Monday, March 28, 2011

Patience and Possibilities

Patient Pelican  Watercolors 6"x7"

I have been rereading  (or rather re-looking at the illustrations/paintings from) Jeanne Dobie's Making Color SingThis was my very first purchase when I started painting in watercolors many years ago. Two days ago, her chapter on 'Mouse Power - achieving luminous grays' prompted me to finally paint the photograph of this pelican I had taken a while back. According to her 'mouse colors are like the bit players who support the stars.' 

I didn't quite follow her instructions or do the exercises,  but selected a transparent red, aureolin yellow, cobalt blue and viridian to make my grays, and used the grays to paint everything but the little yellow and orange patches on the bird :) A smaller brush than I normally use and waiting patiently for the paint to dry between the layers helped too.

Reading parts of the chapter while waiting for the paint to dry showed me the weakness in my  usual method of studying only the pictures in an art book rather than reading the chapters in detail!  I guess I need to change my ways a bit and not try to reinvent the wheel on my own!

I had moved away from her suggested rose madder genuine a few years ago since it had been rated poorly for color fastness in "The Wilcox Guide to the Best Watercolor Paints."   While linking her book to amazon.com, I noticed that there is a newer edition of her book- hope  she has replacements for the fugitive colors in the new version.

16 comments:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

great work!

Prabal said...

This is really good. Very adorable..

Meera Rao said...

Thank you, @carolum art and Prabal, I enjoyed painting it.

Susan Roux said...

Very nice pelican! I love the pose.

Meera Rao said...

Thank you Susan! I learned to take my time and not rush the painting :)

Teresa said...

Meera, this is so beautiful! I love the colors you used. I've got that book too but find it difficult to follow. I'm too quick to plunge out into different directions and experiment.

I really like "The Watercolorist's Complete Guide to Color" by Tom Hill, and when I need a very specific color I like to keep "Color Mixing Recipes for Watercolor" by William F. Powell handy.

So nice of you to visit my blog... you're a sweetie!

Meera Rao said...

Thank you Teresa! As I said in my post, I too am impatient to read and follow the instructions! I am curious about the other books, but just like in my cooking, I can't see myself following any recipes :)

padmaja said...

Some times, your own recipes spell success Meera! This is a really great job you have done here with the pelican, I also loved the title you gave!

Meera Rao said...

Thanks Padmaja :) Better or not thats how I work --in cooking and in painting -making up as I go !

Kathy Staicer said...

Your pelican is beautiful and your grays are actually more intense than I would have thought. Your art is just getting better and better all the time.

Meera Rao said...

Kathy, thank you! the fun is going to be to see if I am able to replicate this!!!!

Anudeepa Kadiresan said...

How are you Meera..
the pelican looks beautiful and fresh...

Meera Rao said...

Thanks Anudeepa. Slowly learning the value of patience :)

SKIZO said...

AFabulousWork

Meera Rao said...

@Skizo, Thank you - Really appreciate your comments.

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