Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Works in Progress

What was I working on when I had my catastrophic medical illness you may ask? Well, I had two works in progress. One was a large pencil drawing of a nuthatch that I intended to finish in watercolor. It is too lightly drawn to photograph and to big to scan so here is a picture of one in the pose I drew:



It is way too demanding of fine motor skills for me to finish right now so I will put it aside for the future when I am more confident and practiced.

The other WIP was in the first wash stage of watercolor. I based it on this photo I took of baby koi for sale in Holland Village in Singapore. Sean and I love this photo and use an edited image as a background for our personal checks. So I just knew I had to immortalize it in a painting.



Interestingly, the camera would not photograph it. Sean tells me that it was because the camera could not "see" anything to focus on. So I scanned it in two parts.




It really has a long way to go as far as the painting goes. But I feel very intimidated by this work and don't want to ruin it. This piece would be very unforgiving of any mistake since the colors are so light. So, I have decided to hold off on this one also until I feel more confident in my skills.

I have begun a new piece that I hope will be very forgiving. It is based on a photograph that I took while I was in the Wet Market in Chinatown in Singapore. The photograph is of a pile of discarded fish heads. I was drawing on it yesterday and my hands were shaking a bit but that may have been because of the dexamethasone I had taken for my migraine. It is quite a departure from the usual paintings for me, but I like it quite a bit.

Sean and I are going to go out and buy some new paint brushes for me before I paint again. I will also buy a special Japanese ink one as Hirano San recommended.

I am also considering looking for a new medium that will be more forgiving than watercolor. Any ideas?

Wish me luck!

4 comments:

Y said...

Beautiful work!Again!

Glad you decided to paint again,Sue!

Doug said...

I'm glad you're starting new work and are open to new approaches. The most versatile medium I know of is acrylics. You can use them as watercolors and as "oil paints" and you can paint over mistakes once they've dried. You might want to read up on them if you're unfamiliar with them (and even if you are familiar with them the books are inspiring). The best books I have on the subject are The Acrylic Artist's Bible by Marilyn Scott and Acrylic: Artists' Questions Answered by David Cuthbert. Both are very practical and no-nonsense reference books. I don't know if they're available or not still, but I'm sure you'd be able to find them in a used book store (that's where I got my copies)

Doug said...

I misspelled the author's name for The Acrylic Artist's Bible; it's Marylin Scott

Linda! said...

Sue you areone amazinlgy talented woman. and i was also going to say acrylics- you can paint right over any mistakes. it was one of my favorite mediums.