River - A water colour painting

"Sit by a river. Find peace and meaning in the rhythm of the lifeblood of Earth." Anonymous

After having done a few charcoal portrait drawings, I am back with a small water colour painting. Working too long with any medium saturates me and then I need to do something different. Now I can work with water colour medium once again with a fresh mind.

Today's water colour painting is a beautiful river flowing down a snowy landscape. I have used the brush strokes to emphasize the direction of the water flow, the rhythm and the energy.

In order to get the water spray effect at left bottom, I have used acrylic white paint spray using a brush. My initial idea was to use a masking fluid but the one that I have is leaving yellow stain on paper so I decided to avoid using it.

I have used a small Strathmore paper cutout for the same. Colour mixing gets simple in a painting such as this as I use a very limited palette, namely Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue, Crimson Lake and Indian Red ( Camlin Artist's water colour tubes. )

Racing downwards

Water colour painting on Strathmore paper

Size 4" X 5.5"

I have used Strathmore paper for my earlier work too and I am beginning to love this paper. Presently I have a Cold Pressed version which has visible texture, but for landscape painting, it is fine. If I want to try out a water colour portrait, then I will have to consider buying the hot pressed paper.

Thanks a lot for visiting my blog.

Rocks and pebbles at the beach - A water colour painting

"The only source of knowledge is experience." Albert Einstein

In my last post I mentioned about my newly purchased Arto Campap Cold Pressed paper ( 300 gsm ). I created a small water colour study of "Rocks" on it. I have been photographing close up of rocks since very long but never really got into creating an artwork referring to it. Rocks make an interesting subject to paint as it helps understanding the shape, shadow and textures on its surface.

I kept my water colour palette limited to just three colours, namely burnt sienna, ultramarine blue and paynes grey. Burnt sienna and ultramarine blue when mixed in different proportions create beautiful shades of grey. In fact these two are the maximum used colours in my palette.

Working on textures was lot of fun, though I need to improvise on it. In all this was a quick experimental work and it was an exciting experience. I am waiting to create some more works where in I will get to work on rocks.

Rocks and pebbles

Water colour painting on Arto Campap CP paper

Size 3.5" X 4"

In the past I have created charcoal drawing of "Rocks under the water" using my charcoal tools. 

I do get tempted to pick up my charcoal tools once again and I will do that eventually, however for now I want to spend some more time working with water colour medium.

Thank you all for visiting my blog.