Art uses a different part of the brain

Hi, everyone. I hope that those of you who follow me are enjoying my posts about my painting journey. I find that it is a very different type of expression than writing. I feel that art--any sort, no matter if it's a craft or serious art work--uses a different part of the brain. And it's relaaaaaxing!

As I've mentioned, I'm taking a break from writing. It might last a year. I don't know. I'm really into learning watercolor techniques. Watercolor isn't like any other medium (oil, acrylics), but it has it's own limitations, but you can do so much with it, or techniques you can use to make your water color more interesting. 

For instance, using salt in the painting, I'm finding different ways of working with that.

Below is an experiment using salt water as my base. I found that salt water sits on the paper longer, thus I had plenty of time to add my colors to the paper before the wetness dried. 

You may not see the effect salt has on the watercolor ion this sample, but it makes colors feather or seep into the closest colors in fantastic ways I just can't do with regular water. (check out the sky and then below where the yellow seeped into the turquoise.)

Below is another study I did really quickly, you might be able to see more of the odd blending that salt water does with the colors.

There are lots of other things water colorists use, like rubbing alcohol, or adding salt onto the painting itself (I've an example, below at the end, but I don't think it came out as well as I wanted)

Using a sponge to add some sort of texture is also a way to make your painting more interesting. For this painting below I used a Q Tip for the inside (brown/black, gray etc) of the flower and for the sky, I used a sponge. I sort of had problems making the clouds, and had to cheat and use white paint. For some water colorists, using white is a big no-no. But, if you don't know me, I tend to break rules. Who cares if I use white? They make white watercolor, so what the heck is it for? (:

Original watercolor by Lorelei: "Glorious Sun" 9"x12"

In fact they also tell you there's no such thing as black in watercolor.

Well, same applies. I use it in my silhouettes paintings. 

And below, this painting would not come out so stark and interesting if I'd used a blend of greens and reds and such. Don't you agree?

Original watercolor by Lorelei "Phantom" 9"x12"

actual photograph: close up shot of
an orchid taken from Pinterest.

As you can see I didn't make the above painting up. Orchids tend to have interesting parts. This particular orchid caught my eye, the way photographer put a black background behind the flower, then took a super close-up. I find most of these sort of pictures on Pinterest, and don't claim any ownership of them. But the paintings I do!

Hope you enjoyed this. Today, I'm not sure what I'll work on, but I'll find something to paint!

A Good Brush is Hard to Find

Well, not really.
I've posted a few of the paintings (watercolors), I've done over the winter on facebook, but thought I would show it all off here.

First of all, today I purchased a set of watercolors in tubes, and a large set of pain brushes.

Below, I was working on this painting. The sun in it had come out a little lopsided, as seen in photo below. I've  fixed it and tried out my tube paints and new brushes.

The one above and the one below are my minis they're 4"x 6". I've painted several this size first, because I just wanted to get used to the medium. I've only painted in oils and acrylics before, back when I was in school (a half a lifetime ago).

As you can see, I've done alright.

Below is my favorite painting of the sunflowers. This was done using a picture of sunflowers that I've actually grown myself. I like using a photo of some sort to go by. The southwest painting was done combining two photographs I had from a trip to Taos, N.M.

The painting below I used a calendar photo of a lighthouse. I've been working on another, but I'm not ready to reveal it, yet.

So, this is what I've been working on this winter in my spare time. Yeah. I'm taking another hiatus from writing. I'm so far ahead of what I want to do with writing, I'm just going to veg and do my art for a while. Especially since I spent money on a new set of 24 watercolor tube paints. I'm going to hang them on my wall--my brag wall.