Cookbook Project Complete

About two years ago I decided to combine a few of my interests, cooking and painting, and the "Cookbook Project" was born. I never intended for this project to take so long. The purpose was to set myself a small obtainable goal to encourage me to get into the studio regularly.

While I am happy my cookbook is finally done (parred down from the initial grand idea) the lesson I learned from this project is it's best to focus ones energies than to try to perfect everything.

Since the "Cookbook Project" I decided to focus on watercolor medium–that, a challenge in itself. So this will be my one and only cookbook, for now...

Below are my paintings for this project. My Soup cookbook is on magcloud

Fire Place Finally Done

It's been difficult lately to keep up my painting challenge. There is so much to do in the house. After 2 coats of primer and a wrong color choice, I finally got the fireplace painted. We also had the hearth done. Next the drywall guys come back and fix a few issues with the ceiling and plaster my studio. I'm happy to get the work done but it is disruptive to my creativity. It's hard to paint when its hard to get to your paint and paper. That's why so much articles about staying motivated and creative focus on the need for space.

I have one small painting to upload this week but plan on doing another one in a few days. I really look forward to getting back into the everyday painting flow.

For now, this is it.

Fall. Time to Start Cooking Again

Another project I've been working on is my cookbook project. I decided to concentrate on soups since I like to make a lot of soup this time of year. Yesterday and today I did a few illustrations for the soup cookbook. What I like about these is  I don't fuss too much with them.

Slowing Down but not Stopping

I confess, I have had the luxury to do art about 8 hours a day for a few weeks. I painted. I studied. I painted some more. Going by the it-takes-21-days-to-form-a-habit rule, I am almost there. But sometimes real life demands our attention. And sometimes you hit a road block in the learning process and need to slow it down as well. I need to take a small break.
One of the real life things I need to do is paint this fire place. Look how disgustingly ugly it is.

Here is a work in progress.  I may benefit from slowing down a little anyway. In general, it's better to not over think and over state watercolors. The advice of one painter I've been reading is, "get in, make a mark, then get out." (I don't remember which one, I've been reading so many.) Good advice for me. When I start trying to "fix" things I end up making them worse. I will really benefit from working this new piece slowly.

I did use this same reference for an earlier painting I did last week. It was going along well. in fact I still like part of the old painting,which is why I cropped it, creating a smaller painting. (see below)

But then I panicked. I made painted statements I wanted to take back. I scrubbed, but then the dreaded mud appeared. My excitement about my early efforts, soon turned to disappointment. That's when I knew I needed a break.

Vermont Woods in Spring     10X7.5

Lily Pad for Sandy

I took a break from painting yesterday and did some looking and learning, as my husband says. I am struggling with muddy greens. Many watercolorist note this problem leading some to avoid green altogether. I can't avoid green. It's my favorite color.

Today I did a small painting for my sister.  I'm happy with the way this turned out. She supplied the reference photo, and it gave me a breather from tackling the elusive green. That I will try again tomorrow.

I also went back to a smaller size. I want to paint larger but it's easier to tackle problems on a smaller scale.

Knowing When to Stop

I confess. I've made changes to two paintings since I posted them here.

After sitting and staring at this painting for awhile I thought it just wasn't working. I needed to change the small tree and tone down some of the sky holes. They were too bright. I also cropped out much of the foreground green as I felt it was too muddy. Overall this painting has been too overworked.

I added a background color. I took this picture with my camera and the color is off slightly. You can see the pink color cast in the white edge of the paper. In reality it's more golden than orange.

I'm beginning to understand that the more I work on a painting, the more chance there is to damaging it.  Learning to paint in watercolors is learning about many different processes that are particular to watercolor. When is wet too wet? Which color goes down first and how should it blend? (often uncontrollably) Which colors are right? Planning is important, but sometimes you just get stuck as you get into it. Usually it's best to just walk away. 

I'm learning.

The 2013 Watercolor Challenge is on!

I just updated my website with all of the images I've been working on for this challenge. One of the things I am learning for myself, if you want to call yourself an artist, you have to make art. That actually is a quote from The View from the Studio Door. I got this book after I graduated with my degree in art and was finding myself a little lost. As I re-read this book I am finding I am relating even more than before. I suspect it may be a book that should be read every year, kinda like a check in.

Today I painted this.

Then I updated my website with all the images of the paintings I've done so far for this challenge.Here's a link to the page.

janezeeb.com/

Now onto my next painting.

Peppers

Peppers. Watercolor 12X9.5 

STOP THE VOICES!

I admit, I've been slacking over the last couple of days. I've been cooking (which I often do when I hit a wall with painting).

So today I forced myself to paint and it did not turn out well. (see painting on left) The green part was so bad I cut it off.  I have no clear focal point. While I liked the tangle of leaves, (part I cut off) I don't know how to capture that properly in watercolor. The whole thing turned to mud.

Trying to find a way forward, I pick up one or two of my many instructional books. Each artist, in their own kind words, give advice– What colors to use; how to pay attention to value range; how to create a center of interest; etc, etc. So many artist's voices are going through my head right now I hardly know which way to go, let alone who I am. It's so hard to figure out when you are still learning your craft. That's why I decided to focus on watercolor for one solid year.

All my life I have been making art. I've done oil painting, acrylic and watercolor. I took printmaking classes, portrait painting, encaustic and pottery, (to name a few). I like everything.

Recently I got laid off from my 9-5 and this is giving me an opportunity to focus on art. I decided I want to take it to the next level and everything I've read says you need to FOCUS and WORK at art to get good/better.

I choose watercolor. It's challenging. Besides value range, color harmony focal point, etc, common to all painting, water colors have unique properties that take time to master and even then they can get out of control.

In fact that's the appeal for me. I'm such a control freak. I can get too tight and detail focused quite easily. I like a certain amount of "detail" but I also like loose and free. I'm somewhere in-between. I just haven't found myself yet, and all those artist voices can add to the confusion.

But I'm not giving up. Tomorrow I plan to paint again. In the meantime I think I need to read The View from the Studio Door again, then back to the voices.

Range of Value

One of the issues I've been working on is developing a wide range of value. Apparently Im not the only watercolor painter who struggles with this as there is much written about it in all the books I have and the numerous youtube videos I've watched.

They all suggest to do quick value sketches before painting. I've been doing that and it helps. I also have a value scale. Several actually.

Value is even more of a challenge when working with color at the same time so yesterday I decided to use a very contrasty reference photo. I used an old photo of my grandmother. The old black and white professional photos are really great for contrast. I also got to look at my grandmother all day long. She was a very important part of my life growing up and I consider her one of the most important influences in my life. My grandmother believed in me and encouraged me.

While I am not limited myself to genre right now, I know I will never become a portrait painter. This painting I am posting does not look like my grandmother, but I feel I have achieved a better understanding of value. Eliminating color really helps. It also helps to use up the extra paint on my palette. If you mix enough colors together you usually end up with sepia.

It's funny how one thing leads to another!

Ha! It's been over a year since I posted anything. (kitchen is done and beautiful) The good news is I've been painting. Painting a lot.
I meant to post something the other day but my scanner wouldn't work. I spent the day trouble shooting and finally came to the conclusion that I needed a computer OS upgrade. Three days later I am back in business.

I am posting one of my recent watercolors here. (the one I used to test my scanner) I have more to post but I have spent far to much time over the last couple of days on my computer. I want to get out there and paint.
In the mean time, my most recent.