August 2024 Water Media Challenge- Join the fun/ all welcome!

[Grapes]

Joy, I do like it a lot!

 

[Joy]

Christine - You are way too polite and kind. Believe me, I do not expect a pat on the back or a participation trophy here. This is also tearing in several areas, and I would never frame such a mess. Just wanted to shoe my efforts are frequently disappointments. And I stilll haven't gotten the knack of using wax. It was not the suitable paper for that and I was too heavy handed. I don't like that once it is applied, it cannot be altered.

Anne - I did find a few papers I liked, and will only buy cotton from here onward. I do have a fair amount "saved up" and am going to start using it.

 

[KreativeK]

5.5x8.5 watercolor using White Nights paints on speckled paper (back of paper a realty used next door). It didn’t blend well but it was fun and I like the result.

 

[john]

It does not look like hot press. Sounds like it has no sizing. Maybe experiment with adding stuff like gum arabic or lifting preparation? Or maybe it would be good with gwash.

Still.... nice result Joy.

 

[Joy]

Mosc, thanks! Enjoy your holiday. We are heavily into Scandinavian noir and would love to visit the area. And I really enjoy a cruise.
John, thanks for the info.
Kay, anything turns out well in your talented hands.

 

[ams]

Kay, beautiful apples. Love the shine.

 

[PaintBoss]

Kay, those apples are wonderful!

 

[PaintBoss]

Joy, I don’t give false praise so I did go back to look at your piece. On this small phone I had to blow it up to see what exactly was happening. I see two areas where it seems like there’s a problem with the paper in particular. This was not clear to me earlier. I can see what you’re frustrated with. But I sure do like what you were doing with the piece. It’s a shame the paper did that.

 

[Grapes]

Kay, stunning work!
Joy, would love you come to Scandinavia! It will be more than a cruise as we plan to stay couple of months in warm south with our cat of course. I suppose it will be a long pleinair/painting holiday for me. This time we escape "noir" but in general I do like "noir", chiaroscuro and all that stuff.

 

[Grapes]

As it happened a tall shelf in my studio fell down and I had a big mess to clean. We artists just are that way, accidents in studio happen! Under the pile of still life objects on the floor I found a sketchbook where I had earlier painted some gouache daffodils. I had forgotten I even had it.
Well, since it's almost empty I decided to take it in use and paint more gouache on it's pages.

"The 1st ref.", gouache, about 10x15 cm. There's some water color mixed because I used leftover watercolor palette from my childhood. I lost patience about hundred and ten times while doing this. I don't know why am I posting this.. maybe because this is a challenge and it need to be posted.

Thank you PaintBoss for this challenge!

 

[Joy]

Mosc, that came out very well, especially the highlights.
Christine, thank you for your feedback. I value both critical and complementary opinions, and yours is greatly appreciated. And thanks for hosting!

 

[Grapes]

Joy, thank you .

 

[PaintBoss]

Joy, I think you’re a wonderful artist. Guess I’m just trying to say it shows, even if the paper gives up on you completely. Some papers just deserve to be put in the trash.
Moscatel- oh I really like your first stab at painting of the red flowers. Boy that old paint is the perfect shade. Is it not? It’s a striking color. And you handled the intricacies well. I was looking at that photo. It’s very enticing to paint but there’s a middle section in there where the folds are kind of convoluted. You can get a little mixed up. You handled that very well. I definitely see how it could be frustrating. You really have to look and make sure you’re working on the correct folded petal. I don’t know what kind of paper that sketchbook is. And paper is so important to how you experience or how well the painting turns out… as we have been discussing, but I think you did a great job on this. Yup, this is where we try things.
Thanks everyone.

 

[Grapes]

PaintBoss, thank you so much!
It's pretty poor paper, it doesn't say what paper but it probably would be better for writing notes with pencil .
I bet the paper matters because I prefer to use Belgian Linen canvas with oil paints and there I note the difference to some cheaper supports.

 

[PaintBoss]

And it may be a bit confusing my posts above which are repetitive. My phone froze on me as it’s been doing a lot lately. I’m not sure why, going to the Apple Store today actually. But I thought I lost a post, so I wrote another post. And it was late so I made it brief. I checked. It seemed to post fine. Today I have two posts appearing.

 

[Grapes]

Yes, I see two posts too.

 

[PaintBoss]

Phone is dead. It defied the Apple experts and would not cooperate. It wasn’t dead then, but a sick phone. Software symptoms were hardware problems. It would not agree to delete or restore and mutinied! Stumped all 3 apple experts and their top brainiac- named Alexa ironically- and last ditch “nuclear”option computer program.
New phone hopefully tomorrow.
Pulled out the ipad which i find heavy to use. But the upside…Woah, all your paintings look soooo good!!!

 

[Jo Castillo]

Joy I like the trees, sorry about the paper but you did accomplish something that looks lovely on my monitor and learned a lot. Maybe use the paper for collage??

Kay, the apples are scrumptious. You know how I love apples.

Moscatel, like your red flowers soooo much. I haven't really tried gouache. I have it on my wish list for next gift time. Red is my favorite color to paint with my pastels. Took a class in early 90s with Jessica Zemsky and she painted childrens portraits with gouache on brown paper. They were amazing!! The workshop was in oils and pastels but she did a demo and showed her portraits.

 

[Grapes]

Jo, thank you!
My gouache colors are Talens Extra Fine Quality it says in a tube, I bought the cheapest I found, only 5 colors + white to try them out, very small tubes. I thought I'd like them more. Some artists can do amazing work with gouache.

 

[PaintBoss]

If you use the cheapest paints you not going have a good experience. Not a fair assessment. I learned that with acrylic and watercolor.
1990 I went to University and I went to the art store and I bought a bunch of things for class but I also bought five different gouache tubes on a whim. What an absolute delight. Little did I know that I bought some of the finest you can get. Winsor Newton cannot compete. It’s really like painting with chalk paint with some of their colors. The identical colours in LINEL fine gouash are so stunning in comparison. It’s strong pigment load is bright and intense. Or it’s deep and rich. And when they say it is “FINE“, they really mean it. It’s like butter to use. Again not like chalkiness. If I want to make my water colours glow I use these paints. And if I had a lot of money I would buy the whole darn set! No comparison.
Here is some information and their charts. And truly the colours are that intense and beautiful. And the company is really exciting to read about- making oils for over 300 years.
My larger tubes were 25 ml each and cost around eight or nine dollars each in 1990 which was pretty expensive. Now I pay $14.99 for a tiny, tube (14ml) of Windsor Newton!

Linel Extra-Fine Gouache

Try our Linel Extra Fine Gouache range featuring 78 high-pigment colours. Dries with an opaque, matt finish.

www.lefrancbourgeois.com