Back in the Saddle Again

©2010 Dora Sislian Themelis

Last week I mentioned that I missed the deadline for the Virtual pARTy painting entry.  Not a problem, no biggie, no hassle, no judgement, no criticism.  I was cool with that.  I just decided to paint the photo that was offered anyway, remembering the process was important, not the deadline or the result.  Cool as a cucumber.  I went ahead except for a little thinking first. 

I'm itching to try out the new watercolor paper I bought after you wonderful, helpful readers made suggestions, but I didn't.  Being a practical person, I bought a good size block of Arches paper rather than a tiny one to try.  I'd rather spend money on a good sized 12x16 block rather than a smaller size paper and feel frustrated by the constraints of the size.  

I tend to paint big no matter what size surface I'm using.  I still have more of the other paper and it seems to me to be a waste if I start using the new paper, fall in love maybe, and then I'm stuck with paper I might not want to use again.  The paper I have is a weird size too and didn't pay attention to that until I wanted to matte a few things. 

Before I sketched this horse photo onto the old paper I took some time to figure out what size I might want to end up with.  When matting and framing it's much easier to work with stock sizes.  So when I decided to think about my frame edge and paint within that area, with the idea that a matte, or frame, could butt into my composition.  Ahh!  The brain is working!

With the frame edge penciled off, I went ahead to composition, eliminated too many subjects from the original photo.  I like to leave some areas flat as a part of the composition.  Then there are colors in this photo I wouldn't normally use, so I enjoyed playing with them.  Orange is not my favorite, but I think I was able to use it my way by mixing in other colors my brain tends to go for anyway.  It's good to distract that pesky brain because when it's working it shuts up.

Am I finished?  Not sure.  I'll look at it later and see if I want to play with it more or move on.  So for now I'm back in the "saddle."  I crack myself up!



Comments

  1. Good to hear you are back in the saddle.. the horse looks pretty good :)

    You'll have to do the same one again on the Arches and see what you think of how it handles in comparison :)

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  2. Thanks for the good idea Pat!(knocks side of head!)

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