Saturday, 30 June 2012

Pier pressure

No moody monochromes this time ... just lovely rich Daler Rowney tube colour! This is based on a photo I took on our recent trip to Weymouth in Dorset on the Southwest coast. The long stone pier used by local fishermen,  that makes it way out almost to the middle of the bay, the blustery coastal sky and the distant shoreline studded with steep chalk cliffs, all help to make this a pleasing composition.

Happy painting.


Weymouth Bay, watercolour and fineliner pen on Saunders Waterford 140lb Rough, 10x11", 25x28cm
Posted by at 12:05
Labels: ,

28 comments:

  1. Anonymous30 June 2012 at 13:23

    Again wow. This is really beautiful Michael.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown2 July 2012 at 10:26

      Thank you Renske for your lovely comment.

      Delete
  2. Laura30 June 2012 at 13:58

    Hi Michael. This is great especially that sky. That's something else I need to concentrate on... Take care. Laura x :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown2 July 2012 at 10:30

      Hi Laura and thank you! I've been working on my skies recently - using tube colour is definitely a help. You take care too !

      Delete
  3. Judy30 June 2012 at 17:02

    Hi Michael! Great sky, and the stone pier almost looks real, how did you do that? Love the water as well!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown2 July 2012 at 10:37

      Hi Judy! I always struggle with walls and stonework but this seemed to go quite well. I appplied an overall light coloured wash, dropped in darks here and there for interest, added dark under the ledge and suggested the curved stone on top using a flat brush. A bit of fineliner for the fence and here and there on the wall for the joints and surface features and voila! I don't think the actual pier is quite the same shape ... but who cares!

      Delete
  4. Barbra Joan30 June 2012 at 17:41

    Michael, just got bumped off as I was writing , hope it doesn't come back , and I was sure I'd left a comment on your thundery painting... like it but we had enough of that last week here in Fl.
    Your new one is more cheery and color always (well almost ) makes a fine painting.
    BJ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown2 July 2012 at 10:39

      Thank you very much BJ and I hope you don't have problems with commenting again ... that happens to me sometimes too and it's so annoying! Nothing like a bit of colour to cheer us up after the recent stormy weather :)

      Delete
  5. Lydie30 June 2012 at 19:15

    The ugly gray clouds went away and gave way to cloudy skies interspersed with blue but so much more interesting to paint than a uniform blue sky.
    Nice depth in your watercolor, good job!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown2 July 2012 at 10:42

      Thank you Lydie! I love painting skies, wheteher they be ugly and gray or blue and beautiful. I'm trying to get them to look more convincing now.

      Delete
  6. Tito1 July 2012 at 09:13

    Hi Michael, wonderful sea landscape! The sky is fantastic and the stone pier is perfectly painted! Molto bello!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown2 July 2012 at 10:45

      Hi Tito and thank you! I'm very proud to get such lovely comments from you :)

      Delete
  7. Unknown1 July 2012 at 10:53

    Nice.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Victor Errington1 July 2012 at 11:05

    Hi Michael.
    A lovely painting with plenty of distance. You can see for Miles. Well done and all the best Michael.
    Vic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown2 July 2012 at 10:55

      Hi Vic and thank you! I'm really glad it conveys miles of distance to you. All the best!

      Delete
  9. Conchi1 July 2012 at 13:21

    Hola Michael.
    The sky is gorgeous, I love it. And the sea and the harbor are great. A lovely colorful watercolor! Hugs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown2 July 2012 at 11:00

      Hola Conchi. Thank you for your lovely colourful comments :) Abrazos.

      Delete
  10. Sharon Whitley2 July 2012 at 16:36

    great distance and super sky - love those clouds - are they the white of the paper left dry while you worked the rest wet in wet - or am I completely wrong! However you did it I love the effect - a super painting, shame it's still raining outside!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown3 July 2012 at 09:30

      Thank you Sharon! Yes indeed, the clouds are mainly the white of the paper. I used a squirrel mop to get the paper moderately wet first and then painted the sky holes with DR Permanent Blue straight from the tube (adding a little DR Transparent Red Brown here and there I think). The pigments spread out from the brush, giving a soft or hard edge, depending on the relative wetness of the brush and paper. A lot of artists recommend that you don't paint until the shine has left the paper but personally I can't wait that long and just use more or less pigment to compensate as I go along! Painting clouds in reverse is a little strange but it really is worth experimenting with and it gives some very nice effects.

      Delete
  11. Catharina Engberg2 July 2012 at 19:41

    Well...what can I say?....I can NOT find any mistaces with this one! ....It´s just PERFECT Michael. :) All the colours are so nice together and very natural and in the same time very intresting...you can look so far in to the painting and....I could go on and on and on flattering you haha. NICE!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown2 July 2012 at 22:12

      Well ... what can I say too? Thank you very much Catharina! Your comments have made my day ... I feel very flattered indeed! I wondered if the distant coastline colours were too green but I think it worked! Thank you again for your visit:)

      Delete
  12. Pat3 July 2012 at 08:58

    I love everything about this one - its a fabulous piece Michael. I hope you have it signed, framed and hanging :) Unless you've sold it ! xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown3 July 2012 at 09:26

      Hi Pat and thank you very much for your lovely comments :) Unfortunately it's in a lovely big RKBurt watercolour sketchbook I have only just bought ... so it's signed but I don't want to remove it from there to get it framed just yet!

      Delete
  13. John (JWJarts)3 July 2012 at 09:04

    I like everything about this one Michael, especially the superb stonework of the pier. Nice job. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown3 July 2012 at 09:29

      Hi John and thank you very much :) Making stonework look convincing has always been a problem to me but I think I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel - and yes, that's a stone/brick tunnel of course ;-)

      Delete
  14. Gretchen Bjornson ART8 July 2012 at 03:27

    Very nice!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown8 July 2012 at 09:26

      Thank you very much, Gretchen, and thank you for becoming a follower of my blog!

      Delete

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

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)