These are a mix of watercolors, neocolors, and watercolor pencils. #14 was botched, so I cut it down digitally to a bookmark. On #15, the vase and flowers are tiny for the size of paper. So again, I cropped it for a better composition.
Thinking that I need to use the pencils more often. I really like the texture the marks leave behind. Yup, I was right. 30 days of painting goes by much faster now that I have done 100. We are already at the halfway point! What?
I goofed and I am realizing now that this journal only has 22 sheets. Not 44. Some of these will be on the backside. The pages are sturdy like cardstock, so I am pretty sure there will be some mixed media or even collage.
Number one hundred was a struggle. It just was not working. I started on an 8 x 12 inch piece of paper. More room for big sky. I got the first layers down. And then the electricity went out. Lightning hit a power box. Or transformer box. What are they called?
For about an hour I was focused on getting the power back on. Thinking I needed to just flip the breakers and it would come back. Then a neighborhood conversation started. Phone calls and suppositions.
This was worrisome for me, as I am connected to an O2 concentrator 24/7. Earlier in the day I had run errands. Got home, started chores and I hadn’t yet plugged in the portable to charge the battery. There was 3.25 hours of charge left. Now, I also have regular O2 tanks. Some are empty, but I have a total of 8 to 16 hours there. And if all else failed, if the outage lasted longer, I could always jump in the car and charge the battery that way.
But I think that first, “Uh-Oh”, messed with my mo-jo. Two hours later power was back, but I was stuck. I picked up a brush, and fiddled a bit. But the way forward was, cloudy. So I called it a night.
The next day, I realized, I had sketched on the back of the paper. Arches can be used on either side. The back is smooth. That could explain why I was having a hard time. I am not familiar with that texture. So I flipped the paper over. Transferred the image again, and started to paint. And the same thing happened. I got stuck. I painted in the sky, thinking that would get me on the right track. I have fun painting the skies, and they often come together quickly for me. Not this time. It was muck.
The image I was working from, has a bit of curved road and some trees in the bottom right corner. I thought I would attempt a more “complicated” piece, a “grand slam” for the finale. “Ha ha ha,” said the universe. There are also distant homes under the smaller ridge, to the left. It is a view from town. South of my usual Mingus view.
I hit a wall and called it a night. Again. But I did manage to get my #Worldwatercolormonth pieces done. I started #100 one more time. Got about half way, before my eyes refused to stay open. I went back to the 5.5 x 11.5 size sheet.
This morning I looked at the painting, and went to work. #100DaysOfMingus, #The100DaysProject, done. Whew!
Not sure why, but #12 was difficult to edit. The colors are off. Below is a photo to give you a better idea. This is sort of abstracted ice plant.
When I was in 4th grade, my brother and I were latch-key kids. Mom owned two hair salons, one of which was just down the hill behind where we lived. If needed, she could walk home in five minutes. We used to climb the hill behind out house, and make forts in the bushes at the top. Climbing that hill from the parking lot (red), was our “Olympic marathon event”. It was steep, and we had to use the irrigation pipe as our “rope”. Had to do that on the sly, so we wouldn’t get busted.
Hills
The hill directly behind our house was not so steep. One day we got the idea to use the plastic rug protectors as sleds to slide down the ice plant on the hill. Well, the cleats on the bottom (yeah, had to look that up) caught on the ice plant, so that was a no go.
Brilliant idea, and I think the credit goes to me, “Let’s flip ’em over!” So we excitedly slid down the hill, thorns poking our backsides. It was a quick ride. We forgot to think of an exit plan. At the bottom, was a cement drainage ditch. So we had to, sort of, lean to the side to jump off before we hit cement. And THAT is when the thorns scraped our bare legs. Yup, ouch. But I guess the ride was worth it, because I remember we did it once or twice more.
The drainage ditch was usually dry. So. Cal., not a lot of rain. That is what made it easy for Mom to climb the hill. It also was a quick route to the 7-11 that was there at the time. You could still get 5 cent candy then. Ice cream, soda, gum. What more could a kid want but easy access to junk food. There were spindly trees there, and we would sneak behind them so Mom could not see us if she happened to look out the window. We had to be very stealth.
Not sure why I am sharing this, only that these were the things I was remembering while I worked on this piece.
Yellow-Salon, Blue-path to 7-11, Red-steep hill, star-home.
All 100 are in the gallery now. My next post will be a review of #The100DayProject. I will show you my favorites, and share which posts were the most popular. It might take a day or two to go through them all. Ha ha.
Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer. That has been in my head all week. I don’t even like beer. Today is the day. Day #100. This afternoon will find me working on Mingus number one hundred.
Today’s sky was a wreck. I managed to save it. There was a cloud on the right. A stripe really. I had gone in and removed paint with a clean brush. It didn’t work.
I let the paint dry. Not completely, but almost. I re-wet the ugly area, and put paint back in, and worked it back and forth until there was a more even wash there. If you look just right of center, you can see a hint of white left. Along the right edge, some of the paint stained, but luckily, it gives the effect of distant clouds forming.
I didn’t mean to leave white along the bottom edge. I wet the paper before I added paint to that hill. I don’t think that works on a landscape this size. It is more dramatic on a portrait orientation. I AM happy though, with how the paint edge uneven. I know I brushed water on in a straight line, and that would not have worked at all.
There is some nice granulation going on. Along the dark edges of the drips, and in the dark along the bottom. I did not use the granulating medium, so that was a nice surprise. It is subtle, but the texture adds interest.
I watched a short video today, where the artist haphazardly added paint to his sky, leaving white areas for clouds. I often do that, but I plan the direction a little more. He made a lot of vertical stokes, and I use more horizontals. Well, on #10 I tried it his way. Not completely happy with it. I lost most of the hard edges, trying to make sense out of the negative, white, shapes.
I have also had a hard time getting the yellow to scan correctly. In the coneflowers, and in #9, it looks much lighter than it does in person. I warmed these (above) up by adding some Quin gold. Then some yellow ochre. I did not want to add orange, so I added a bit of magenta. Well, too many colors going on, they turned out a bit muddy. So lesson learned. Again. Ha ha ha ha.
Overall, happy with both. Happy with the practice. Happy with the chance to learn.
Brilliant idea, and I think the credit goes to me, “Let’s flip ’em over!” So we excitedly slid down the hill, thorns poking our backsides. It was a quick ride. We forgot to think of an exit plan. At the bottom, was a cement drainage ditch. So we had to, sort of, lean to the side to jump off before we hit cement. And THAT is when the thorns scraped our bare legs. Yup, ouch. But I guess the ride was worth it, because I remember we did it once or twice more.
