I decided to give watercolor a try. But since I haven’t really done anything in the medium since grade school, I did a couple of experiments. First was this old rusty turnout tredle.
That worked well enough that I didn’t even bother finishing it before moving on to the next experiment.
This one taught me that I need to move up to larger paper. So I did a goat.
Which told me I needed better tools so I went shopping before I moved on. This is the result of that shopping trip.
I decided to focus on locomotives that are in museums or excursion service. By going this route I can count on a lot of source material from the net, books and other sources that one old grainy photo often can’t provide.
On the drawing board:
So. Is it art?
Becky
PS: these take me about a week from start to finish.
You are pulling our legs that you haven’t touched water color since grade school?
There is a community on the Wisconsin Door Peninsula that works in water color, and from what I have seen and been told, it is a non-trivial medium to work in. It is “subtractive” of the white color of the canvas rather than “additive” as with oil or acrylic – for one thing, you cannot correct mistakes by painting over.
I would judge the work highly proficient from the standpoint of water-color technique. One thing that separates professionals from amateurs with natural talent is technical study of the subject matter. Artists who depict the human form study anatomy and practice depicting models in art studios.
The work may benefit from technical study of the mechanical functioning of different parts of the locomotive, especially the valve gear that is not well understood, even by most train enthusiasts. The late Charles Dockstader
No really! I focused mostly on using colored pencils. It was only just recently that when I decided to do railroad work I knew that it would take too long to use opaque pencil. So I decided to experiment with the watercolor variety where I could have the control of color placement that I got from pencils but the practically instantaneous blending you get by simply adding water. The pigment in the pencil is the same as dry watercolor pans, just wrapped in wood. Scribble a little color on, then make it go where you want it to with the brush. I use tube paints too, but my primary base mix is just 3 colors applied with pencils.
Here’s an example of what I did with ordinary colored pencils about 12 years ago. It’s also my avatar.
I’m not a purist by the way. I have no problem using white paint! [:D]
I like your watercolor paintings, particularly the first one showing the switch stand. That unfinished nature gives a pleasing sense of economy. Also, the wet into wet blending is quite apparent, and is a natural expression of watercolor.
Oh, so THAT’S what “mecha” is! The only “mecha” we’ve ever heard of here at the Fortress Firelock is Mecha-Godzilla, but we don’t care about him! “Big G” kicks his butt every go-around!
