Daily Sketch: Lazy Saturday Afternoon, on Wednesday
It was just too hot to do a sketch today—sweaty palms leave marks on paper that turn yellow soon enough, and besides my models weren’t doing anything at all interesting. In fact, they looked pretty much like this today, and this watercolor sketch from June 9 is my latest favorite daily sketch so we can enjoy it again mid-week.
It’s Giuseppe in the front in teal, Mewsette draped off the edge in green, and Jelly Bean in purple. Rather than use the colors I associate with each of them, these colors came about because of the reflections on each of them from the window light, the mirror behind them and the walls. I hadn’t intended to do them in different colors though! This time I actually wanted them to be purple, maybe, with tints of other colors, but here we are again.
No watercolor pencils this time, no pencil lines, just the colors and a brush and three cats having a really good afternoon nap on top of the wardrobe—so good they stayed still long enough for me to paint the basics before they moved. This is a first for me (not them, they nap all the time)—I have never been able to watercolor without an underlying pencil sketch. I’ve never put the brush to paper and felt I had enough control to just paint in watercolors. I have to credit all the daily experience of my daily sketches with giving me this confidence and control. My goal was this loose quality, though, just enough to indicate their shapes and positions, no more.
I have also set up an all-in-one scanner/printer etc. in my studio with much better scan and print quality than the cheap thing I have downstairs. A friend “donated” it to me when they went wireless, and all the better for me! Aside from a little shadowing and distortion from the slightly rippled watercolor paper it’s spot-on for color. The scanner bed is a little small, but I’ll be happy to quit complaining about how bad my scanner is and apologizing for inaccurate color!
I spent more time than I’d planned in playing around with the new printer and haven’t downloaded today’s photos…I’ll have to make up for it tomorrow. That and Giuseppe rolling around all over my work table, and of course I couldn’t move him, so not as much got done as I’d have liked. But I got a nice painting.
I’m happy to add this original sketch sold! But I’ve also been planning products around it…cloth or laminated place mats? a tablecloth? a curtain? lots of textiles and perhaps even a few other things in July and August as I continue to experiment in my studio!
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Of course they are doing something interesting.. they are napping … in glorious technicolour!! 🙂
And I can’t forget, Carolyn, they were working as artist models while I was playing with my paints…life can be so unfair.