Interesting exercise in seeing
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@burvantill I've only been doing this for a couple of weeks so things might change but here is what is in my kit:
Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Colour Paint Field Plus Set (This is 12 half pans of student grade watercolor that folds out to a couple of palette trays and water cups. I replaced the Cotman's with artist grade paint but the Cotman's are fine for sketching. I love this kit.)
A rollup brush holder with at least a flat brush, round brush, tiny round brush, a couple of pencils, and an eraser.
Wrist sweatbands -- someone recommended these to wipe your brush on instead of using rags and they work really well
A watercolor sketchbook I made myself by cutting 9x12 sheets of paper in half and spiral binding them. (You could just tie the pages together but I happen to have an old spiral binder.) I decided not to invest in a nice sketchbook because I didn't want to be afraid of painting in it! This way I can toss the bad paintings... of which there are many.
Binoculars to look at birds
I throw it all in an old shoulder bag and it's really portable. I did worry about getting the sketchbook wet in the kayak but I do all quiet water paddling and my kayak is pretty broad and stable. Besides, if I do get it wet, since it's watercolor I can just say it was an "abstract representation."
Laurie DeMott
instagram.com/demotlj -
@kat The main thing that was different was that I was captivated by a field of wildflowers along the shore which barely showed up in the photo. I was just so drawn to the color that I imagined them more dominant than they were which also suggests that my assumed focal point and composition may not have been the best one.
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@demotlj You could take that information and exercise a little creative license to create a composition that really focuses on the flowers, though. I would bet that other people also noticed the flowers the most when seeing the area. Might make a really nice image
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Just to follow up, here is a very very rough sketch I did this afternoon based on my photos and notes I made. I didn't even do it on watercolor paper because I was just playing with various colors and compositions so I don't know if the end painting will look anything like this but it gives you a sense of what I was looking at as I drifted by. I think the wildflowers that I was so obsessed with in real life work better as an accent rather than the focal point.
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@demotlj Thankyou! That’s helps.
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Yes, what you see with your eye can be very different than what you see through the camera, and of course different camera lenses can make a big difference, as well as the angle of the shot--even moving a little higher or lower can really change a photo & the focal point of the image.
Thanks for sharing your experience, and your list of tools, @demotlj.
If your sketchbook isn't too big, you could slip it into a Zip-lock bag to protect it from getting wet while you are kayaking to and from your sketching location.
Thanks for sharing the interview link, @burvantill.
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So I tried watercolor sketching last weekend while backpacking. Feeling ambitious, I built a little w/c pad with 6 pages and only used one. lol! I had a nice chunk of time on Saturday afternoon, but Sunday we didn't stop for more than 20 minutes until we reached the car at 8:30pm. I did wake up around 5:30am because of a noise and lay there staring out at the most wonderful shade of DARK powder blue and black shadowy trees which I will try to replicate tomorrow in my w/c sketch pad, until I fell back to sleep
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Plein air painting is tough. The subject I choose had a great light on it for about 15 minutes. Then poof! Gone. All shadow. So I had to improvise. I'm happy with it for my first try, but I do need to push myself to go to the dark side...they have cookies there
. My pict is still too light I think. Here is the photo and the painting.
I didn't look at the photo until after I was done with the painting just to see what my mind saw as opposed to what was really there. Its a very interesting exercise.
@demotlj I am glad that you started this post.Lisa Burvant
www.lisaburvant.com
Instagram & Twitter & SVS: @burvantill -
@burvantill I love this. Like you, I am trying to do better at the dark values but i find it harder to do in watercolor, especially Plein air, because everything dries lighter than I painted it and I forget to take that into account. I also sympathize with your planning on doing more than you actually had time for - I just spent the weekend in Boston visiting my daughter and carried my sketchbook all over the city but didn’t have time to pull it out once. I think Plein air painting has to be done solo and as the sole purpose of the trip! I did, however, go to an art store and bought some more cool things for a potential watercolor sketching expedition down the road. Daniel Smith has come out with watercolor sticks and I got a free sample. I’ll let you know how they work.
Laurie DeMott
instagram.com/demotlj -
@demotlj yes please do so. Anything to help the process. Lol!
My next trip is in 1 week and it’s just two of us so we decided that we will not be hiking ALL day and dedicate some down time for our personal goals.
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Interesting! A great way to experience and internalize the difference between the camera and the eye. I’ve found verbalizing character descriptions to help me when trying to draw a consistent character too—I wonder what other ways using verbal descriptions could help in creating visual art.
