This was painted several years ago on YUPO before I learned from a George James video how to use a roller and squeegee to control the paint flow. The 'drip' for his jaw line shows how the paint dried with an edge that I did not plan or want. Smoothing it out with a brush after it was dry would have only left a murky, unblended mess. I liked the rest of the picture, so I left that as a ''''painterly'''' mark. HA!To paint a smooth, uninterrupted space on YUPO is pretty much pure luck, not skill. Gravity helps a little, I think.
Getting a smooth, graded wash like the check and jaw area here is also a big challenge on YUPO. The paint tends to dry from the outside in, but unpredictable edges often occur sometimes where the paint's thinned in the middle of a wash, just like this jaw line did.
Like Nick Simmons says, "You've got to have a Plan B." Mistakes will always change our plans. Sure teaches us to be flexible. No pushy colors were used on the face, which helped make the drying a little more even. Pushy colors (see previous posts) usually dry faster, allowing for uneven areas to develop, not so good in skin or smooth areas like sky or calm water.
Myrna Wacknov just finished a week long workshop with George James. Check out her workshop masterpiece full of colorful figures on her blog (see side bar.) It's an exciting piece. Five weeks from today I'll be at a George James workshop in North Carolina with my friend, Monique! YEAH!!! And it'll be spring there with the big Weeping Cherry Tree in full bloom, I bet.
Looking at this painting today, I think the hat really needs more value and definition. What do you think?
"FRIENDSHIPS" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO, 14 x 12"
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4 comments:
I stumbled in from someplace else and I can't remember where. Anyway, I was curious about your watercolors and read the narrative with this picture and found it interesting. Years ago (in the late 1960s and early 1970s) I was into art and painting and went to shows and exhibited a lot. I thought the sun rose and set for artists and lots of others did too. I remember Bob Brubaker from Greenville, in those days, used to turn up at all the shows I attended and we competed for prizes or awards and sometimes I got them and sometimes he got them. I painted in oils and he was in watercolors.
I don't think either one of us thought we could ever quit painting but I did and I suppose Bob did too.
I got involved in photography and have a birds blog and also a photo a day blog from Brookville where I now live. It is more about writing than photography but sometimes there is a little of both there.
I did enjoy your blog a lot.
Dear SAndy,
I found your site by accident about a month ago(did a google search 'yupo artist') and was delighted by your work and blog.
You share so much and seemed as enamored of YUPO as me. I started painting on Yupo in 1994 (it was called Kimdura then and I had to order it from Kimberly Clark in Wisconsin). I read an article by George James in Watercolor 1994magazine and love the effects and it was cheap. Once I started painting on it I was hooked. The colors stayed alive even when dry and I was ecstatic. I had always felt deflated when my paint dulled as it dried on Arches and I had to labor with layering to get back to rich. I didn't have the skills to paint 'alla prima' on traditional paper but Yupo allowed me to experiment and I could easy 'get back to white'!!
I have experimented with everything from corn starch to powdered charcoal on the Yupo and learned so much over the years.
I belong to local watercolor society and tried to interest others without sucess but I continued to paint almost exclusively with Yupo. As a matter of fact I recently did a demo for another art club and admitted that every painting I had entered in the watercolor competitions the past 14 yrs had been on Yupo but one. (And happy to say snared some awards). George James described using roller in that long ago article but I thot he used them to apply the paint so I had no luck. Thankfully his dvds came out and I laughed myself silly when I saw how he used the roller to smooth the paint!! I apologize for being
'hyperverbal' but I just really appreciate your blog and your sharing of your 'art journey'!! I check your blog daily and I mentioned it in the recent demo as a wonderful source of info about Yupo and painting as a whole.
I love the portrait of the gentleman and I absolutely love the 'yupo edge' along his jaw!!
I keep wondering if he has a colorful scarf on under that hat and what a painting of that in place of hat would look like. Your work is terrific!!
THanks for maintaining such a wonderful site!
Kindest regards,Missy from the bayou
Hi Missy,
I would love to see your YUPO work. I'd quit painting on it for a couple of years, and it's so good to be back at it again. Regular paper is (do I dare say this?) kind of BORING after painting on YUPO. Thanks for visiting my blog. And Congratulations on your awards from the shows where you've entered YUPO. Love it!
And Mr. Lincoln - I look forward to your next bird photos. What gorgeous pictures. Amazing, they seem like I could reach out and touch them.
Sandy I think this is a very nice painting! I am not sure about the hat, maybe some definition would be good?
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