"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

"Watercolor: Let it Flow" Self-Portrait

I have been experimenting with a technique from the book, "Watercolor, Let it Flow" by Gary Lipscomb. This technique involves a wet-in-wet underpainting and then a painting on top which doesn't necessarily have to be a part of the original painting plan. He sometimes does several underpaintings to have on hand. I decided to use myself since I didn't have to worry about putting wrinkles on someone else:) This was painted from a picture taken of me several years ago, so I made myself look better, too!:) This doesn't really look too much like me - it is really just a painting. I do like the unplanned, spontaneous color you get from this technique. This painting is 6" X 12" on 140 lb. Arches cold-pressed w/c paper. I plan to try the technique on some larger paper now and see what happens.

4 comments:

Carolyn said...

I like the looks of your portrait. I tried to find his book but Amazon didn't show it...and I couldn't find any info online. Where did you buy the book?

Barb Sailor said...

Carolyn, I sent you a link to the Amazon page for the Lipscomb book - hope you can get it. I love it. I enjoyed visiting your blog and web site. Your watercolors are beautiful and your computer lesson plans are great. (I am also an art teacher.)
Barb

Carolyn said...

Barb, I didn't get the link but I kept searching Amazon until I found it...and found what the cover looked like and realized I've got the book. I bought it ages ago at a library sale...from the discarded books. What luck! It's been a long time since I even looked at it. I'll have to check it out again. I'm in North Carolina...where are you from?
croberts18@suddenlink.net

Barb Sailor said...

Carolyn, I live in Jackson Center, in the western part of Ohio - we are about halfway between Cincinnati and Toledo and about 30 miles from Indiana. I am officially retired but teach art part time at the alternative school.
I just recently bought the "Let it Flow" book after a friend recommended it. I thought it would be worth investigating. I love to pour watercolor and thought that this would be a lot like that.
Barb