YUPO DEMO

Lasts night's demo went okay. It was a lot of fun to do, but there were some tense moments when I wondered how I was going to pull it off. You can see all the supplies I used, including a small bottle of rubbing alcohol to clean the surface of the YUPO right before I painted. The 3" and 4" Jack Richeson brushes are brand new (part of a prize I received at the Watercolor Society of Indiana art show:-) It was great to have some good sized brushes to work with on the full sheet of YUPO - 40 x 26."

This posted painting has been cropped, but, other than that, it's not been tweaked or corrected since the demo. When I moved it to take it home, there were still some puddles of wet paint that dripped a little.
I'm not sure how much I'll work on it. I'm notorious for over working paintings and must always remind myself that 'perfect' doesn't exist for a painting (or for any other human endeavor, for that matter.)

I'm thinking as I look at the painting--- Have I expressed what I wanted to express? Is the composition holding together? Is that green background shape still too strong? Do the edges need more variation? Must change the angle of the horizon on the right to angle down a little so it doesn't pull my eye out of the picture. Anything too distracting? Need to realign those two gray slightly angled lines near the bottom of the painting to be completely horizontal..... Adjust the dark drip on the man's lower leg.....
I may crop it some more, too, but right now the painting's composition is built on the phi principle.

I'll look at it a while and decide what else to do. My hope was to create an impressionistic watercolor painting involving interaction of people, and your comments would certainly be appreciated.

The demo lasted an hour and a half, and about twenty minutes before I was done, I began to really feel the pressure of making the painting work. Up close, the painting has a VERY abstract quality about it.... and I was up close working on it. (Click on it to view a close up of it.) Once I stepped away and viewed it at a distance, I relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the evening. The group was very receptive and seemed so appreciative. I do think that many were motivated to try something new.

It was great to have Rhonda Carpenter as my dinner guest, too, and she seemed to really have a good time. Someone asked me if my husband ever went to art functions with me, so I replied, "Yes, about as often as I go to Nascar races with him." Actually, I am thankful that he is very supportive and always attends art shows with me when it is important to me that he's there.

Although the painting took only an hour and a half to paint, I did have the composition and drawing resolved before the demo, as well as already having miskit in the small areas where I knew I wanted crisp, white shapes. Tomorrow I'll post another variation of the painting and will continue to add new ones as I create them, all inspired from this same reference material.

A challenge for you - next painting you do, use only the 3 biggest brushes you have. The ones I used for this were a three inch flat, a four inch flat, and a 1" flat. Let me know how you do.

"GATHERING" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 21 x 36"
Original reference photo to right, taken in London near Lincoln Park, but I used the oil painting study as my reference last night - see previous post of Demo Preparations on January 12.