A Walk Through the Valley

[Chris V++]

Hey This is 12x16 acrylics on wood panel of Yosemite Valley. I attached some in process pics ( the watercolor underpainting was ) Most everything was done with palette knife and sea sponge (except for sky.) The granite rock faces in Yosemite are around 3k feet but its hard to appreciate the scale. There were climbers on the faces that looked like tiny ants from the ground. The sky irl doesnt look quite so saturated as in the uploaded picture

 

[Lost4words]

Awesome! I love them..

 

[Heavenhome]

Beautiful, I am in awe of those who can draw or paint so well.

 

[faroukfarouk]

Beautiful, I am in awe of those who can draw or paint so well.

Did you ever try drawing or painting? must be some really good Outback scenes down there...

 

[tall73]

Hey This is 12x16 acrylics on wood panel of Yosemite Valley. I attached some in process pics ( the watercolor underpainting was ) Most everything was done with palette knife and sea sponge (except for sky.) The granite rock faces in Yosemite are around 3k feet but its hard to appreciate the scale. There were climbers on the faces that looked like tiny ants from the ground. The sky irl doesnt look quite so saturated as in the uploaded picture

Looks good. I am wondering about some of the mechanics (as usual!).

What kind of priming material did you use? Watercolor ground? Gesso? It is on board, and then you had watercolor and then acrylics, which are both water based, but I wasn't sure if they use different prep materials.

I really like the grey scale stage of that one. It could stands on its own. Did you glaze the colors over the top?

 

[Chris V++]

Looks good. I am wondering about some of the mechanics (as usual!).

What kind of priming material did you use? Watercolor ground? Jusso? It is on board, and then you had watercolor and then acrylics, which are both water based, but I wasn't sure if they use different prep materials.

I really like the grey scale stage of that one. It could stands on its own. Did you glaze the colors over the top?

Thank you sir. I primed the wood panel with acrylic gesso. (You can by gesso'd panels from Blick or Michaels . Speedball makes a good one. https://www.michaels.com/mona-lisa-...MImOmKss-U5wIVBaSzCh1Tyw9TEAQYBSABEgJsoPD_BwE I used the back of an existing painting so I had to prime myself. The gesso accepts the watercolor so you paint directly on it. I didn't seal the gesso with anything so the surface wasn't very slippery like yupo. I painted the acrylic layers directly over the watercolor, mostly with a sponge (background trees) and palette knife (ground plane, cliff face, foreground evergreen/) The sky was with a 1 inch flat brush. The acrylic dries so fast and seals as it drys so you don't have to worry about the watercolor pigment rising up and alternating the subsequent layers. You couldnt do this with watercolor and oil for example without permanently fixing the watercolor since the pigments would become suspended in the oil paint and muddy the layers. What is nice about doing the underpainting in watercolor like this is its easy to lift off the pigment to make changes until you come up with a good enough design. Also black watercolor looks a lot like charcoal or graphite (but much less messy and goes on faster with wet washes. ) I did make a change since I uploaded, here's the current version. Alot of pastel painters or oil pastel painters under paint with watercolors. Thanks again!!

 

[tall73]

Thank you sir. I primed the wood panel with acrylic gesso. (You can by gesso'd panels from Blick or Michaels . Speedball makes a good one. https://www.michaels.com/mona-lisa-...MImOmKss-U5wIVBaSzCh1Tyw9TEAQYBSABEgJsoPD_BwE I used the back of an existing painting so I had to prime myself. The gesso accepts the watercolor so you paint directly on it. I didn't seal the gesso with anything so the surface wasn't very slippery like yupo. I painted the acrylic layers directly over the watercolor, mostly with a sponge (background trees) and palette knife (ground plane, cliff face, foreground evergreen/) The sky was with a 1 inch flat brush. The acrylic dries so fast and seals as it drys so you don't have to worry about the watercolor pigment rising up and alternating the subsequent layers. You couldnt do this with watercolor and oil for example without permanently fixing the watercolor since the pigments would become suspended in the oil paint and muddy the layers. What is nice about doing the underpainting in watercolor like this is its easy to lift off the pigment to make changes until you come up with a good enough design. Also black watercolor looks a lot like charcoal or graphite (but much less messy and goes on faster with wet washes. ) I did make a change since I uploaded, here's the current version. Alot of pastel painters or oil pastel painters under paint with watercolors. Thanks again!!
View attachment 270653

Great! You can see how often I traditionally paint by my spelling of Gesso. Apparently per Google my spelling is a Polish name.

That is handy to know because I had read that you could do watercolor but would have to seal it somehow. But using another medium on top of it would have multiple advantages. My kids may want to try it, since they do most of the traditional stuff.

Now the painting is looking like a golden hour photo, which is a cool effect.

 

[Chris V++]

That is handy to know because I had read that you could do watercolor but would have to seal it somehow. But using another medium on top of it would have multiple advantages. My kids may want to try it, since they do most of the traditional stuff.

Thanks again. I think the colors are wrong on that update photo
Underpainting with watercolor might depend on the painting surface. If you did watercolor on yupo then paint over it with a wet medium might cause it to smudge, since the dried watercolor just sits on the top of the non porous surface. But if you paint watercolor on paper it stains and sinks in so going over it with another medium like pastel or colored pencil would be safe without needing a sealant. My avatar picture is colored pencil over red marker on cardboard (bristolboard). Watercolor under the colored pencil would have worked too but the water might have warped the cardboard. There are so many options