Inspired To Try

I speak quite often of how I feel the daily challenges on Splitcoaststampers have helped me learn new skills and techniques.  I am also thrilled by the community acceptance and encouragement when I try new things and upload my attempts in the challenge gallery.  The Saturday Inspiration Challenge provided a wonderful on line store, Mackenzie-Childs Tableware and Home Furnishing filled with gorgeous products to choose from for inspiration.  There were so many wonderful items but I finally decided on a MacLachlan Hors D'Oeuvre Plate. 

I was intrigued by the country scene and wanted to try my hand at a total free hand watercolor painting…. well….only a 8"x5" one. The scene actually looked sort of easy and I now write that with a bit of a snort.

I would like share the self talk "babble" that was going on in my head while I share how I created this project. I had just finished watching a watercolor presentation by Bob Davies on how to create trees in a scene with a few sketch lines and then painting over them so that is how I started. 

 I lightly pencil sketched my scene and tree lines on a piece of watercolor paper and then washed plain water on the paper to moisten to prepare it for paint.   Woo Hoo!  I did it. Now on to the harder stuff.    

I mixed a vibrant blue watercolor wash to create my sky area.  The paint needs to be a fairly deep color as it dries about 50% lighter on the paper than it starts out being. I followed Bob's suggestion to use the side of a large brush to add this sky color wash as it allows some hit and misses to leave some of the areas of the sky without color. I did a lighter wash of blue over the lake area and then finished off the ground area with a wash of light green. I moved to the lake area and realized it had dried way to light so I added darker blue. I brushed a light shade of yellow over the missed sky areas and to the lake to give the appearance of sun shining in the sky and reflecting on the water. I am more pleased with the sky and lake than anything else and feel they are the redeeming feature of this project. . I heat dried the paper with my heat gun. Whew!!! I felt I was off to a good start.

I painted in the brown of the tree trunks and limbs and then created the green foliage by dotting on the color with my brush.  Wait!!!  Is a dotting motion with a brush a watercolor technique?  I have no idea but that is how it worked for me. I added a little yellowto the foliage for interest. As I stepped back and really looked at myscene it became very obvious that I have a fairly heavy hand with color and my work in no way resembled the gorgeous light appearance of the inspiration piece. Although I have lots to learn I kept on moving forward to finish.  After all, nothing is really perfect and how will I learn if I don't keep trying.  I added dots of green and some brown color around the lake and along the ground line. I felt there needed to be something more along the horizon so I used a fine brush and added two little trees in the distance and one more small one on the front side of the lake. Who knew you could paint right over the green grass and blue lake and have it show up so well?? I used black and white paper and gingham to frame and embellish the picture and to represent the black and white checks on the dish. This is by no means a great work of art but I am proud of myself for trying and for having the courage to post it here.

Paper: Watercolor, Black, White
Paint: Windsor & Newton Watercolor-Burnt Umber, Lemon Yellow, Cerulean Blue, Chromium Oxide Green,
Accessories: Nestabilities, Gingham, Brushes: Round, Spotter, Liner