Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Restraint

Hosta Leaves
watercolor pencils on Arches HP
5 x 5 inches
©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

It's all part of the learning process. Trying to slow down and really see what these watercolor pencils can do. Yesterday afternoon I snapped a few photos of the plants that are now growing in our yard and then spent the evening working on this from one of my photos. I think using better paper helped. It also helped that after I put down some initial color and washed it with water that I got up and walked away for a while. When I came back to dry paper then I worked a little more. I also limited my color choices and did test swatches before hand. I do think this could be better but I was happy that I was able to stop before mucking it up too much. I have a few more interesting photos to work from so we'll see if I can continue to show some patience while playing with these watercolor pencils!

15 comments:

Brenda Yarborough said...

It's very nice!! Paper has a great deal to do with these pencils I've found. They absolutely MELT when touched with water in a Moley Sketchbook (lavender band). Sometimes I want to see texture and can get that with Lama Li paper. . . it's truly just like regular watercolor, different papers for different looks. I'm enjoying watching you play!!

Jennifer Rose said...

really really nice :D nice sense of light to the whole piece.

You showed a lot of restraint walking away and coming back to it. I don't have the patience to do a lot of watercolour pieces. I'm always attacking it with a hair dryer or putting the paper in front of the oven. I don't want to have to wait between steps :p

owenswain said...

Right up close. I like it.

Peachtreeart said...

Your work is always so beautiful and soothing!!!

Mary Timme said...

I love them! I thought you did a really nice job and I love the almost dappled look they have.

Carolina said...

I love what you've accomplished with these leaves.

Shirley said...

Beautiful, very effective composition. I'm always amazed by what you can achieve with colored pencils....

MaryO said...

Ann, this is lovely already. I'd be very happy to be able to handle the pencils this well.

Sandy said...

Oh MY what amazing shine on those leaves, Gorgeous!!! And oh how I agree about limited color choices, and stopping, stepping away and waiting! so Key and so Hard!

Teresa said...

Ann, these are really lovely. I love all the subtle color changes. I'm also trying out some of the same techniques of walking away and using careful consideration instead of being slap happy with color.

Anonymous said...

Ann - Nice drawing and thanks for writing so eloquently about your process!

MILLY said...

The drawing and your colours are lovely. It looks like you have perfect control over the watercolour pencils.

Ann said...

Thanks everyone!

kazumiwannabe said...

Oh, this is gorgeous!

Genxster said...

Lovely work Ann. You really captured those leaves well. Watercolor pencils can be tricky.

You are so right about needing to walk away from the picture. It's too easy to just keep applying color and lose track of what you were trying to capture.

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