My youngest daughter bought some Staedtler Noris aquarell watercolour pencils with some money she’d got for her birthday. She let me have a play with them, and the above was the result. I really enjoyed using them. They are quite nicely pigmented, and they produce some surprising effects when you dip them in water or brush over your marks with water.
Note: Paul encourages painters to think in terms of hue (one of the three Munsell colour properties) rather than temperature for accuracy.
I nearly abandoned this about halfway through, but I’m glad I didn’t. I’m really pleased with the result. I painted it from a photo I took of a sunrise through our dew-covered ranchslider door. I really like the lost edges, the mix of cool and warm reflections on the couch, and, of course, the colours and impression of light that come through the window. It was a real experiment.
If you’re wondering why it looks a bit wonky, that’s partly because the photo wasn’t totally square (I should have just adjusted that in the painting), but also because there were curtains on either side. The reflections in the bottom-left were from books on the arm of the couch and a coffee table sitting beside it.
I painted this from a photo I took of a tree in the Auckland Domain. I was drawn to it not only because of the colour of the leaves (which were actually more of a gold) but also the asymmetrical shape. While I struggled with the colour mixing/matching, and painting a convincing shadow under the tree, I like the overall expressiveness of the painting.
