Blobbing Venice

 I was looking for my 'waterproof' map of Venice for Alison (like you're really going to fall into a canal like Katherine Hepburn!) when I discovered an old pile of blobby Venice watercolors from days of yore...

 It certainly helps to pick up a few post cards whilst in Venice to blob from - your shapes are cut out for you comme ca.

 Taking pictures at l'heure bleu/dusk is another way to get your major shapes cut out for you to paint from. Yes that's moi in '97.

 A double-blob

 Paint in your background blob skyline on top of a wash of gradated colors. Then you can add a gondolier or two in the foreground. Easy peasy.

 Canaletto could blob a gondolier with his eyes closed.

 So can Huck Scarry in his Venice Sketchbook

 One of Scarry's gondolas. Another suberbe blobber is Jean-Louis Morelle.

 Blobbing puts you in a meditative state of mind.

 I touched up an old beginning this morning by adding some washes to the sky and water.

 Then a touchup to the skyline

 Et voila

Thursday I'll be back blobbing up in Maine at David's Fall watercolor class. I need to brushup of my watercolor skills for Paris in October. But first on Wednesday I'll be blobbing for board - giving Rita/Sketchbook Wandering une petite lecon before we scour Portland for macarons and then head up to David's next day for blobbing immersion.

BONNE BLOBBING TO YOU!

Blobbing Sketchbook

 An old friend kindly lent me back some sketchbooks I'd given him a while back when I was clearing out a closet a few summers back.

 I was surprised

 By these

 I thought I'd give you a look.

 Throw down washes (wet color on wet paper).

Then once the washes are dry, drawing on top with with a brush.

 The underwash colors should be pale and warmish.

 For contrast.

 Sometimes I like to draw with a loaded brush, especially figures.

 Sometimes the layering is just abstract blobs.

 Layered blobs on top of blobs.

 With a bit of spatter

 Always put warm colors down 1st and cool colors on top. Not the other way around. To quote The Watercolor Book:

Applying cool over warm gives more luminous results, while applying warm over cool produces darker, more opaque effects.

A quote from British watercolor artist Brabazon Brabazon:

by Brabazon
"Broadly speaking, my mental processes which I attempt to express can be roughly summarized thus: (1) The creation of the nebulous atmosphere in harmony with the scene which will enable me to pass through and beyond the surface of the paper into a world of imagination in which I can breathe and look about me. This we will call depth. (2)Then I am able to observe the main forms and color masses which interest me: form."
 Are you inspired to paint blobs this weekend? I am.

BONNE WEEKEND!

Carnets de Voyage #2 Tuscany

Tuscan Farmhouse, watercolor, 6 x 9"

Before there was the camera, there was the paintbox. And everyone did it! Painted I mean. The Victorians made sure of that. Some folks are born with a silver spoon in their mouth. I've always thought all Brits were born with a Windsor & Newton paintbrush in their mouths. How I've longed to be born British. Then I'd be a natural born watercolor painter from day 1. 

The Victorians pretty much invented the paintbox. They  decided it was a good idea to go off galavanting around the world on The Grand Tour. And you better have your paintbox along to record your travel experiences. 

Watercolor is the perfect medium for travel - lightweight, fast drying, fluid and very portable. 

The British even taught THE FRENCH how to learn to love l'aquarelle. Richard Parkes Bonnington, the greatest of them all, 

Taught Delacroix how to paint a wash.

Hilltop Town, watercolor, 6 x 9"

There's a mystique about painting in watercolor. It looks so damn easy and it's so damn hard. 

Painting in watercolor is an obsession right up there with loving macarons. And there is endless paraphernalia you can buy just to make a simple watercolor.

Adorable little porcelaine mixing dishes from England. Fancy Russian Kolinsky "travel" brushes from everywhere. Blocks of watercolor paper stuck on a board so the paper won't curl up while you're painting by the Iguazu Falls. Special containers to carry your water. Special enamel travel palettes. Lovely pleine aire/outdoors carryall bags to put all of the above into. Did I mention sponges. Believe me, I've bought every scrap of it.

On every trip, the first stop is ALWAYS the local art store to search for some new treasure to drag home. Note the big gorgeous looking brush with the red handle. I got it in Arezzo, Tuscany. Do I ever use it? No. The art supply biz understands our obsessions perfectly. In Europe, you'll see paintboxes with pans in every store you go into. 

Tubed watercolors make you feel like you're painting with oils and have an oily consistency when first squeezed out - rich and lush. But they can dry hard as rocks. While the pans are easier to wet and more portable.

There are a ton of how-to books for the beginning watercolor painter. I bought almost every one. And I've gone to many of watercolor "workshops" - Savannah, New Jersey, Maine, Tuscany, Devon, Provence. And I've dreamt of many more. SouthJerseyBoy will tell you.

Near Pienza, watercolor, 6 x 9"

But the truth is, you need to sit down with a jam jar of water, a basic watercolor set of 10-12 pans and some nice paper.

1. First drop a pool of water on your paper.
2. Next drop in some color with your brush, starting with a lighter, warmer color first (burnt sienna works fine).
3. While your puddle is still wet, add some darker, cooler color (French blue).
4. The blobs of colors will "bleed" into each other and form "blossoms", that's where the colors run together and you get "happy" (or unhappy) accidents.
5. You can help the paint along by tilting your paper back and forth.

6. Time to watch the paint dry. You'll learn more from this exercise than most books, workshops, videos out there IMO. I've filled stacks of sketchbooks doing these blobs.

  If you get some good painted blobs going, you've got the beginning of a nice atmospheric landscape painting. It's that easy and it's the best way to learn the properties of different pigments + color theory.
7. Lesson over. Now get cracking!

*TIP: for those watercolor-obsessed out there, if you're in London, stop in at Green and Stone of Chelsea on 259 Kings Road. They have antique watercolor sets in the back. You may find a set that's been on a Grand Tour.