Seascape Artist

When using watercolor pencils for my first sketch, drawing or underpainting of a watercolor seascape, a sketch or drawing tends to completely disappear during the painting process. I like that very much about watercolor pencils. If there are lines left, it is because I meant for them to show, not because I got carried away and forgot to erase. I do not do detailed drawings anyway but many times I do like to lay out a bit of general placement sketching lines. If I do not like where they are, it is easy to blend them in with whatever goes there and I am not tied in stone to the original placement idea if I change my mind while painting. I find this affords me a lot of flexibility during planning and during painting.

As I experiment with my watercolor crayons and watercolor canvas [todays experiment is Using Broken Watercolor Crayons ], I am learning new ways to implement all the edges of my tools into how I paint. I tend to pick up a pencil and use it to sketch the same as if I were holding a pencil for writing a letter. I want to break myself of this habit so I can broaden my horizons and achieve different effects in my watercolor seascapes. I also find that using the pencils to sketch my tree shapes on top of the underlaying background wash is a good thing - if I plan to use either tube paint or the crayons for upper layers, I can lightly do the placement to see if I like it without feeling as if I am stuck with it no matter what - it is light enough that I can easily merge it into whatever is under it without ruining the painting or having to figure out how to make lemonade out of a lemon.

And with watercolor pencils, there is no erasing needed … experiment with different brands of watercolor pencils to find the ones that work best for you if you do detailed initial drawings - some are more akin to pencil drawing than others in sharpening and holding a point while still being watercolor pencils that will blend and disappear while you paint.

I am giving a painting away next month in August for an event - advertising - I will have business cards there too - I ordered new ones to arrive in time for this event. One should never run out of business cards and then wait to get more - you will suddenly find yourself in need of having some in a time crunch if you allow yourself to run out without re-ordering right away. Approximately 100 or so local area business people are expected to attend this event, so to me, it is critical that I have plenty of business cards for them to pick up if they are interested in my art from seeing this painting - it will be displayed before being given away.

I need a painting to fit into a 16″ x 20″ mat / frame - the opening for the mat will be 10 1/2″ x 13 1/2″ (known in most stores as an 11″ x 14″ opening) - I measured it so I know it does not have an 11″ x 14″ opening - where did the other 1/2″ for both directions go? The inner mat bevel is 1/4″ so it loses 1/2″ in width and length inside the mat.

I feel this event is important to my career as an artist so I am planning the framing (and the painting itself) very carefully - which usually is not something I do with watercolors - I decided I wanted to do a completely new painting specifically for this event instead of just pull one already completed out of the portfolio where they are packed away ready for the move this fall or to just be protected right now from being damaged. I want something colorful so I chose the purple-lavender-blue color combination … I have not decided yet if it will be sand or grass or some of both and I am planning a palm tree also - the palm tree will be in tube watercolors so it will show up well. It will probably have a few flying seagulls being a seascape but those will be the very last thing painted.

The “fit the frame and mat” step was the first thing I physically needed to accomplish - no matter what great color combination or painting I might do - if it doesn’t fit into the planned frame and mat when completed - it will be a failure so I would have to start all over again. The very first step was thinking and deciding what size I wanted it to be and what type of subject - that part was easy for me - a seascape since I love to paint seascapes.

I started with an 18′ x 24″ sheet of 140 lb watercolor paper - that is the largest size watercolor paper I have in my studio - the larger a painting is - the more difficult to mat and frame it - I decided I wanted a standard size since I do not have months in advance to order specific mats cut for this painting and I do not cut my own mats yet - that is something I plan to learn after I move but I still have a few months before that is going to happen.

I placed the mat on the paper, drew around the outside of it. I am painting all the way to the marked edge even though I know I will be cutting off the extra outside the edge markings as well as approximately 1/2″ inside the border I drew too. The mat is approximately 2 1/2″ wide - so I also need to know where to place my sand or grassy hill area … so … on the outer border edge at the bottom, I made marks to remind me where I want the bottom to be inside the mat so it will be above and below this area to show when framed inside the mat.

For this painting, I am using a combination of watercolor pencils and tube water color paints. The sky and water area were blocked in using watercolor pencils so far - the bottom area is next and it too will be blocked in first with watercolor pencils - depending on how it looks, I may need to put tube paint on it also to make it show up better since part of it may cover the blue sea area and watercolor pencils do not cover laid down color as well as I want and need for this painting but it is really good to let me play with the shapes while blocking them in to finish painting them.

Planning for important projects is key to being successful. Always take the time to think about what you want the end result to be, then plan how to get from the beginning to that end result, BEFORE starting the project. You may not always follow the plan during the project and that is okay too … but if you have no plan … you may not get the results you want or need from the project.