Something Pedantic

Today’s watercolor comes directly from an exercise in David Bellamy’s landscape course. For me, it was a bit of an examination — testing myself on several different points. The exercise was to create a painting from a photograph included in the book, and there are no “right answers” according to Bellamy. The painting was supposed to be a monochrome, and I began with that idea in mind. I soon changed my mind, however.

I didn’t want to use gray today. I’ve had a chance to relax a bit over the last two days, and my mood is much cheerier. Today I wanted to paint beautiful blue skies. I considered doing the entire painting in shades of blue, but again, I decided against it. I wanted to play around a bit with colors.

So, in the end — sincere there are no “right” or “wrong” ways to create the scene — I used ultramarine and cerulean blue, a bit of burnt sienna, and a dab of Payne’s gray. I also turned to my palette where I had several messes of colors — a bit of an old green I’d used before, a little violet blue. I used them here and there, and I had a good time painting my version of Bellamy’s photograph:

It’s far from monochromatic, but I like it. It gave me a chance to put a lot of things together — skies, distant hills, a bit of mist, trees, and a building, too. For me, it represents another step in the right direction for me as a watercolor artist.

I hope you like today’s “pedantic” painting.