Murasaki99 on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/murasaki99/art/Fall-Colors-488154601Murasaki99

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Fall Colors

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Finally after a summer that was way too "exciting" to describe in full, I am finally starting, slowly, to think about art again.  I wanted to work in traditional watercolors, that wonderful medium, so I dug out my dry pan set and rounded up brushes and water and got busy. 

The pencil work is an image by D. Kay Weingardt from the 2009 Watercolor Lesson a Day calendar, by Dennis Pendleton (Accord Publishing).  I love these calendars, especially for those times, like now, when I simply want to paint something and not worry about composing an entire picture.  The calendar has lots of different small images to choose from and contains painting tips (and dry pan paints, although I never use them).  Dennis Pendleton provides little color examples of each piece as he would paint them, but then you're on your own as to how you choose to execute the same piece.  It's great fun, and while I do love the fact there are color references, mine are never quite the same.  :XD:  The subject matter ranges from classical figures and portraits, landscapes, still life, abstract, cubism, impressionism, and historical (everything from cave paintings to Egyptian ancient art), so if you hang in there and get through the entire calendar you get quite a nice art history overview as well. 

For this piece, I used a light box to re-draw the pencils onto cold-press watercolor paper.  It is cardstock meant for postcards, and alas, the sizing means it simply sops up the water rather than giving a good wet layer for wet-in-wet techniques.  Still, I had a lot of fun pushing the paint around and doing lots of glazing.  I realized halfway through the painting that the flowers hanging down into the frame were probably meant to be autumn leaves, but I interpreted the pencil squiggles as mums.  Then I looked at the color example and noticed Mr. Pendleton had made the same "error".  Heh, when working with someone else's pencils, be prepared for a certain amount of "wa" or serendipity. 
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Centaurus09's avatar
Yay, you're back and such cheerful colors, too!

Seen those warty pumpkins at the grocery stores?  I need to commission my old roomie Phil to carve us a good jack-o-lantern.  We've already got two black cats...