I finished my pomegranate watercolor. But I will post the watercolor in another post. This post is about the process. After printing the photo of a pomegranate from Wikipedia (thank you, Ilana-Davita), because I haven’t yet seen one in our supermarket, I taped some watercolor paper down to a board and made the painting just a little bigger than the original photograph. I like doing small watercolors because they fit in nicely in my scanner. I put down a bit of masking fluid in the spots where I want the paper to stay bright white. And I drew with pencil an outline of my painting.
It is important while working on the beginnings of a painting to squint. One needs to know where the darkest darks will be; we are now looking for values. Before applying any paint to the pomegranate, I painted the darkest areas with a blackish-blue color. Where I needed the dark to be lighter, I put it in more water. In watercolor, one often uses water to tone down a color.
Here I painted some of the leaves and branches. How to get the blues of the sky was a little tricky. I watered down some blue paint a lot, but I had to be careful it did not mix with another color. Also, once I have darker colors around the light color, that helps the light part look light.
Finally, some red paint is applied to the pomegranate. But one could see the shape before I added the red, correct?
I added some yellow to the pomegranate, because I saw some yellow in it. But you will see in my finished product that I toned down the yellow, because in this version I felt it was too strong. I also removed the masking fluid with an eraser.
I hope you will come back tomorrow (Tuesday) when I post the finished watercolor.
Here’s my carrot watercolor. I used both watercolor and gouache.
Carrots are traditionally eaten on Rosh Hashana, and a “yehi ratzon” is said on the carrots: “Yehi ratzon milfanecha she-yikara roa gezar dinneinu, v’yikaru lfaneacha zakiyoteinu” “May it be God’s will that the evil decrees against us be torn up and our
good merits be read out before You”.
The play on words here is the Hebrew word ‘gezer’, which sounds like gezairah, the Hebrew word for “decree.”
The same “yehi ratzon” will show up again for squash, as the Hebrew for squash is kra, which sounds a bit like the Hebrew for “tear up.”
I discovered that some display carrots in slices to resemble coins, as we hope for prosperity in the new year. You can read more about the history of these food symbols from the Rebbetzin’s Husband.
A traditional dish made with carrots that one might eat on Rosh Hashana is tzimmes. Some recipes (I haven’t tried these, no endorsements here):
I prefer mine plain (naturally sweet!) and raw. The tsimmes salad sounds best to me, though it seems a stretch to call that recipe ‘tsimmes’.
Finally, a request to all pomegranate lovers: if you find a link to a pomegranate photo that you like, please leave the link in a comment. I’m going to have to work from photos in order to paint a pomegranate.
Children’s books are often a great way to learn a new topic. For example, when I was learning needlepoint about twelve years ago (I was pregnant with my second child and wanted to do something creative that required little clean up and one could sit), I found some nice books in the children’s section of the library.
Meanwhile, I am struggling over a carrot. Did you know that carrots’ leaves, the frilly part anyway, are far from the carrot top? carrot with piece on top, greenery is broken off top and placed on the carrot
carrot leaves winding around the carrot
My plan is to do a watercolor of the carrot. I have the paper set up, and the watercolor nearby. But first I need to decide on a composition. I’d like to have some greenery with my carrot, but I can’t decide on where to place it. I don’t want it on top, as in the first photo.
Note to pomegranate lovers: Not yet in season here. So I either have to work from a Google photo or copy this stamp. Not my ideal choice.
This watercolor made its debut last week on the blog of A Simple Jew. There’s often a beautiful image on the posts of that blog, a photo, a painting, a drawing. I was honored to be a guest painter.
The painting was inspired by Winslow Homer, a 19th century American watercolorist who is famous for his depictions of the sea. Click on the image to enlarge.
Setting up an art show is not as easy as it looks.
Jill pulls the wire to hook up a painting.
Or maybe you are thinking, who says I ever thought this was easy?
My daughter and I helped Jill with the set up on Wednesday afternoon. My daughter took this photo of me holding a portrait of her.
My daughter is so proud of her ballerina painting.
Jill was at the library setting up on Thursday night and for several hours on Friday. I’ve gotten emails on the progress; and I will gladly be supplying the lemonade in memory of Kiersten.
I put four art cards for sale here: http://www.cafepress.com/leoraw/
This is rather experimental; if I make some sales, maybe I will think about how to develop this further. If you want to offer any marketing advice, I’ll be happy to read. Can’t say I’ll take it, but I’ll read.
Thanks for reading my blog; that’s really what I enjoy most, sharing with the public and exchanging ideas. I don’t expect this to take over my web work as a means of income, but rather a fun, experimental supplement.
Update: Thanks to triLcat, I added two shirts, one 3/4 sleeve, one long-sleeved. With garlic. Broccoli Update: I added a broccoli t-shirt, especially for nutrition nerds.
For those of you who’ve painted in traditional oils, I’m sure you’re aware of the pros and cons of this medium. I’m very excited about the newer water soluble, sometimes called water miscible oil paints.
Some Pros of Traditional Oils:
Superior blend-ability and a rich, buttery texture.
Slow drying time allows you to return to your work hours or even days later.
A great variety of affects can be achieved with this beautiful and versatile medium. Techniques such as scumbling, glazing, palette knife painting and more can be utilized with beautiful results
Some Cons of Traditional Oils:
Some people have allergies, either to breathing the odor (one of my students had to stop oils and switch to watercolor because of her asthma) or allergies from having the paint touch the skin (gloves can be used).
Clean up of brushes, stains on clothes, floors, etc can be arduous and time consuming.
So now to my new love: water-soluble oils! Some companies have come out with this fantastic and relatively new medium. They have found a way to emulsify the linseed oil with water, so the paints my be thinned with water, without separating or losing brilliancy.
* “Recent advances in chemistry have produced modern water miscible oil paints that can be used with and cleaned up with water. Small alterations in the molecular structure of the oil creates this water miscible property.”
The clean up is fantastically easy and brushes clean effortlessly. I don’t recommend to anyone with severe allergies to linseed oil, but these paints are deemed more ecologically friendly and most are AP non-toxic approved.
That great blend-ability you get from traditional oils is still there. The seven paintings I’ve completed so far in this medium have dried with a lovely, oil rich sheen. Drying time is faster than traditional oils, but still far longer than acrylic paints. So you can usually return to the easel within 2 days (depending on the thickness of the paint) and still modify your work and blend. Definitly within the same day. I actually find the slightly faster drying time advantageous.
One note, this is a new technology, and although I have had no problem thus far with cracking or peeling we don’t know yet how they will stand the test of time. Oils have been around for centuries, although traditional oils notoriously crack and peel as well. In fact, they keep a lot of experts in the business of restoration.
Perhaps no medium is perfect. Acrylics have only been commercially available since the 1950s. A scary thought: what if they all start peeling away at the hundred year mark? Well, let’s hope for the best and trust in newer technologies to come along to find better ways to RESTORE art works.
In the meantime, I wish you a happy time creating!
This past week we (my daughter, my middle son, and I) spent some time at Jill‘s. We all painted. Jill spent a lot of time with my daughter; this was her second art lesson with Jill. My middle son has been taking classes with Jill for about one year. I finally finished my broccoli painting (see my broccoli drawing), which I started months ago:
Here’s the ballerina that my daughter painted:
I finished my broccoli painting before my daughter finished hers, so I did this sketch:
This is my son’s artwork:
My son is excited about surrealism (Jill taught him about Salvador Dali). What do you see in his painting?
News Flash for Our Family: My daughter will also be exhibiting at the Highland Park Public Library in September, in addition to my paintings and my middle son’s and many more of Jill’s students work. And some of Jill’s too. I’ll post her ballerina painting on this blog soon. See a few of the paintings that will be exhibited.
