DefinitelyDressage.com

Something Kande said about posting progress posts made me think this might prove intestesting. (And Kande, you are up next. I want to see a pot from clay lump to thrown and glazed, please!)

I've been working on a fairly complicated watercolor of lilies this week, and I've taken photos as I've gone along so you can see how I put it together. It's quite big, about 18 x 24." I like to work life-sized.

After I've found the flowers, the pot and the backdrop, I'll arrange them and tweak them a million times until I get the right composition and the right lighting.

Then I draw it all.

Then my first step when I'm working with flowers is to get them painted before they change too much, wilt or die:



Next, with this one, I blocked in the cloth:

After that, I procrastinated for a bit by starting to add the depth and shadow to the cloth, before I tackled blocking in the jug, which is the most intimidating part of this particular endeavor:

Then I worked on adding depth and color to the jug and the cloth and the background, until now, I think it is finished:

Wow! that is lovely. Am thinking of taking an art class, and cannot imagine doing something like this!

That is beautiful! We really have some artistic members on this board!!

Gorgeous work!

Fantastic work. Thank you for taking pix of the progression and posting them. How many hours would you estimate it took you from start to finish?

This is really wonderful. Love the palette you’ve picked, and your design. Your thread is motivation for me to get my act together and start painting again. It’s so hard, having the horses at home, to feel like I have the time, but I know I just need to make time. I keep thinking I’ll have time “once winter is here”, but the fact is that up here in far Northern Maine (-3 F at the moment), the combination of snow removal and barn chores are freaking exhausting! And I’m sad that I can’t ride (always had acccess to an indoor, now I’m only able to ride about 5 months of the year ), and being sad doesn’t make me feel very creative. I’m going to start another thread for artwork sharing, and add some photos of what I have managed, because I don’t want to hijack this one. Again - love seeing your work, it’s fantastic!

Mountaineer, that is lovely!

Wicky, take the class!! I took a short beginning drawing class (using pencil, both graphite and colored). Still no artist and no way close to what Mountaineer produced. But, it did give the confidence to know how to break down an image and get it on paper/media. I used to look at something I wanted to draw and was just overwhelmed with the 'where do I start' (at an even lower level than Mountaineer's steps). After the class, I at least had a clue where to start

Mountaineer, just curious. About how long from start to finish in terms of actually working on the watercolor? I love watercolor and they are not an easy medium to work in.

WMW and Kande, there's probably about 15-18 hours of actual drawing and painting time in this from start to finish, over the course of a week.

The cloth was the most painful part of the whole process. Blocking that in took an entire long and very sober evening, trying to make sure all those damned squares ended up in a logical order. Doing this cuts my alcohol consumption quite significantly!

(Unlike my dear Grandma who used to paint with a cigarette in one hand, a brush in the other, and a large glass of gin next to her. I swear she washed her brush out in the gin as often as she did in the turps.)

This kind of watercolor work is a lot of hurry up and wait. Some of it has to be done while everything is wet, then you have to wait for it to dry before you hit it with the next layer. And you have to be quite considered about what you are doing as there are really no do-overs, so when you've got something good going, and you've been working on it for some time, it gets a bit stressful thinking you could so easily muck it up! Of course, the danger of that is you don't take risks, and end up with something "safe," so you have to be prepared to go for it, and understand what the medium can do. It's all practice and focus, really.

Amado, yes, do another post! it would be really great to see everyone's work. Wicky, take the class. It's good for the brain.

And, as to getting back in the groove, I know of what you speak. I have three horses at home, who need feeding, watering, mucking etc., and one who I board, who needs riding 5 days a week, and a full-time job, and a house to take care of and meals to make, and there's snow, and my DH deserves my attention, so I've always been able to find a way to not find the time or the motivation.

The winters are long and cold and rather depressing here, too. And when it's dark and cold outside it's really easy just to sink into a cocoon of couch-potato-dom. But I started to feel like I was frittering time away.

I think, though, that you will find that the focus and peace it brings you will stop you from feeling sad. It's not relaxing in the least. I'm very energized by the whole thing. Looking for my next subject!