Lavender Field with Chair No. 3

I like this much better!

Lesson learned: it is worth doing a few smaller versions, even a bad one from (poor) memory, so as to work out the problems before starting on the good version.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com

Moving up and on...

Therefore (see previous post), I have started Blanco Lavender Field With Chairs #3, this time as an 11x14 on really good watercolor paper.  (The paper I used for the birthday card was very unforgiving!)  As you can see, I have already sketched the general shapes with watercolor pencil and masqued the chairs so that I will be able to toss color about freely in the field and background.

Something inside me is itching to paint something big and if I improve enough on #3, maybe I will do a #4 that is a full sheet of watercolor paper (22x30 inches.)

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://texashillcountryart.etsy.com

I paint much better when I can see the reference photo!

Here is my second version of Blanco Lavender Fields With Chairs.  I like it much better and have decided that I am just not the type of artist who can paint well from memory!  This one is about 5x8 inches and was done as a birthday card for the friend who was with me the day we saw the lavender adirondak chairs in the lavender field. 

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com

Found the photo, here it is:

Sometimes it takes a few tries to get something right

Lesson 1: don't try to do it from memory. 

I forgot to bring the photo of the lavender colored adirondak chairs in the Blanco Texas lavender field on the day that I had time to start painting it.  So this overworked first attempt is strictly from memory.  Stay tuned to see just how inaccurate my memory was!

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com

Claret Cup Cacti, Log and Rocks

Done and delivered! Now the biggest question is, what next?

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com

Making progress...  The flowers are starting to have some shape and the fine tuing of the cactus spines come next.  ( I called them porcupine quills by accident today when I was describing it to Judy!)

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com

Hold onto your hat Judy, here we go! It is time for me to finish your commission!

The flowers look like little striped popcorn boxes in this work-in-process shot because I paint one petal at a time. Then I paint the nearest petal that does not touch the first one. When they are thoroughly dry, I will go back and paint the in- between ones!

 

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com/

Walking a family member through cancer

I'm spending a lot of time in hospitals and waiting rooms these days, being supportive of a family member with cancer.  I carry my "itty bitty art kit" to keep me from going crazy and have been doing some good VSA (Very Small Art!)  I need to get back to my big commission, but I am scared of ruining it if I am not able to give it full concentration and a stretch of several hours time. 

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com

shape, depth and color

Walking a family member thru cancer can really bite into your painting hours, but you still find bits of time here and there to make progress!

I decided to leave the upper left uncluttered so the focus is on smooth stones, jagged log and prickly cacti.  I'm looking forward to adding the bright red flowers.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com

Progress!

I had a nice long stretch of painting time and laid down the backgrounds for the cacti, rocks and logs. 

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://texashillcountryart.etsy.com

Watercolor Tip #1 (with apologies to Nike)

At some point you stop redesigning the composition of the painting and you have to start making marks on the big piece of paper - just DO it! 

Here I am placing the red cactus flowers in the foreground.  Because of the camera lighting, you cannot see that I am standing in a dark room.  The paper is taped to the door and behind me is a photo projector, sitting on an ironing board. 

I have found this to be the best way to combine several photos into one composition.  You can move the projector forward or back, up or down, until the size and location of each photo is correct and melds into what you have already drawn.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://texashillcountryart.etsy.com

"What do you DO as a ranch hand?"

I was suprised by this question last week and responded, "A little bit of whatever needs doing!" 

Here is a photo that is part of one task that I have set myself: to sneak 21st century technology into the operation of an old fashioned Texas Hill Country ranch.  

When we run a lot of cattle through the squeeze chute (it is humane, I promise!) to give them tests or vaccinations, I take a digital photo of each face.  Then when one solid black cow out of a group of thirty solid black cows loses her identifying ear tag (think of losing a pierced earring) I can match her face to one of the  photos and make her a new tag: Yellow 151. 

Thirty black cows may all look alike from the highway as you drive by, but this one has one ear lower than the other, only one cowlick, located almost on top of her head, a smooth dark nose and three little ridges above each eye.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://texashillcountryart.etsy.com

Inturruption for Inspiration

Feeling artistically slumpy... 

Went for a walk in the Cibolo Nature Center...

Inspired by these brown eyed susans....

Went home and painted them fast!

Not my usual style, but I like it!

Now I can return a little fresher to the commissioned painting I am supposed to be working on!

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com

And another (this one just a pencil sketch)

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com

One possible new composition

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com

Change of Direction

Both Judy and Gail, my painting buddy, say that the cactus in the corner, and a few other close up blossoms I have been working on -see above- should be the focus of the painting, so it is re-composition time! This is what makes commissions fun, you never know quite where they are going when you start.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://texashillcountryart.etsy.com/

Quarter sized trial painting complete!

Lots of detail work, especially on the yuccas. 

Note to self: paint the wet centers before the dry outer leaves next time!

Still pretty convinced that proportions need to change. 

Time to run it past the customer who commissioned the big one!

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

plant details

Starting the first layers of color on the plant details: ochre on the yucca flowers, greenish yellow on the sunset side of the yucca leaves, ochre on the lower sections. I did an orange-yellow on the cactus flowers, then added the red when it was dry.

Decisions: the yucca needs to be smaller in the final painting and the cactus much larger - to look like it is closer to you.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

My favorite moment

My favorite moment is always right after I take the masque off.  The reserved white of the paper is so clean and crisp! 

I added a lot of shadows before I removed the masque - that way all I have left to focus on are the plant details.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

Decisions

New: rocky area background colors, and mountain colors.
Decisions made: mountains need to be higher in the final version to balance the yucca height. Also, if the rocky area with cactus turns out well, it should be bigger too. I guess we will wait and see!

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

first layers of color

I have added two greens and some ochre (dusty yellow) for the grassy area, put some background color on the log that is in the cactus and rock area and added some pinks to the distant mountains and the "castle" parts of the nearer mountains.  Some of the pink will get covered with blue and some will stay pink.  The pink is a watery form of the red that is in the sunset and the (future) cactus buds.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

I still have not worked out the full composition for this commission, so I am doing a 1/4 scale trial run! I used watercolor pencil and a projector to put the mountains and yuccas in, then masqued over the yuccas to protect them while I throw colors at the background.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

One more test of the cactus, before I move on to a 1/4 scale test of the composition of the whole painting.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

Experimenting with Claret Cup Cacti in Watercolor

These cacti love to cling to rock outcroppings.

I'm experimenting with them for placement in the lower right hand corner of my commission.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

Texas painting commission sketch

Here is my first GOOD sketch for the commission. I ruined the first three trying to put the Grand Canyon in the background. I now have much more respect for people who paint the Grand Canyon!

The roadway is too dark but I like the curve to it. I may just make it a curve where rockiness ends and bushiness begins, instead of a road.

The cactus was out of my head, as I had no photos but I have been out taking some photos of rocks and cacti for the next sketch.

The next one should also be the correct painting size proportions.

There was a tiny sunset in back of the yuccas and I have played it up to pick up the cactus flower color.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

Coming soon...

A new commission is brewing.... A friend is reworking a bedroom and looking for colors to match a new southwestern themed comforter. Right now we are emailing photos of desert scenes back and forth. Stay tuned for visuals.

Texas Hill Country Art

Nan Henke

Try Gouache

Gouache is a form of watercolor that is less transparent.  I used my 40% off Michaels coupon and bought an inexpensive set.  I was disappointed to find that, though the paint looked different, it went on the paper just like watercolor!  But perhaps I was using too much water with it.  So I tried using it straight out of the tube and what a difference!  When I was not happy with the bull's facial coloring, I just put more paint on top and it changed!  You can't do THAT with transparent watercolor!  Anyhow, here is the 5x7 result.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art 

A better view

A better view, in response to the comment.  #1 realistic

#2 wet

#3 simplified or  posterized

#4 abstract

Which style do you enjoy most?

(Click on the number of comments to send me a comment)

Thanks!

Nan Henke: Texas Hill Country Art

End of experiment

Done at last!

Click on the comment count below to tell me which you like best.

Nan Henke, Texas Hill Country Art

Fifth

Progress on the bulls:

#1= detailed

#2= very "wet"

#3= "posterized" (fewer colors, bigger areas of color)

#4= abstracted into triangles (mostly)

Nan Henke, Texas Hill Country Art

fourth

Off comes the masque!

Nan Henke, Texas Hill Country Art

Third

Now that I am filling in the tree line and meadow, you can see a little more experimentation in style: to the left is more detailed and to the right is more abstract.

Nan Henke, Texas Hill Country Art

2nd thing

Second thing is to start laying in the backgrounds, varying the sharpness and detail of the sky, tree trunks, manure and the bull's shadow.  Not much to see yet.

Nan Henke, Texas Hill Country Art

4 versions of longhorn bull

First thing is to trace the bull on 4 pieces of watercolor paper (the cheap stuff, since this is an experiment) and masque over the bulls so that I can paint wildly (or not) on the backgrounds.

Nan Henke, Texas Hill Country Art

What's next?

The new year is a time to experiment.  I am taking a fairly simple photograph (of the neighbor's longhorn) and will do a series of 5x7's with varying degrees of realism.

Nan Henke, Texas Hill Country Art

She likes it!

Judy's painting is finished at last, delivered earlier this week and she likes it!

Nan Henke, Texas Hill Country Art