Watercolor in my SketchbookI have said it before - I'm all about comfort - so no, I didn't sit out there in the snow painting this in my sketchbook. A few days ago, friend Karen and I went out taking snow pictures. We took a zillion. It was COLD and sunny - perfect.
I prefer to work from my own sketches when I do serious paintings, not from photographs. So for these winter paintings I intend to use the photographs as reference for my watercolor sketches, and then use those sketches for reference for my paintings. Make any sense?
I have a tendency to get very detailed when using photographs. To keep from getting too detailed with the sketches, I do a quick contour (more or less) drawing and then use a fairly large brush, such as a #12 or 14 to block in the color. My sketchbook pages a pretty small - about 5.5 X 5, which makes about a ten inch, two page spread. A large brush on that sized paper keeps things pretty loose.
So let it snow - I'm all comfy in my studio, working from pics on my laptop, and listening to Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, J.J. Cale - you get the picture. A little too much caffeine, but that's okay.