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