Dessert Demo

Loulou et Princesse by Frederic Cassel watercolor on Etsy

So people ask me all the time,

"How come you just paint desserts?"

In David Dewey's watercolor class once a year at Christmas we would have a dessert party. Everyone brought in something or other. Then we painted them. Then we ate them. Naturally they were all good geometric shapes like Cezanne preferred - cubes, sphere, pyramids etc.

Here's a couple of my early efforts from 2000...

Naturally I'd have liked the dessert party to occur more often. Like maybe every class...

Though I'm not a big fan of cake.

It's probably another reason I came to France besides all the pets, is the beautifully geometric shapes of the pastries. And for all the endless versions of tarte citron...

Moving along to today's demo which is not a tarte citron...hmm

That will come maybe later in the week...

I'm really loving doing these thumbnails...

The picture wouldn't work without them...

Some of the watercolor demos on Etsy like this one have paintings on the back by the way...

I'm happy to have found a new envelope that's supposed to be faster and cheaper than sending out the last batch, NO TRACKING with this so I can not use it. Dommage :(
at least for this smaller size (5.5 x 8.5").

Do take a look on Etsy if you'd like to own a demo of your own. Cheers Carolg

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Blobbing Paris

 Continuing with the blobbing theme PBers. These are water puddles with color dropped in plus tilting the paper to get the color to run around and 'mingle'.

 I learned to mingle colors and make blobs from watercolor artist David Dewey.

 And from his book, The Watercolor Book.

 Here's a good exercise anyone can do if they have a few art postcards. Piero Della Francesco used a wonderfully harmonious color palette and you'll understand it better when you try to match the colors.

 Some color blob thumbnails jammed on a page.

 Several Tuscan blob buildings plus color swatches.

 Multiply color swatches with a landscape plopped in the middle.

 A color wash ground with a little Tuscan landscape laid on top.

 Another.

 There were plenty of color wash pages in my old sketchbook. These are 'color beginnings' as J.M.W.Turner called them - a big atmospheric wash of colors.

 Why not paint a Paris skyline on top with a little help from Google images?

 After mixing up (but not well-mixed) a biggish puddle of cobalt blue + French Ultramarine blue + Burnt Sienna + Burn Umber, I begin drawing the Arc de Triomphe with a brush loaded with unmixed 'organic color'.

 Extending the puddle of 'mingled' paint down and across, always keeping it wet and working fast I add the Eiffel Tower...

 Ever onward, tilting the paper a bit to help the wet paint/colors run and mingle across the page.

Et voila.

Now YOU do it!

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Blob Sketchbook

 An old friend kindly lent me back some sketchbooks I'd given him a while back when I was clearing out a closet a few summers back.

 I was surprised

 By these

 I thought I'd give you a look...

 Basically you throw down washes (wet color on wet paper).

Then once the washes are dry, drawing on top with with a brush.

 The underwash colors should be pale

 For contrast.

 Sometimes I like to draw with a loaded brush, especially figures.

 Sometimes the layering is just abstract blobs.

 Layered blobs on top of blobs.

 With a bit of spatter

 I wish this was 5' by 7' not 5 1/2" by 7 1/2".

Always put your warm colors down 1st and cool colors on top. Not the other way around. To quote The Watercolor Book:
Applying cool over warm gives more luminous results, while applying warm over cool produces darker, more opaque effects.

Some quotes pasted in the back on my old sketchbook from I don't know where. Are you inspired to paint blobs this weekend? I am.

BONNE WEEKEND!

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