Artistic Exuberance - Andreas Mattern

Intense listening.

Two weeks ago I went to a presentation on watercolor painting at my local artists supply. It was held by Andreas Mattern, a Berlin-based artist. The only word that comes to my mind when I think about his presentation: AWESOME. I truly loved every second of it.

Explaining something

He taught us so much in so little time (only 2 1/2 hours), starting with a little bit of material science (don't buy cheap! I learned that lesson: http://sans-visual-art.blogspot.de/2012/03/lukas-vs-winsor-newton-vs-schmincke.html) to some nifty tricks.

His point of view on some matter. His painting in the background is showing Cottbus.

In any case I've decided to definitely take a class with him. He obviously is an amazing teacher.

Creating

Brush use.

Creating a "Mary Poppins" sky, without even noticing it. 

In Dead Center - good or bad?

Postcard 71/366

Two versions of the same painting. Above you see the whole postcard, below only the painting and this dead center. Why I had to try this cut?

Well, the artist Andreas Mattern (he gave the amazing watercolor presentation at my artists supply, more about the presentation in tonights post) said that if only a certain part of a painting is good, than this part should become the whole painting.
So, what do you think? Holds this true for this postcard or not?

The picture part of postcard 71/366

Frankly I'm not sure in this occasion. Especially since the card doesn't tilt to the left side. It seems balanced to me.

Lukas vs Winsor & Newton vs Schmincke

Postcard 74/366

This weekend was filled to the brim with artwork. Especially my Sunday, I started with painting right after breakfast, then went to my usual coffee shop to enjoy my Sunday treat (Caffe Latte and nougat waffles), do some pondering and drawing, after that I went home and painted until sunset, after my dinner I immersed myself in the beauty of islamic architecture and ornaments.

During the painting I did get the chance to test three water color manufacturers against each other. Lukas, Winsor & Newton and Schmincke.

Postcard 93/366

In postcard 93 you can see colors from all three manufacturers. Lukas = turquoise, Winsor & Newton = blues, Schmincke = purple. Lukas (cobalt-)turpuoise misses the shine (and the cobalt hue), obviously the pigments aren't of the highest quality, which isn't that surprising considering that the colors cost only 1 third of the Schmincke or Winsor & Newton colors. I guess if you just start out and haven't used Schmincke or Winsor & Newton before, Lukas water colors are just fine. But I started out with Winsor & Newton and find that Lukas colors are inacceptable. I like water colors for their brightness and shine, if I wanted dim colors I would have gone for gouache.

Winsor & Newton vs. Schmincke? Well, I like Schmincke more, the colors have even more brilliance and my local artists supply sells the half pans of them too. However, they only sell full pans of Winsor & Newton, irritatingly most of the W & N paint-boxes are half pans. So when I run out of several colors in my sketchers box I'll switch to a Schmincke paint-box. After all the purple and gold hues are amazing, as you can see below in Postcard 92.

Postcard 92/366

Yesterday evening I started to truly experiment with watercolors and got totally excited about it.

Postcard 96/366

So this morning I booked a water color class at our local adult education center. It starts tonight and I'm quite excited about it.

Now, it's time to get down to my other business. Have a great new week everyone. Do you have any exciting plans?

Color Theory vs. Color Praxis

Theory: Mixing red and blue produces? Purple.

The practical test:

Postcard 43/366

Adding red to blue produces: coffee brown. In this case a coffee brown dolphin, no, this wasn't planned at all, neither the coffee brown nor the dolphin. "Just do it and then keep going!", produces quite interesting stuff.

In any case I've made some headway in my 366 project. Today I painted postcard 75/366. I'm ahead!!!

Postcard 75/366

Shahrukh Khan's successor (Spoilers)

Shahrukhs successor "Red" the cockatoo, Postcard 44/366

May I introduce you to "Red" the cockatoo, the bookmakers best bet on Shahrukh Khan's successor. In case you don't get it, in Bollywood films it is always extremely windy, even if you are in a perfectly normal british house, the hair of the actors and actresses is always flowing nicely in the wind. And yes he doesn't look happy. This is not something you should do with an aninmal (or person)!

Weeeell, so this is what happens when I adhere to my new motto: Just do it and then keep going. My intention was the following postcard, but instead I ended up with "Red".

Postcard 45/366

Have a great new week!

Watercolors - such fun

Postcard 36/366

A few weeks back at the illustration workshop I got to try Gouache colors, I didn't like them as I told you before. Instead I had a strong feeling that watercolors would be just my cup of tea. After I tried them today I know that I absolutely LOVE them. It's such fun to use them. I love that I can be inaccurate when using them and it just looks great.

Postcard 37/366

Those three cards are the first time since art class in school that I used watercolors (that has been at least 16 years since) and I just love those cards.

Postcard 38/366