Architectural Watercolors, and Helpful Art Studio Links

Jewel Watercolors from Winsor & Newton

With summertime approaching in the US and Europe, painting with watercolors in the garden could be in your future. Especially with the news that Winsor & Newton has stocked their previously limited release jewel tone watercolors. I felt a need (not a want – but a need) to have that aqua green, smalt and quid violet after watching this video, so I ordered them on Amazon.

So far, only the smalt has arrived, and it’s beautiful (clouds, skies, water, shadows!). I predict some experimental washes and mixing in my near future, don’t you? And I’m thinking I might need to double back and get the transparent orange too….

Here are the colors they demonstrate in the video:

Transparent Orange

Quinacridone Violet

Aqua Green

Smalt (Dumont’s Blue)

Cobalt Green Deep

New jewel tone watercolors from Winsor and Newton — A screen shot from the video demonstrating the granularity and color of Winsor & Newton’s Jewel Colors

arranging a still life for a watercolor painting — Still Life sketching opportunities can be placed all around you….

Art Resource Links for You

carving a linocut with flexcut carving tools — Carving a linocut with flexcut tools on unmounted linoleum in the studio

Learn How to Linocut

My printmaking friend Sherri York is in the process of filming and editing an online course to teach you how to plan, carve and print linocuts. Click the Like button on her Learn Linocut Facebook Page so you’ll get notified when the course goes live, and you can subscribe to her newsletter here.

one of gustav klimt's early pencil portraits — Portrait of a Girl, Gustav Klimt 1879

Gustav Klimt Inspiration

There is a virtual Gustav Klimt museum you can peruse at your leisure here. The timeline showing the progression of his work, and the development of his superb draftsmanship and inventive painting style is remarkable. The portrait above was done when he was only 17.

gustav klimt watercolors and drawings — If you like Klimt, and you enjoy looking at sketches and watercolor studies from great artists, you’ll enjoy this book. It was a gift, and I look through it for inspiration all the time.

Six Fundamentals of Composition in Design

If you struggle with composition when arranging a still life to sketch from, or you’re trying to build a website and the layout is a mystery, or you’re interested in designing an ebook, and you’re not sure where to stick the text, here are six tips from the folks at Blurb. The article is aimed at graphic designers, but the principles apply to painting, photography and drawing too.

how to repair frayed watercolor brushes — Brush guards are used in the makeup industry to repair frayed bristles, but they work wonderful on artist brushes too. Wet your brush, slide the collar on, and let it dry. Voila!

My New Watercolor Brush

I bought a new number 12 watercolor brush, and so far, I love it. Check out the Silver Black Velvet 3000S – it’s a blend of natural and synthetic bristles, it holds a ton of pigment, and keeps a fine point. Yay. I use a number 12 round brush more than any other, so they get a little frayed, even after a straightening treatment with a brush guard (above). After awhile, I put the spindley things in my frizzie brush bin for other projects. and I buy a new one.

watercolor paint brush — The Silver Black Velvet #12 round brush I’m loving this brush. I’m using it on a still life of kitchen tiles and flowers, and it holds plenty of pigment, but neatly!

artist studio library - art books — Artist’s Library of treasured watercolor books…

The Community of Charles

Thanks for your thoughtful comments in the last post on our shared grief over the loss of Charles Reid. Everyone is pulling out and flipping through their well worn, post-it note marked books by Charles. Thousands of people mourn the man collectively, but each of us has a very singular experience of him.

He taught us alone in our studios through his books to practice contour drawing, and he encouraged a focus on shapes over things, or gently chided us to let colors mix themselves in a watercolor painting. The Charles Reid gifts we lean on are anchored to each of our solo endeavors as individuals exploring the path to become better painters.

Through his passing, we are all discovering each other as a huge community of fellow Charles appreciators in bereavement. We are all holding hands. I wonder if he knew what a broad, deep and very loved impact he had? I hope so.

contour drawing of a messy desk — The first contour-ish drawing of the summer. It took 7 minutes.

Contour Drawing Plans

To contradict the helplessness of grief, I need action. A plan. Doing something helps me feel less sad. I’ve pulled an inexpensive blank page notebook out, taped a printout of a drawing by Charles from the web to the cover, and I hope to do a fast contour drawing every morning. It’ll be my poem to Charles.

The first one took seven minutes (above), and that’s encouraging. No matter how busy the day, I can fit seven minutes in, right? Are you with me? Even if I draw the same scene (my messy desk, directly in front of me, or my house) every day, at least I’ll be practicing.

I can refer to Charles’ books for encouragement. Anyone else doing something as an ode to the man? Let us know in the comments.

Thanks for stopping in today. I hope you’re having a creative week, and I’ll see you in the next post.

Belinda

P.S. Download this free watercolor paper primer here. It’s everything I wish I knew about watercolor paper when I first started painting.

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