A New Painting for My Website Header

Well, I decided it's time to update my watercolor Website, J.B.Chicoine.com, to accommodate my upcoming novel. Uncharted won't be released until October, but it will probably take me that long to relearn my Web design software. In addition to that novel, I have others I plan to publish, so I may as well take advantage of having a Website with my name and combine my "artistic" endeavors.  Anyway, I'm going to incorporate the header I made for my writing blog (which I painted here a while back). 

I'll use the above painting for the Author half the page header... and start a new one for the Watercolorist half--something along the lines of the watercoloring arrangement to the right. But I like the oak and post setting of the Reading and Writing scene. So, below is the drawing I've come up with. I took a photo of a new arrangement, flipped it horizontally with my graphics program and messed with the perspective a little. I'll keep the background light and abut the two paintings, end-to-end; the dark contrasting with the light.

That's the plan, anyway. 

Peeling Paint & Collecting Water

I've been itching to paint lately--just looking for the right subject. I've had a nautical theme in mind. Something coastal--something one might see if they were to visit Wesleyville, Maine (if in fact that provincial little town existed outside of my imagination!). In my novel UNCHARTED, there's a dilapidated old pram, disintegrating into a heap of old lobster traps and buoys. This isn't the exact scene, but it puts me in that same place. It's such a sad sight, in a way. This little skiff used to have a mast and likely provided hours of leisurely sailing...now it's just peeling paint and collecting water


Thanks to Liza Carens Salerno for providing me an inspiring image (to be posted later). Many of you know her from her Middle Passages, her writing blog, where she has links to some of her other beautiful photography. She also has a professional copywriter Website, LCS Writes.

Finally, A New Project

...yes, it's true, I'm undertaking another watercolor, but this is no ordinary painting; it may quite likely be the painting that drives me to the brink of insanity! (Yes I know that's not a far drive from where I'm at.)

I know it's probably hard to tell what it will look like from all those teensey-weensey lines, but if you've been to my Website, it may look familiar. It is, in fact, a variation on a theme I worked up several years ago, and I can tell you that it tested my wits even then (back when I had a few more wits about me). I posted something about that a long while ago, and even now I can't believe I'm considering this project (okay, I'm more than considering it, 'cause I've done the drawing and posted it).

I can't gaurantee that this will be a happy ride for observers, but I'm going to try hard not to whine about it. I can't promise I will finish it in a timely manner, but I may post more stages, just to provide evidence that I'm still working on it...

The finished painting will be 8 x 10 inches, and in case you're wondering, it is titled Eggs, Linen & Glass.

Reading & Writing: The Drawing

Not too much to look at here...

I do have to decide if I want to cheat a little and use black India ink for most of that dark background, then give it a quick lamp black wash to blend it with the rest of the elements...

Technically, if I were a traditional watercolorist, that would be right out of the question. And once it was done, I would have to call it 'mixed media', not watercolor--technically.

However, we know I am not a traditionalist... 

What to do...what to do...

Toy Boat Started

Here’s the first stage—the drawing of Toy Boat (yet another imaginative name). It has a simple color scheme, and lots of opportunity for repetitive motifs, but not like grass (yes, I'm tired of grass). I feel fairly confident painting reflective water, since I’ve done it here, here, and I particularly like it here. The trick is to convey the boat's ‘Toyness’—hopefully, the scale of it compared to the ripples of the water will help…

A New Project

Well, I figure that I better get going on another painting before I slip back into a slump! I started this one before my last trip to New Hampshire, and now it’s time to get caught up.(For an update on what I've been doing since April, scoot on over to my writing blog.)

This is, of course, the preliminary drawing, and if you’re curious about what I’m working from, skip on over to Michelle Davidson Argyle’s author site and have a peek. I didn’t intend for it to coincide with her giveaway, but I think this will work out rather nicely (since I am mentioning her giveaway, I get entered into the drawing, including and opportunity to recieve a free copy of her new novella Cinders).

  

Anyway, I might try out a variation on my style with this one—I suppose it depends on how detailed I want to get on the trees in the background. I already know I won’t be able to help myself when it comes to the grass…

Moorings

This is indeed tricky business; I’ve never been too good at large-scale washes—not that this is large scale per se, but it’s more than I usually do with blending hues, and I’m real uncomfortable with it. (Perhaps I just never learned to do it ‘properly.’) I keep telling myself that it doesn’t have to look exactly like the photo—it’s the feel of it that I want. That is, after all, the reason I chose it. So, here are the first two steps: the drawing and the wash. (The sky wash is a little further along than I usually do at this stage, but it should be worked while it’s all wet.)

At this point, the hardest part is overcoming that angsty feeling that this is going to really suck—that I’ve taken on more than I can do well. I'm not happy with it, but if I overwork the sky at this point, I'll completely botch it. (No perfectionism there!) Of course, I’ll stifle that junk and forge ahead, ‘cause, well, I’ve posted it—and then there’s that wasting paper thing…I’d rather flop than waste a perfectly good sheet of paper. Besides, if it turns out poorly, then you’ll get to see both ends of my artistic spectrum.

Sitting

Okay, here goes with that queasy feeling again...

I’m venturing another portrait. At 10”x 13”, this is a little larger than my usual, but I have to admit that the increased head size makes it somewhat easier to execute facial features. I considered doing just a head and shoulder view, but I do so enjoy painting body parts, especially hands, which you may have noticed are particularly prominent here.

I chose this pose for its contrasting angles and overall composition. I don't have a title for it yet, so I'll just call it Sitting (pathetic that a writer doesn't come up with a more imaginative name).

Not much to look at, I know—and it's too big for my scanner, so there is some distortion.

Well, the pressure is on—wet the paints and go…

Window on Eggemoggin

Here are the beginnings of a new painting. I’m working from an image by photographer Douglas Wood, who shoots some beautiful scenes of Maine*. So much of his work captures the world of my novel, Story for a Shipwright, and I do so love reflections on glass…don't know how well I'll capture it here, (it remains to be seen if this makes a far better photographic image than watercolor interpretation). It will be a less intense work than my previous two paintings, which is a nice reprieve.

After transferring the sketch onto watercolor paper (I don’t sketch it out on the actual paper, which does not like erasures), I mask the boundaries with tape.

Since I want the reflected sky evenly gradated, I use masking fluid (brush on latex, that really messes up the brush) to keep the muntins free from paint.










Essentially, the sky is done. The reflected foreground will receive added detail.







*Seriously, you should check out his Website. He even has some evocative black and white shots of a workshop--makes me think of my novel, again.