Thursday 3 January 2008

And now for something completely different...

(click to enlarge)

Not the usual fare of this blog, or even my (*cough*) oeuvre, this... Watch me trying to paint 'seriously' and failing rather spectacularly at being the next Turner! ;-) - Yes, I know, it's partly a matter of setting my sights a bit lower... *g*

Basically what I was trying to do was render a Flemish sky heavy with rain. The greys in real life are quite spectacular, or so I think, and I absolutely wanted to copy them in watercolour. This was painted very impulsively, which is probably why it does not look better. I played around and actually learnt a lot, such as that I would have been much better off with a plan, and that I should do a few studies of clouds with the help of an instruction booklet if I don't want my landscape to look like an abstract painting rather than a landscape :-).

This was fun though, in a way that a properly planned painting might not be. I tried to get a rainy effect by allowing the paint to run and blot. I do like the grey I mixed, which is rather like the real thing. I had paint all over my hands and under my fingernails. Then I read that some of this stuff (particularly the green) is highly toxic. Hah hah. Anyway, I'm still alive, and wishing you a very happy New Year!