Marcia's Blog

I am moving on to stems and buds before adding leaves and starting on the background.

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I will post a progress photo of the Celadine plumerias on Sunday. 

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I have started the watercolor painting of the Celadine plumerias I photographed in Bali.  I also have a small tree in my yard if I need a close up look. Instead of putting in all the shadows on all the blossoms first, I decided to complete each flower before going on to the next. I am painting around the whites and not using any masking fluid to save them. There is a sketch of the plumerias but I have not yet drawn the leaves. 

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The surfer is in and the wave under him is more yellow green. I decided to add background waves so the water does not appear as sky. 

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I decided to paint one more wave in the Surf Wave Series before moving on to the yellow plumerias. Someone suggested using candle wax as a resist (instead of masking fluid) to preserve the foam. I tried but was not happy with the sheen from the wax and couldn't see where I was on the paper because white candle is not easily visible on white paper. I decided not to use the masking fluid either because I have quite a bit of foam. So after doing a rough sketch using my reference photo, I started to lay down a thin layer of paint in yellow, blue, green, and violet. The colors are darker in this photo so that you can see it better.

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I tweaked here and there. They say if you are wondering if you are done, you are, and you should stop tinkering before you lose the effect you liked. 

 

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I have gone darker with this huge wave in my Surf Wave Series. The female surfer has to be completed and the foam will be refined.  I am partial to waves leaning toward the blue green color implying a sunny day.

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I am enjoying the looseness of wave painting in watercolor. I did a simple sketch, while paying attention to the surfer. This is the first layer of paint.  No masking fluid on any of it. 

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I am calling this one done (before I overdo it). It has the rough look of an oil painting.  

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I found myself painting the same wave in a looser style and around the white foam. Even the small highlights in mask were not necessary in the end. The surfer is still there. This will go a little darker in some areas.

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If you were to ask me if all that masking fluid was worth it, I would say that it might have been easier painting around the whites. Next time, I will just mask a few highlights.  I will need to soften hard edges and paint the scene again. A good lesson learned. I had gone in with darker blues and let the paint dry before removing the masking fluid.

Softening edges proved to be difficult because of the staining shade of blue I used. I will be starting another painting, same size, similar colors, and without masking fluid. It should go better. Stay tuned!

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I can already see that I sprayed too much masking fluid on the misty area above the wave and got masking mist in other areas below.  Played with the yellow and blue and will go darker in areas near the foam or it won't show well once the mask is peeled off.  I am liking the combination of the yellow and blue and the cheerful, playful look. I may even leave the surfer out of this painting because surfing is a serious determined activity. On the otherhand, the surfer will show how large the wave is. Those dots on the upper half are dried paint spots on top of the mask.

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This might be overkill with the blue masking fluid but it will surely be easier to do the blue of the wave and sky by just painting over the mask than to paint around the white areas. The mask is still wet in this photo. If anyone is trying this method, I strongly suggest the Pebeo brand which is thinner than the Winsor Newton I used to use. But use a harder paper like 300# Arches. Do not use it with Waterford or a paper that cannot take a good scrubbing when trying to get paint out of the paper. I poured some in a spray bottle to get the mist up top.  (I do have visions of not being able to get the mask off but am crossing my fingers.) I have heard that it is best not to leave the mask on for a long time. It was actually a lot of fun laying down the mask. It is good practice for me to paint loosely!

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I usually paint ocean waves in oil because foam is difficult to show in watercolor.  I am purposely having lots of foam in this 8x18" painting so that I can learn from the experience.  This will require saving the white foam with masking fluid and I am making sure that I use Arches paper which is tough and will allow the mask to be rubbed off easily when dry without peeling the paper. The rough sketch which will be transferred to my 300# Arches cold press paper.  One of the reasons for the long size is because of the shape of the wave and my wanting it to fit nicely in a 10x20" frame with one inch mat around it.  If all fails, I will paint it in oil!

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My 2018 calendar with all plumeria pages is on order and will be ready to ship in late July. I have posted photos of the calendar pages in the link, Calendar 2018. (The tab up top says Calendar 2017. I have not figured out how to fix that without redoing the whole page.) If you would like to reserve a copy, I have activated the payment button on that page.  

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A little more work needed on the white petals and touch up here and there. (Petals are brighter than shown here.)

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Happy Fourth of July!  I removed the dried masking fluid from the Arches paper with no problem. Decided I like the width of the leaves on the discarded first painting better, so made them wider on this one. Started with the first layer of colors on the orchids next. 

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