outweighed…
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Rippled Water Exercise: #1
I am not a fan of this painting at all, mostly because I dont like the subject. Its a beautiful scene, its just not my taste. Still, I am learning a lot as I go through this book. The main goal of this exercise is to get the ripples water right. I actually think I did…
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Calm Water Exercise: #2
Tonight I tried to paint the same thing and incorporate some of the lessons I learned last time. This is my second attempt at the exercise in the third chapter of Ron Hazell’s book The Artist’s Guide to Painting Water in Watercolor. As usual there are a lot of things I would do differently on…
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Calm Water Exercise: #1
This one is a couple days in the making. I got Ron Hazells book on how to paint water with Watercolor, and this is the exercise from the first chapter. Heres Rons Book, as well as a photo of his version of this composition. The Artist’s Guide To Painting Water In Watercolor: 30+ Techniques First,…