I recently bought a new box of watercolors and I realized I have no idea which colors are in the box, and what they look like on paper. I think it looks like I was documenting some major ideas. But it’s really just a cheat sheet, I suppose. Colorful, though.
As you may know, I’ve been painting dog portraits. And I think I just got about the best compliment ever:
“Melly looks great! You captured her puppy-ness…Thanks so much!” -Andi B.
I’m going to put all my painting info on a new website, but in the meantime you can check out my etsy store or send me an email (dogs at lindayesline dot com) for more info.
Urban Sketchers is a super website– you never know what people will draw and post– and they could be posting from anywhere in the world.
See more of by Florian Afflerbach’s urban sketches of Belgium here.
I had a hankering to do some painting last night.
I Googled “cute dog photos” to get my painting subjects. Can’t say they were particularly cute, but they made for good models– didn’t hear them complaining about posing for me.
You know it’s been said to not judge a book by its cover, but what about a drawing book? I love the sketches on the cover of Drawing Workbook: A Complete Course in Ten Lessons by Jill Bays. They’re lively and the sketches are descriptive but without being fussy.
I enjoyed looking through Bay’s book but it seems to suffer a common flaw among drawing how-to books. The sketches shown are enviable but the tutorials are brief and not particularly helpful. As a result, it’s a little bit of a tease– follow the instructions but you’re never getting these results; leave drawing to the experts! Bay covers all the de regeur topics: materials, mark making, tone, color, etc… but none are covered in enough detail for a beginner. And if you’re not a beginner, do you really need an introduction to each topic?
I think a book of sketches and brief descriptions would have made a much better book. There’s so much to learn from looking at great drawing. But a fey tip of the hat to instruction is a waste of space. More drawings, less talk please! (But the drawings are great, nonetheless.)
The Watercolorist’s Essential Notebook by Gordon MacKenzie may not be ‘essential’, but it is pretty awesome.
MacKenzie is a super-talented watercolorist, and in this book he shows exactly what watercolor can do. The book’s subtitle is “A treasury of watercolor tricks and techniques discovered through years of painting and experimentation”. The quality of the examples really showcase his years of experience. I was impressed with this book for several reasons: the author is truly a good artist (the antithesis of Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light…or is he Master of Light?), he really makes great use of line and color, and he offers really thorough and systematic explanations of how to achieve the results he illustrates so well.
Clearly MacKenzie has a love of teaching and watercolor– he even includes a chart of paint colors that rate their quality by manufacturer– I’d always figured if you buy a good brand, their whole line of colors would be of equal quality.
I love painting with watercolor and I really enjoyed reading this book. However, I can’t say that I’ll be referencing the book for my own painting. My work tends to be primarily drawings with watercolor added for…color, not so much about watercoloring to create a full-fledged painting.
If I do have any question about watercolor techniques, I will definitely search out this book again.
