Thursday 14 July 2011

At the end of the day

Feeling very inspired by the last few beautiful acrylic paintings of the wonderful Dorset coastline by Lisa over at Seaside Studios, and in anticipation of the upcoming holiday to the very same coastline, I thought it would be useful to try my hand at a seascape. I did this partly from imagination and partly from past experiences - visual memory as it were. It started as a pure wet in wet watercolour but I added a little gouache with a hog brush to give a little sparkle to the sea. It looks reasonably convincing but I have a few photographs from previous holidays to use for reference so I may do a couple more practice runs before I get to paint the real thing :) If I don't post again for a little while, have a super relaxing weekend everyone.


Seascape, watercolour and white gouache, 7" x 10"

14 comments:

  1. Love the sparkle on the sea!
    Will be interesting to see all of your practice pieces and the final one together. I used to do that to chart my progress.
    Have a great weekend, Michael xx

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  2. Thank you Pat, using white gouache was quite cathartic for me really: why struggle with trying to keep the white and I really dislike masking fluid ;-). I'll probably do a few practice runs over the next week and put them up as one post :)

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  3. Great painting!
    Funnily I read about using white gouache in watercolour on other blogs recently. I have never done that. I think you did great! Keeping the white, or using masking fluid, would not make this wonderful effect!
    Looking forward to seeing more, and have a nice weekend!

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  4. Hi Judy and thank you. It's useful to have a positive white, rather than a negative one, for subjects like this where you want a broken dry brush effect :)

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  5. I have never used Gouache myself before. Lovely painting and gorgeous colours :0)

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  6. Well done Michael. You have just the right colors. The reflection in the sea is beautifully done. Smart of you to use white gouache.

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  7. Good evening Sandra. Thank you for your lovely comments! If you like acrylics and oils then I'm sure you'll like gouache too. Go on, give it a go ;-)

    Goedenavond Renske. Thank you for your lovely comments! You could try gouache too, as a foundation for your pastel pencils ;-)

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  8. Good evening Michael. Thanks for the tip. I already think about it. Maybe it’s an idea to use it in the fur. For grey or white hair.

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  9. Good idea Renske. Take a look at Mari's blog (Il taccuino di Mari) on my sidebar. Mari uses gouache for nature subjects.

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  10. Missed a few days, Michael - and what a treat to come back to you. Lovely stuff going on, especially this seascape. Oh for a walk on the beach!

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  11. Thank you again Michael. I visit her blog and that's an interesting blog. I am become a follower.

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  12. Hi Anita, thank you very much and welcome back ;) Such lovely comments to make! Yes, a walk on the beach would be quite heavenly right now :)

    Hi Renske. I thought you'd enjoy Mari's blog and so glad you did :)

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  13. Wow Michael! Thank you for the shout, that is really kind.

    You've got a great visual memory, this is looking really good. The sparkle on the water is lovely and I really like the granulation in the sky. Keep going!

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  14. Wow too and thank you Lisa! I hope the shout brings you some new visitors but not so many that you don't get enough time to paint! Yes, I use a few granulating pigments but it's so easy to overuse the effect if you're not careful. I certainly need to keep going to be more prepared for the delights of Dorset :O)

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No silly verification words here - all comments are appreciated! Thank you :)