My Experience with Watercolor Canvas Panels

All Tied Up

Watercolor on Watercolor Canvas Board

16" X 20"

(A 1952 International Harvester Pickup Truck 

Entwined by Nature)

Every time I decide to try a new material, whether a new paint or a new platform to paint on, there is a time of adjustment when you are searching for techniques that work for the new materials. For the last week and a half I've been painting with watercolor paint on a Fredrix®  Watercolor Canvas Panel™.  I've used watercolor canvas (not mounted on a panel) before and liked it when painting with fluid acrylic.  I found I could work pretty much in the same manner as when painting on watercolor paper.  Unlike painting on traditional canvas, watercolor canvas is smoother and doesn't require you to apply an initial coat of paint to fill in the texture of the canvas.

I expected the watercolor canvas board to demonstrate the same smoothness but found it had a little bit more tooth or texture.  It was also more slippery, so when using dilute watercolor (i.e., pigment with a lot of water mixed in) it tended to remove the earlier layers of paint no matter how soft the brush and how lightly I pressed on the surface. I had to switch to using thicker applications of watercolor paint with very little water added to the paint. I could layer the thicker paint, using a light touch, and blend the new paint in with the earlier layers. Glazing thin washes didn't work.

As a watercolor artist that is used to applying thin glazes and gradually shifting to paints that have less water, I found it a bit uncomfortable using paint at a buttery consistency for most of the painting.  It felt much more like painting with oil paints, which I haven't done in 20+ years. I had to remember how to blend oil paints and use techniques much more like that. I reviewed information on https://fredrixartistcanvas.com and found out there is a lot of sizing on the canvas and if you wet and rub the canvas before starting to paint the "slipperiness" of the canvas is much reduced.  Of course it was too late to do that. Another tip was to apply and blend paint with the edge of the brush rather than the tip of the brush. I considered pulling out my fan brush for blending, but never did. 

"Scumbling" lighter color paint over darker passages, allowing the darker color to peek through the lighter passage became important for adding highlights; not something you do with watercolor since it is so transparent that you have to preserve light areas and not apply them at the end. 

The completed work is not transparent watercolor, so to make this painting come to life my focus was on color, light, and dark.

Comment to let me know if this painting brings back memories for you.   

Interested in April's artwork or taking one of her classes? Consider becoming a Studio Friend by signing up for her twice-monthly email. April segments her newsletter so you can select topics you'd like to hear about when you sign up. For those who Select the General Interest topic you will receive emails about twice-monthly. If you are only interested in classes, then the emails will be much less frequent discussing upcoming classes and how to register. Select as many topics as sound of interest. Thank you for your support of April M Rimpo Art.

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Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.

11 days into a 30 day challenge

I found out about this challenge after the first 2 days were compete, so I've got 9 images for the first 11 days. Unlike painting a day challenges where you are supposed to finish a painting per day, in this the goal is simply to do something artistic each day.  No requirement to complete anything.  However, I've used this as an opportunity to complete a variety of small works with only two requiring two days. One had been started before the challenge, but wasn't very far along. I hope you enjoy the variety. I certainly have enjoyed bouncing around on subject matter. 

September 2019 - First 9 days of 28 day Creativity Challenge

• Day 1 (for me) - Day's Journey - Watercolor - 14" X 11" 
• Day 2 -  Beginning of Village by the Sea, started as a demo piece in a Fluid Acrylic workshop - 21" X 15" 
• Day 3 - Village by the Sea, completed - Fluid Acrylic - 21" X 15"
• Day 4 - Beginning of Family Ties - Watercolor - 7" X 5"
• Day 5 - Mounted 3 watercolor paintings in preparation for varnishing
• Day 6 - Sketch of Willow trees and swans - concept drawing for painting
• Day 7 - Finished Family Ties - Watercolor - 7" X 5"
• Day 8 - Flowers of Fall - Watercolor - 24" X 6"
• Day 9 - Heading North - Watercolor - 4" X 4" X 2" block

I think my next painting will be a more typical larger painting that I might submit to an exhibition, if it comes out well enough.  We'll see what happens.

Interested in April's artwork or taking one of her classes? Consider becoming a Studio Friend by signing up for her twice-monthly email. April segments her newsletter so you can select topics you'd like to hear about when you sign up. For those who Select the General Interest topic you will receive emails about twice-monthly. If you are only interested in classes, then the emails will be much less frequent discussing upcoming classes and how to register. Select as many topics as sound of interest. Thank you for your support of April M Rimpo Art.

Contact April and see more of her art on her website

Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.

"Gothic Pinnacles" a 20" X 16" Watercolor

Gothic Pinnacles by April M Rimpo

Gothic Pinnacles

Watercolor

20" X 16" image
$960

It's been awhile since I shared the colors and steps used to create a painting, so let's do it. I end this blog post on the architecture.

The Paints (pigment codes):
I used lavender/violet-yellow complements to create this painting. Complements tend to attract my eye and this particular set of colors conveys a happy feeling to a finished painting. The cool lavender and violet colors were used for the shadowed side of the building, while yellows were used in areas more brightly lit by the sun. 

Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors – New Gamboge (PY153)

Winsor and Newton Artist Water Colour – Yellow Ochre (PY43)

Daniel Smith Quinacridone Coral

American Journey Artists’ Watercolor Royal Amethyst (Dioxazine) (PV23)

Holbein Artists’ Watercolor Cerulean Blue (PB35)

Daniel Smith Indigo (PB60, PBk 6)

I prefer to work with paints that have a single pigment in them. It is easier to avoid dull, lusterless colors, which watercolor painters call "mud". This small set of pigments allows me to create a pretty wide range of colors. You might not expect the green in the evergreen trees to be created from the same pigments used in the buildings, but they are. 

To make the building and trees feel like they belonged to the same paintings, I included some of these same greens in the shadow areas of the building and in the dark window panes.I also added violet colors into tree highlights. Artists call this "bouncing the colors" to create color harmony.

A few of the steps
In this section I'm featuring the windows in the foreground because I think they work well to illustrate the gradual layering to build color in the architectural details.  

Palest colors on left windows and begining of darks on 3rd

Initially my goal was to establish the pale colors in the lighter areas of the window. This includes the whites and yellow of the scroll work and the pinks in the lattice work in the windows. The left two windows show the first layer of color. In the window on the right, I added darks to see how the lattice in the windows worked once the darks were added. This is typical in my work.  Shifting back and forth between painting lights and darks makes sure the value range is right.

Light grays in scroll work on 1st and 3rd windows

This second photo shows the gray shadows in the upper scroll work in the far left window. You can see I was working quite gradually on the scroll work making sure the shapes were accurate. The window on the right has the darkest darks added to the scroll work, giving a nice 3-D effect. The windows all have their first layer of dark allowing a lot of the pastel colors to show through.

Darks on All Windows

In this photo, the darks in the scroll work are done, but the darks in the windows need to get darker before the painting is finished. I stopped working on these windows here until the painting was nearly complete so I can compare them with my darkest darks in the painting.

Close-up of finished windows.

After finishing all the spires, the windows in the distant building, and the tree, I decided the window panes in the front needed to be darker and more neutral in color. The earlier shade was more blue/violet. I added the dark colors from the tree to the darkest areas of these windows. The green neutralized the violet and also helped integrate the green into the building, albeit in a subtle way. 

I hope this explanation helps. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask in a comment below.  

The Architecture
Here is an excerpt from section on Pinnacles on the Washington National Cathedral website https://cathedral.org/what-to-see/exterior/pinnacles/

A pinnacle is an architectural ornament originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterward used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. In addition to adding to the loftiness and verticality of the structure, the pinnacles are very heavy and enable the flying buttresses to counteract the weight of the vaulted ceiling and roof. By adding compressive stress (a result of the pinnacle weight), the building’s load is shifted downward rather than sideways.

Finials are the topmost portion of a pinnacle, often sculpted as a leaf-like ornament with an upright stem and a cluster of crockets. Crockets are projected pieces of carved stone that decorate the sloping ridges of pinnacles. The carved shapes of these elements help move rainwater down while keeping the water from the roof or walls. 

The website article goes on to discuss the damage from the 2011 earthquake on the East Coast and reconstruction efforts.

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Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.

Play Time with Mark Mehaffey

Mark Mehaffey at BWS Workshop

Last week I attended a workshop by Mark Mehaffey that was sponsored by the Baltimore Watercolor Society. He had us start out with some basic  and complex color plan options. Some were great reminders of the different mood you can set in a painting using color, others were new and intriguing that will likely take some time to master.

5 of 8 Color Plans

That was the end of "the known" for me.  From there Mark took us on quite a trip through working on slick surfaces and non-objective painting. We did occasionally travel back to representational at the most unexpected times.  

Slick surfaces included yupo and watercolor paper we had coated with gesso. I had not used either before, but Mark really took away the uncertainty and mystery of using these surfaces with watercolor and gouache. I'm not sure how often I will use slick surfaces, but it is great knowing I can. The fear is gone. I also believe I can adopt some of what Mark taught us to work with fluid acrylics, that I have grown to love. Taking all of the new knowledge and stretching my style to incorporate it when appropriate for my subject will be wonderful.

Gesso'd Hot Press Watercolor Paper

Needless to say this workshop was fun and stimulating. Mark really made us think, leaving us exhausted by the end of the day. I know I was not the only one to go home and crash after an intense day of contemplative painting.

At one point Mark revealed The Secret of Great Art, "work hard", and he made us do just that. However, I think we all loved every moment of the workshop.  Examples of some of the paintings I produced during the workshop are included at right and below. You can see they vary from my painting style, but that is the point of a workshop. Learn something new then incorporate elements of the new information into your work allowing you to propel and grow your work. Mark referred to time he takes to explore new ideas as "Play Time."  I definitely had a lot of Play Time last week, and it was a blast. 

Working on Yupo - High Contrast

Working on Yupo - Middle Value

Working on Yupo - Low Key Painting