-
The Color of Maps
The next few posts are going to include how color was introduced to the genre of maps and charts. The earliest maps were used for storytelling and wayfinding on land and at sea. Military planning and plant hunting were specialized areas using early colored maps. In the 1780s the profession of ‘topographic artist’ was introduced. […]
-
Too Brilliant Color
If you pause and look around the environment where you are right now, do you see much Orange? Orange, our color this week does not casually creep into our personal environment… possibly if we are outdoors in the fall foliage, or maybe if we work in an industrial site surrounded by safety messaging or drive […]
-
Getting Started
When starting the watercolor sketch for this post it was to explore the three watercolors that made it onto my palette when I first started watercolor. The plant I chose to sketch is – Akebia quinata or 5-Leaf Vine. Synchronicity set in … it was 5 years ago that I took my first ‘encore’ / […]
-
Solstice
On this day, the Sun rises farthest left on the horizon, and sets at its rightmost possible spot. Sunlight strikes places in your home that get illuminated at no other time Almanac.com The solstice on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 happens at the same instance for all of us, everywhere on Earth. In my time zone that is […]
-
WordPrompt May STRONG
This month ‘Strong’ is the WordPress monthly prompt and an opportunity for me to share how sketching makes ‘strong memories’. For those who are not WordPress publishers the monthly prompt challenge is to help writers with a creative topic, a ‘monthly word to inspire a new post whatever you publish’. So here is my May […]
-
Lettering Lesson
Adding words to a sketch is a good practice to understand so Jean Mackay provided us with a few tips for hand-lettering during the Nature Sketching workshop in Italy. I am not much for adding phrases into my work but some simple steps for making lettering look polished were welcome. We spent about 20 minutes […]
-
Italian Earth Colors
Raw Sienna. Burnt Sienna. These earth colors are associated with the Italian landscape and essential for a palette used for nature sketching in Italy – our color topic today. Jean Mackay is leading a Winslow Art Center workshop in Italy where I hope to up my skills in composition and page refinement while sketching outdoors.
-
Fresh vs Dried
As I am preparing to go off on a nature sketching excursion next month now is a good time to explore the merits of fresh vs dried watercolor on the palette. Freshly squeezed paint on a palette is nice for painting in the studio. Paint from the tube squeezed into a pan and dried is […]
-
WordPrompt April GREEN
For someone who blogs about color each week I welcome ‘Green’ as the WordPress monthly prompt. For those who are not WordPress publishers the monthly prompt challenge is to help writers with a creative topic, a ‘monthly word to inspire a new post whatever you publish’. Recently I have participated in online classes offered by […]
-
Negative Painting
For the past few weeks my ‘Fast & Loose’ classes with Cynthia Armstrong have focused on the technique of negative painting – one of the ways to create light and color in a watercolor sketch. There are 2 important concepts to have an understanding of to accomplish negative painting. Wet into Wet: Painting on a […]
-
Paint and Paper
The difficulty in watercolor painting is almost entirely in how to anticipate and leverage the behavior of water, but paint and paper are important factors in getting great results. To gather more skills in using water I recently started a class, ‘Fast and Loose Watercolor” with Cynthia Armstrong. Her focus for the class is teaching […]
-
Follow
Following
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Own Your Encore 