MERRY CHRISTMAS

Celebrate in your own unique way!

If you want to recieve a real card from me next year, sign up for my art mailing list.  I will not share your info with anyone, and I limit myself to a maximum of 4 contacts a year.  Simply send your mailing address to nanhenke@gmail.com

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

I chose the rose and the thistle as having the best potential in a larger painting. 

Step 1: sketch in watercolor pencils because they will melt away when I start applying paint. 

Step 2: apply masque to protect the flowers and greenery while I paint the background. This allows me to do a wet and wild abstract background like you see in the thistle painting. The masque is the shiny stuff. In the rose painting, it is more about preserving details like stems and not accidentally painting into the rose petals.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

ACEO Test versions

I had some painting time Saturday, so I did baseball card sized (That is what ACEO means) versions.  The one of the creek is a little bigger: it is on a postcard.  I do these little paintings first to help me decide whether it will be worth the problem solving process to make a bigger version.  Sometimes I jump straight to a "Quarter Sheet" (my favorite size: 11x15) and other times, I do some more ACEO's or some 5x7's before committing myself.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

Time to start some new paintings, so I don't go stark raving mad over Christmas planning... Here are the 6 contender photos.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

Sisters!

My sister Lauren came to visit me (Yay!) and I always make my family paint when they visit me or when I visit them.  She picked a Colorado picture and I suggested that we both do it in acrylic paint, because it is more forgiving than watercolor.  I am SOOO proud of her result!!  I am patting myself on the back for being a good teacher! You could reach out and touch the snow on those branches... (My painting is the one on top -soon to be available on ebay, if I get my act together)

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

Colorado Projects Completed

Layers of darker and darker color on the shadows of the mountains plus the shadows within the trees and snow finish off the two Colorado ACEO's.  Remember, things don't have to look exactly like they do in the photo, we are going for the feel of these beautiful views and the memory of being soooooo cold!

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

Intagliette

My apopogies for inturrupting the Colorado paintings flow.  I had to get this written while it was still fresh:

I was in a local gallery and found myself enchanted by some watercolor/intaglio art.   I went home and googled intaglio printing and found that it involves etching on copper plate or a similar surface.  That sounded expensive, time consuming and like something where you would have to add another room onto the house.  So I asked a print artist friend (www.bfhughes.etsy.com) if there was an easier way.  She did not hold out hope.

The only thing left to do was to dig into my "grew up poor and had to make dolls out of corn cobs" (not really) and engineering background to see if I could invent something that would have the effect I wanted without the traditional process. 

Voila!  With the help of desktop publishing, I have invented "intagliette"  (for all of the copyright lawers out there, I note that it is 9/26/11 at 4:06 pm.)  This top secret process involves creating or tracing a line drawing of my subject.  I use my computer printer to print it onto card stock or watercolor paper, and then add watercolor hilights to my heart's content. 

If you use my intagliette process, all I ask it that you send me 3% of your sales.  I would like to retire in a style unlike that to which I have become accustomed!

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

and inventor of intagliette

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

Colorado continued

Landscape paintings often can be thought of in horizontal stripes of color: the sky, the distant mountains, the nearer ones and the close hills.  I have to be careful to work on alternating stripes and let them dry before I add water and paint to the ones between.  If not: lines become mush and colors become mud!
I had to adjust the color of the closest hill in the bluer of these two paintings, to make it darker.  Things are usually lighter in color (or greyer) as they get farther from you.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

http://myworld.ebay.com/texashillcountryart/

"I can't paint watercolor because I can't draw"

(Good news, ebay just approved my guide of this title.  So that you don't have to wander around ebay looking for it, here is the content.)

BALONEY!
I can show you 5 ways for a completely untalented person to make something that will make them (and their Mom) proud.
Art as a hobby and then as a part time profession snuck up on me in my mid-to-late 40's. I was not the arty kid in high school who is always sketching in the margins of her math notebook. I was an industrial engineer, looking for a life that better aligned my values and priorities with my day to day actions. Long story. Back to the original statement. Even though I was fascinated with the way watercolor looks, I couldn't draw, so I thought I coudn't paint.
Once I was motivated, I found ways to paint without drawing.
-Abstract painting: just play with colors and movement and textures
-Grid: These can be a bought or home made piece of plastic with lines dividing it into squares: you put it over a photo and it breaks the picture into bite sized pieces. You lightly create the same grid on your paper (erase it later) and sketch the contents of only one box at a time. While you ares sketching, you try not to say, "This is the eye" but say "This is a dark triangle that sort of leans to the left and then a light dot." It will force you to look at the shapes and colors and will help you to bypass the part of your brain that says "I know how to make a face" but means a smily face cartoon. Turning the photo and painting upside down while you sketch will also help with this problem. Grids are also good for making large paintings from small photos or vice versa. As I got better at using grids, I did not need to lightly sketch the grid on my paper, but just put dots at the intersections of the grid lines.
-Graphite tracing paper. At first I tried to trace every detail, but after a while, I just went for the general proportions. You can buy this at art stores in boxes that look like they hold aluminum foil. But you can also make some with a piece of paper and a soft pencil. Make sure to blow all the dust off the home made one.
-Light box tracing, or in my home made version: tape the photo to the window on a sunny day, then tape the paper over it and trace the main outlines. Want a bigger painting? Blow up a photocopy of the photo.
-When I made some money with my art, I invested in an art projector. You put a photo under it, tape a piece of paper to the wall, turn off the room lights and turn on the projector light. I still use it for big detailed projects, but the funny thing is, after all these years of tracing and gridding, I am starting to get better at sketching free hand! I often start free hand and resort to some of my sketching tools only when one section of the sketch is not looking right.
Bonus tip: If you use watercolor pencils to do your sketch, they will guide your color choices and melt into your watercolor painting. No one will even know that you had to create a sketch before you painted.
Oh yes, the painting part. Now that you have a fablous sketch, pretend that it is a coloring book, or paint by number set. Fill in the appropriate colors in the appropriate places. How well they fit and how the paint and water flow will improve as you paint more and more, but for now, don't worry about it. However it turns out is your current "style."
Now find a photo of something you love and give it a try!
Extra bonus tip: some photos work better than others. Over time, you will come up with your own "I don't bother to paint..." list. Mine is currently 2 things: people the size of Barbie Dolls and flowers that are yellow on yellow.

Nan Henke
Texas Hill Country Art
Look at my results by searching for TexasHillCountryArt on ebay, etsy or blogspot
and Nan Henke - Texas Hill Country Art on facebook

I have chosen two photos, started ACEO (2.5x3.5 inch) sized sketchy versions to start with and added them to the album. So far they just have sky and forground hills. The darker one has some mask to reserve white paper for blobs of snow on the trees.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

A quick survey of my own and two of my sisters' photo files came up with 16 contenders for a new Colorado painting, which I narrowed to 6.  Here they are. 

 Some have people in them, which usually does not go over well with anyone but the people involved!

 Others lack sunlight to clearly define the lines of the mountains, trees and snow.

 The Birthday balloons are cute, and if I add sunlight, would brighten the whole thing up a bit!

And then there is the old fall-back: same scene, slightly to the left of the first painting!

Stay tuned for a decision....

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com

This is NOT the new Colorado Mountain painting... 
When you read here about my painting process, you get the inside scoop: My friend Lisa in WI was distraught that someone beat her to my 5x7 painting titled "View from Vance's Cabin" on ebay (image attached.) 
Lisa is the honorary president of my non-existant fan club, because she spends all of her disposable funds on art and cards, (not just mine) when wedding gifts and car repairs don't cramp her style.  Therefore, when she attempts to hypnotize me into making another Colorado painting, I am happy to succumb. 
Especially since it is so darn hot here!

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com

I rarely share what happens to my paintings, but this has been such and interesting journey with you, through several versions.... The two small Umbrella paintings quickly sold on ebay to a man in Canada. The large one is there, but not getting nibbles yet, even at $45. And since it is ebay, I have to remember to relist it every week!

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com

Umbrellas Watercolor Lesson 4

OK, Deep breath! Lets use a quarter sheet of really good 300 lb. watercolor paper.  You are worth it!

Draw in just the miniumum of what you need to work with.  Simplify everything, then look at the dark and light black and white photos to add only the details that mean the most to you. 

I got excited about the light on the ground and the way you see one pair of legs under an umbrella that is ahead of the pink one.  And then there are squiggly reflections of those legs on the wet pavement.

Take each umbrella slowly, painting the right and left thirds, them moving on to an umbrella that does not touch it so that it can dry before you come back and do that critical middle third.  The light section on the top of each third is what makes it look real and taut, but the umbrella are not all lit equally.

I am not good at painting ruffles, so I mostly symbolized them with dark pink and black shadows around the edge of the pink umbrella.  I could have left them off entirely, but they add character.

I got couragous and made one umbrella plaid, like in the photo.  The light did not turn out as well on it as on the other umbrellas, but it makes a nice inturruption in the long row of umbrellas.

I'm very happy with the way this turned out.  Since it is not Texas Hill Country, I will post it on ebay.

Nan Henke
Texas Hill Country Artwww.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.

Umbrellas Lesson 3:
Do you have watercolor pencils? If not use a very light pencil to draw in the most basic shapes on a piece of 5x7 paper. I decided to do the backgrounds first this time and the umbrellas last. I also decided to keep a bit of the purple flowered umbrella. I changed some colors. Making one umbrella the same blue as the wall was not a good choice. It gets lost.

On the cement wall I did the ferns first, then filled in with cement color (a watery mix of whatever was left on my palette.)   On the blue wall I made the wooden slats look more straight than in the photo, so that I could focus on the blue squares. You can do just about anything in those blue squares to make them look weathered and different from each other.  I put a little extra color (once in dark brown and once in quinacridone gold) down the wood on the far end of each blue square, to make it look more three dimensional.
Are you finding it easier to paint this scene the second time?  And do you feel like you have more room to put in details?  Stick with me now and get some good paper, about 8x10 or 12x14 for the next step.  You will find it even easier and your results even better!

Nan Henke

TexasHill country Art

www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com

Umbrellas Lesson 2: On a 2.5x3.5 inch piece of watercolor paper (known as an ACEO and collected/traded around the world!) draw just a few lines to put the walls and umbrellas in place. Then paint the colors and shapes that you see, not worrying much about accuracy. Looking at mine, I have decided that I am going to eliminate the lad...y on the left in lesson 3, and just rough in some shadows for the folks down the alley. Shape and color of the umbrellas, plus that beautiful blue wall are key.

Painting tiny is a little hard, but you can promise yourself to be better when there is more room.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

Umbrellas Lesson 1: Study the B/W version of the photo with contrast adjusted bright, then one that is dark. Look for the way that darks and lights define shapes. What can you see that is still dark in the light picture? Still light in the dark picture? What details do you like and dislike? You don't have to put everything in the painting. And you can change what you keep. I am reducing the number of umbrellas and changing some of their colors.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

Umbrellas in a Chinese Alley

OK, I admit, this is not the Texas Hill Country either!  My sister just got back from China and I love her umbrella photo. I think that it can be reduced to a lot of simple shapes, so it is a good demo. In fact, its a photo for you to paint along with me, if you dare! C'mon, who's gonna see it? Do the first 3 lessons on cheap watercolor paper with kids paints. If it looks good, you can upgrade for lesson 4.

Nan Henke
Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

Jump Start Painting

There is nothing that will jump start your painting habit like a weekend in a beautiful place with lots of free time and no responsiblities.  This past weekend I celebrated my sister's 50th with several siblings and lots of her friends by snowshoeing to Vance's cabin, part of the 10th Mountain Division Hut System in Colorado. 

We could not face popping all of the birthday party balloons to be packed out as garbage, so we attached them to backpacks and sleds to add color to the trek back to the car.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com

One done!

 This may the last of my 2010 lavender series. I have so many 2010 wildflowers to paint before the 2011 ones are here!

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com

Paint on paper!

I took the masque (rubber cement type stuff that protects the white of the paper) off two paintings that I had started in early December.  Thanks goodness that it CAME off!  If this were August, it might have been stuck on for good.  One is a close up of lavender in a field and the other is the official Henke Ranch pun: a cedar tree growing up in the middle of an old  farm implement called a seeder.
I was tempted to do 100 organizational things like refilling all of my paint wells, and neatening up my files, but I got started and actually put paint on paper instead.  Are you proud of me?  I am.
In other arenas of encouragement, I have been listed by The Arts at Hill Country Scene as a Boerne artist.  I guess that means that I will have to finish these paintings and do some more! 

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.texashillcountryart.etsy.com

It is February

February is my time to go back to painting after a couple of months off for a life crisis.  I don't want to be one of those people who say, "I used to paint."  But I have faced the reality that painting falls off the bottom of the priority list during some seasons of life.  So I set myself a deadline of Feb 1.  And because of that, I painted a few strokes yesterday.  Not very many and not very good.  But I did it.  In the next few days, I hope to expand to something a little less symbolic and more creative.  I may have to go back and re-read parts of Art and Fear.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

www.TexasHillCountryArt.etsy.com