I’ve never seen this Normal Rockwell painting before. So awesome.
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2010
Banjo Stage! It was crazy fun times. I hope I’d get to go again one day.
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2010
Speaking of Hardly Strictly… I dug up my old sketchbook to find this drawing. I drew this such a long time ago, I’m not sure if that’s Doc Watson or not, but I know he was playing the Banjo stage on this date. So that could be him.
Doc Watson died today. That’s two geniuses in one month. I’m glad I get to see him live at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Thanks Jamie!
“I would not have been worth the salt that went in my bread if my dad hadn’t put me at the end of a crosscut saw to show me that there was not a reason in the world that I couldn’t pull my own weight and help to do my part in some of the hard work”
My favorite Doc Watson song.
(Source: Spotify)
apinchofqueens said:
Hi there, I don't mean to barge in but I've just stumbled on your website and looked through your artworks and may I say they're very good! I'm currently doing a book project for my thesis and I asked my lecturer whether he knows any references in watercolour illustrations and he suggested you, and boy, he sure was right! Also, do you have any tips on doing the color shades with watercolour? I'm having some struggles with that.. Anyways, thank you for this and have a lovely day! :) x
Hey, sorry for the late response, I’ve been away. But thanks for the kind words.
Hmm… tips on watercolor. Not knowing the exact problems you’re having, here are some generic tips on watercolor:
- Work fast and fluidly. This is one of the reasons I switched to watercolor. The medium forces me to work fast and accept whatever I put down on paper. I can’t really mess with it too much.
- Work from light to dark. That’s the one advice I remember my teacher always told me, you can always go darker, but you can’t go lighter. So keep that in mind. If you want something to be white, you’d need to paint around it (or mask it out with frisket if you’re that diligent). I usually do all the light washes when starting a painting to block out the general shapes. And I gradually get darker and carve out more details. The darker I go, the more detailed I get.
- This isn’t related to just watercolor, but it’s my favorite trick in painting: shadows are not black, it’s a mixture of the color of light and it’s complementary color (its opposite on the color wheel). So sunset scenes have more purplish shadows, day time scenes have blue, night time scenes have greenish/dark brown shadows. And sometimes it’s fun to exaggerate this, see all the blue/purple shadows?
- Study how other people do their paintings. I haven’t seen a lot of painting demos since I left school. And it’s not often people share their process, but when they do, it’s really helpful. James Gurney has a great blog, he posts a lot of technical stuff about painting/drawing techniques.
I’s got a welcome home present. So sweet! (Taken with instagram)
Fushimi Inari Shrine. My favorite temple in Kyoto. Each of those red torii gates is a donation by people to the temple. There are thousands of them, they lead to a network of trails up Mount Inari. (Taken with Instagram at Kyoto)
Rokuou-in Temple. Our stay for the night. (Taken with Instagram at Kyoto)
On the train to Kyoto. (Taken with Instagram at Nagoya)
Woke up at 4:30 this morning so I can sneak one more sketch in. Like most of my other sketches so far, I’ll be finishing this at home. (Taken with Instagram at Shirakawa-go)
Taken with Instagram at Shirakawa-go
Two trains and a bus ride later, we made it! (Taken with Instagram at Shirakawa-go)
A lot of train-riding today. On our way to Shirakawa-go. (Taken with Instagram at Takayama)
Mount Obasute, apparently it means throw away old women. That’s where they used to throw away women after they have children. The son would take the mother in the middle of the night and leave her in the mountains. And that tunnel in front of us is haunted, apparently. (Taken with Instagram at Nagano)
