Turning a Photo into a Painting: Watercolors

Last week I presented a selection of paintings in oils and pastels that I did from some of my photos.  Here are a few in watercolor.

The West River at Weston

West Dummerston Mail Boxes

The above turned out to be a fussy painting but fun.  The challenge here was to keep the tree limbs and trunks white (with a bit of shadowing added later).  When wanting white when using watercolor, one has three choices.  The first and, for me, the preferable one is to use a technique called "negative space" painting ... which means leaving the paper white by avoiding painting those places.  You can also use an opaque white paint called gouache which, strictly speaking, is not watercolor.  Or you can preserve white areas by painting over those places with a masking fluid which you then rub off afterwards.  In fact, I never use gouache or masking fluid.  So that left me with the solution of using the negative space technique.  At first, I thought of making an extensive drawing in pencil so that I'd know where to leave the unpainted white places and where to paint the leaves.  But, I soon decided that was too much work and I'd just "go for it"--a little here, a little there.  Possibly too casual an approach, but it seemed to work.

Summer Mowings

And the challenge here (above) was to turn what was basically an all-green picture into something interesting.  So I decided to use the design element--the curve of the hedge, grasses, mowing lines, tree limbs.  And then to use the central tree trunks to draw in the eye and carry it back down again to the mowing lines.

Dutton Farm Road in November

Kipling Road Country Walk

Mary's Garden

(Blossoming tree on right seems to have gotten cut off ... sorry about all that reflection)

Red Barn in Shadow

So, there it is.