Stormy Barn Scene

On a late afternoon walk, I snapped this barn and stormy sky photo with my cell phone.

The long drought has made me grateful for every storm cloud and every drop of rain.

I began with a pencil sketch that I added pen and ink to with my Lamy Safari fountain pen. The indelible ink allowed me to paint right over top of the ink once it was dry.

Using French Ultramarine Blue and a touch of Burnt Umber, I made the blue gray tints for the barn, the sky and the shadows.  French Ultramarine Blue and Winsor Yellow created the green grass wash, and I added New Gamboge Yellow with touches of Cadmium Red to create the yellow and orange foliage.  Phthalo Blue and Burnt Sienna mixed to make the darker piney greens, and the dead grasses were made with a touch of Yellow Ochre or Burnt Sienna here and there.

It felt good to celebrate the stormy weather.

What would you like to celebrate with a drawing or painting?  What brings you joy?  I hope you paint or draw it this week!

Happy Creating!

Art Date: Light and Shadows in the Woods

Do you ever take yourself out for art dates?  I have made a habit of it lately.

Even if the art date is right in your neighborhood, making a weekly habit of creating helps you build your skills each week.

I created this watercolor one morning, after a scouting walk helped me select the spot.  

When you find your location, you might want to take a few photos to capture the scene before the light shifts.  Then make a sketch lightly in pencil, mix your colors, and start painting.  

I started painting the bright green areas, then built up the darker areas, using only 3 colors: ultramarine blue, Winsor lemon, and burnt umber. The bold contrasts caught my eye and inspired me.

As you take your next walk, look at familiar scenes and say to yourself: "I like ______ part of the scene (the green Japanese maple leaves against the neighbor's red house, the shadows under that oak tree, the exact shade of blue of those hydrangea blossoms).  You'll learn what catches your artist's eye, and get ideas for future drawings or paintings.

Happy Creating!

Painting a Florida Sunset

On a trip to Florida, I took lots of photos.  Part of the delight of travel is thumbing back through your photos and remembering the fun you had.  You can deepen your travel experiences by painting some of your favorite scenes.

This is the sunrise that inspired my painting.

One way to approach something as complex as this sunset scene is to create an artwork inspired by the photo rather than a photorealistic copy.

I started with an Arches cold press watercolor block, and wet the surface with a mop brush dunked in clear water. 

I loaded my brush with a mixture of  French Ultramarine Blue mixed & Phthalo Blue, and touched it to the wet paper, letting the paints bloom and spread.  This technique is called wet in wet.

I quickly added in Permanent Blue Violet with the blues. Then Permanent Rose.  I touched in Cadmium Yellow mixed with Cadmium Red to create the orange clouds, and Cadmium Yellow for the bright yellow areas near the horizon.  

I used Raw Umber and Yellow Ochre at the bottom of the scene, where the ocean clouds were.

Then I left the first layer to dry completely.

I worked in more layers of French Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Blue and Permanent Blue Violet up towards the top of the sky, trying to create areas of shadowed clouds behind the brighter, rosier clouds. 

I carefully softened the edges of most of the clouds, preventing the hard lines that come when the paint dries without feathering.

I used Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons to pop a little more contrast into some of the clouds. 

 When you're painting with color compliments right next to each other like the purple and yellow here, you have to be very careful not to let the two colors mix.  They contrast beautifully next to each other, but when they mix together, they create muddy brown.

Neocolor II crayons are opaque, and they move and blend when you touch them with a wet brush.  They gave me more control, and were ideal for my project.

I continued adding more details, more layers, and richer colors,

working my way down to the dark clouds sitting on the ocean (at the bottom of the scene)

A few more details, a few more marks with the Neocolor II watercolor crayons, and it was ready to be signed and dated.

I decided to leave out surface level details like the palm trees.  I wanted the focus to be on the sky itself.

Remember, you are the artist.  You get to pick what you want to paint and how you want to portray it!

I hope you'll look through your photos and find something that calls out to you to be painted or sketched.  

Happy creating!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024.  All rights reserved.

Campari Tomatoes in Watercolor

It's funny how inspiration & serendipity work together. You have dinner at a friend's home, and while enjoying the lively conversation and delicious food, her paintings catch your eye.  The way she captured the late summer in a watercolor of three small, homegrown apples makes you feel the September sunshine from the light reflecting off the apples.

The next day, a handful of salad tomatoes in the kitchen call out to be painted.  You pull out your paints and brushes, and while away a Sunday afternoon exploring, imagining summer, even though it's rainy and drab outside.

If you get swept away by a handful of ripe tomatoes, a good place to start is taking a reference photo of your still life.  In the hours ahead, while you paint, the lighting will change, & the tomatoes will eventually wilt. Having that reference photo captures the scene that sparked your painting.

A reference photo helps you decide on your composition.  You see your scene laid out inside a frame. You can see the negative space shape, the areas of high contrast in light and shadow, and the proportions of one object compared to another.

I began this painting with a pencil drawing of the scene, then lightened my pencil lines by rolling a kneaded eraser over the drawing to pick up some of the graphite.  Watercolor paints are transparent, and bold graphite lines will show through the finished painting.

I painted the tomatoes first. They were most important -- and most interesting -- to me.  I've learned to find the part of the scene that is most interesting and give that the most attention. It becomes the focal point of the painting.

After the tomatoes were complete, I painted the brown paper foreground, noticing the highlights and midtones, and the dark shadows under the tomatoes.  

I added the wooden box behind the fruits, and worked a little on the wood grain and old nails.  I had to be careful not to get too detailed. I love wood grain, but I don't want it to compete for attention with the tomatoes!

I decided that my shadows were too dense under the trio of tomatoes on the right, so I lightened them up, and unfortunately overdid it. That happens.

I fixed the shadows.  Here's the finished painting, 

with a few other minor tweaks to the tomato on the right.

My biggest challenge in this painting was to control the edges of areas I had painted.  Each time I laid down paint, I had to decide whether I wanted a hard edge or a soft edge.  Soft edges had to be feathered out quickly and gently with a damp, clean brush. Otherwise, defined lines, like the edge between the bottom of the tomato and its shadow, would show everywhere I touched with a wet brush.

I got so absorbed in this painting, I forgot to eat lunch!  That's the power of art to sweep you away.

I post this with gratitude to my friend Beth for a lovely dinner and the inspiration of her vibrant paintings.

Wishing you many happy art explorations that sweep you away!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2023. All rights reserved.