A Summer Joy (EDM#229)

5-1/2" x 7-1/2" watercolor on 140 lb. cold press paper.

What is better in the summertime than a long bath? My 13-year old son, Matthew, sometimes stays in the bath so long that he'll finally just slip his legs out over the side of the tub and lean back and relax.

So one day my wife snapped a photo and told me that this would be something good to paint. Since I am relatively new to watercolors, I really liked this challenge. There was masking, the perspective of floor and tile, the texture of the rug, and the molding of the curtains and legs. As an added bonus, the painting meets Everyday Matters Challenge no. 229, "a Summer Joy". [And by the way, the fluffy blue and green things in the upper right hand corner are pouf's (I think) for bathing. Upon questioning, turns out nobody in the family uses them. I was frankly relieved to learn this.]

As an aside, the color of the scanned version is a bit off. The scan tended to make the flesh tones more purplish, and exaggerates some yellow highlights I had placed on the legs.

One question that I have for any watercolorists out there. The color of the rug, when it dried, came out much richer than I expected. When this happens, do you have any suggestions on how to tone the color down? I had been considering a light glaze of a complementary color, but lost my nerve.

Any other suggestions/comments are also, of course, welcome.

Finally, and most importantly, you still have until midnight tonight to win some beautiful free gouache and ink paintings by Diahn Ott at Art by Diahn! Enter now! (Er, how are you at writing Haiku?)

EDM #225 Draw Something Sticky

4" x 6" watercolor and ink on 140 lb. cold press paper.

Sometimes you want to paint a masterpiece. Sometimes you just want to draw something sticky. Thank you Everyday Matters - I never would have thought of it.

Something Old, Something New (EDM #136)

When I have sketched, I have mostly used either pencil or pen with water-soluble ink. The result has been that I have not been able to combine color with line. The other day I pulled my father's technical pen set out of a drawer. I would guess conservatively that the set is 30 years old. I suspect it is older than that. It is a Castell TG technical pen set, and contains 9 pens with nibs of different sizes - largely unused. How would they work? I bought some Rapidograph waterproof ink for $5 and filled a pen with a size 2.5 nib. The ink flowed very smoothly.

So at my in-law's house I drew a straggly plant in an interesting pot. I was not so careful as I usually am. So what if the drawing were to be a bit skewed? This was just an experiment. Then I brushed on the watercolor. Color and line - something new (for me) - and it worked just fine.

Well, my mother-in-law liked the drawing so much that she wanted to keep it. It became a part of her mother's day gift and this small 4" x 6" drawing is now hanging in her house, warts-and-all, next to the plant itself. So maybe you'll like it too, as imprecise as it is. It also happens to satisfy Everyday Matters challenge #136 - "Draw or paint something that's alive - a living thing - animal or plant." And this plant, though straggly, qualifies as alive.

In a Hotel - EDM Challenge #56 Self Portrait

11" x 13-1/4" watercolor on 140 lb. cold press paper.

Holed up in a Virginia hotel for three-plus hours. Watercolors in hand. I look around. Nothing interesting to paint. But, wait - there's a table in front of a mirror, there's a lamp to one side, and when I look straight ahead ..

Three-plus hours later, and I have completed my first Everyday Matters challenge, number 56, a self-portrait. Life is good.