Seascape Artist

I went to buy a new 12″ x 12″ square frame today – the one I had broke but the major reason is that I promised my daughter’s Mother-in-Law a painting for her church … event … not sure what it will be called yet … if she wanted to raffle one off to draw in more visitors. I need to create a painting that is pretty and nice to put in the frame to be raffled or something.

I got 2 really pretty blue frames … they are a metallic bright blue … they are metal frames according to the label. They have a mat that has four 4×4 openings – a collage frame … interestingly enough … I have some lovely 6″ x 6″ Bristol – smooth finish … or I have 12″ x 12″ watercolor paper 140 lb … not sure yet quite except that I got the blue because I believed it would be the best choice for seascape artwork which is what I want to donate. Hot pink and pea green did not seem to be a good match to my artwork so bright blue it was for both … seascapes have lots of blue in them and blues usually would be a great idea color match for many seascape paintings.

Perhaps 4 separate palm tree paintings? Or 1 large seascape? Decisions decisions decisions!!!! I do not have to decide right now tonite .. I just know that I will be using several shades of blues in both watercolor pencils and india inks … and perhaps even watercolor crayons perhaps? Only time will tell.

I saw some lovely square 8″ x 8″ with 5″ x 5″ opening frames today as well as 8″ x 8″ openings matted down to 5×5. Paper and frame sizes are changing from the old standards … I love the 6″ x 6″ size for my seascape tea party individual drawings … I have it all planned to create a plethora of single item drawings to be scanned and assembled together in the computer to create various seascape tea party prints. I plan to print them my self on 12″ X 12″ sheets of 140 lb watercolor paper too so I can frame them easily. The new papers and frame choices are very exciting and make for an interesting body of work for me in the near future of 2010.

My goal is to create at least one seascape tea party scene each month. I can re-use elements from one to anther – so far I have 3 plants and a palm tree in front of a sunburst created … I need some tea party items … tea cups … tea pots … a cheshire cat grin would be fabulous too I think … perhaps this is my love of Alice in Wonderland crossed with ocean beach love .. lol … interesting will be 2010 to say the least!!!!!

90 lb watercolor paper is just too thin for me to use for much painting … I have a heavy touch with the water many times and I do not strech my paper so for actual painting, I generally use 140 lb cold press watercolor paper .. block or loose sheets in a pad.

BUT … I do keep 90 lb in my studio … for sketching ideas alone or with my grandson. Regular drawing paper has a much different feel with colored pencils and it too is in my studio for when I need that type of paper for a project … but generally, in preparation for painting and generating pre-plannning ideas … actual watercolor paper is better for me … I don’t usually use much if any water on these sketches at all … it is about placement and variety of placement … I save the sketches and some are quite good so I tend to even use them for other collage projects.

I have found that different manufacturers of paper have a different touch and feel to their papers just like different brands of watercolor pencils are a bit different to use. When I plan the placement of a project painting using 90 lb paper, I know in advance that I am not planning to use water on it generally. I like the oclor of wateroclor pencils on watercolor paper usually better than colored pencil on drawing paper too. It reminds me somewhat of pastels … it has a softer more organic feel and look to the sketch where colored pencils appear harsher. Pastels smudge too much for me though I have used them a bit … and the dust from pastels are not good for me – makes me sneeze and feel nauseous if I am around them too much. For me, watercolor pencils dry are a very nice sketching tool … since I like working with color and I cannot find any of the colored charcoal pencils any more … I am quite happy to have discovered a brand of watercolor pencils that work similar to pastels without the dust and similar to the colored charcoal that I cannot find anywhere these days … I’m not even sure if they still make it – I have not even found them on the Internet!

Using real watercolor paper and pencils in the planning stage for me has an added bonus benefit … if it is good and I like the finished product as is, I have a finished painting that I can mat, frame and hang without worrying about fixatives … I am NOT good at using fixatives … I always get them all over the place and the spray coat is never even so it makes my painting blotchy when I have used them in the past.