Breaking Wave

[Chris V++]

Hi This is watercolor on synthetic paper. 11x14 done plein air at a local beach.

 

[Dave G.]

You caught the flavor of that experience well I imagine, at least it sure looks so. Nice !

 

[tall73]

That is fun painting on location. What kind of set up did you use?

Like the translucency of the wave.

 

[Chris V++]

That is fun painting on location. What kind of set up did you use?

Like the translucency of the wave.

Thanks. My set up is as minimalist as possible. I sit in a low profile beach chair under an umbrella. Here's a pic of the palette that just sits in the sand in front of me between my legs. Not pictured is a mason jar full of clean water also sitting on the sand and a spritzer bottle for moistening the palette and the paper. I've expanded my watercolor pan palette since the time this picture was taken. I have twice as many pans now. I can either hold the paper pad in one hand and paint with the other, leave the paper on the sand or have it on my lap. The trick is the beach chair being only 5 inches off the sand. I try to be inconspicuous so I don't get an audience but I do occasionally get friendly spectators. (We are finally getting some descent waves this summer due to those tropical storms down south.)

 

[tall73]

Thanks. My set up is as minimalist as possible. I sit in a low profile beach chair under an umbrella. Here's a pic of the palette that just sits in the sand in front of me between my legs. Not pictured is a mason jar full of clean water also sitting on the sand and a spritzer bottle for moistening the palette and the paper. I've expanded my watercolor pan palette since the time this picture was taken. I have twice as many pans now. I can either hold the paper pad in one hand and paint with the other, leave the paper on the sand or have it on my lap. The trick is the beach chair being only 5 inches off the sand. I try to be inconspicuous so I don't get an audience but I do occasionally get friendly spectators. (We are finally getting some descent waves this summer due to those tropical storms down south.)View attachment 260209

Is the umbrella to block the sun for better light perception, or just to stay cool and avoid attention?

You mentioned synthetic, is that a yupo wired notebook? Hadn't seen those before.

When you doubled did you go to half pans or just a larger overall with full pans?

My wife and one of my kids got one of those little half pan palettes and a waterbrush for traveling. It really reduces it down to the basics.

I don't do a lot of traveling for painting (should probably start). However, if I did it would be easy because I have been painting on a Nintendo 3ds lately, and the whole thing takes up as much space as the palette alone for traditional paints. Managing glare or strong light would be the difficulty there. But an umbrella would help a lot with that.

I did paint on my phone a bit last week while traveling.

With the spectators you might have to start a club out there!

 

[Chris V++]

Is the umbrella to block the sun for better light perception, or just to stay cool and avoid attention?

You mentioned synthetic, is that a yupo wired notebook? Hadn't seen those before.

When you doubled did you go to half pans or just a larger overall with full pans?

My wife and one of my kids got one of those little half pan palettes and a waterbrush for traveling. It really reduces it down to the basics.

I don't do a lot of traveling for painting (should probably start). However, if I did it would be easy because I have been painting on a Nintendo 3ds lately, and the whole thing takes up as much space as the palette alone for traditional paints. Managing glare or strong light would be the difficulty there. But an umbrella would help a lot with that.

I did paint on my phone a bit last week while traveling.

With the spectators you might have to start a club out there!

Thanks. For the palette I used to use the Talens 12 pans. i just upgraded to the set of 24 seen here https://www.amazon.com/Talens-Transparent-Watercolor-Set-24/dp/B007VDL4D6

Its a quality set with a built in palette in the lid of the tin. It comes with a tube of white gouache. The pans pop in and out. They are technically student grade but I ve read reviews by watercolorists who use rank them high for pigment load and tinting strength and permanency. I use the umbrella mostly for sim protection cause my wife and i go for 4 hour stretches. .

That's not a yupo notebook. I had taped a cut piece of yupo to the cover of that spiral watercolor pad for support. I then store the finished sketches between the sheets in that pad. I gave us trying watercolor paper since yupo is better for my heavy wash techniques.

You might like oil pastels for traveling. They are greasy like lip stick tubes and blendable. The only drawback is they never fully dry so you have to frame under glass. I don't think a graphics pad would work plein air. It is so bright out there i could hardly read my texts on my iphone.

 

[tall73]

Thanks. For the palette I used to use the Talens 12 pans. i just upgraded to the set of 24 seen here https://www.amazon.com/Talens-Transparent-Watercolor-Set-24/dp/B007VDL4D6

Its a quality set with a built in palette in the lid of the tin. It comes with a tube of white gouache. The pans pop in and out. They are technically student grade but I ve read reviews by watercolorists who use rank them high for pigment load and tinting strength and permanency. I use the umbrella mostly for sim protection cause my wife and i go for 4 hour stretches. .

That's not a yupo notebook. I had taped a cut piece of yupo to the cover of that spiral watercolor pad for support. I then store the finished sketches between the sheets in that pad. I gave us trying watercolor paper since yupo is better for my heavy wash techniques.

You might like oil pastels for traveling. They are greasy like lip stick tubes and blendable. The only drawback is they never fully dry so you have to frame under glass. I don't think a graphics pad would work plein air. It is so bright out there i could hardly read my texts on my iphone.

Which watercolor paper do you usually use when you are not using Yupo?

I have found Arches to be the best for any type of heavy washes.

You are probably right about the lighting with digital. You would almost need to sit in a tent...which defeats the purpose of portability. I will probably just take digital images and work from memory on some of the nuances of lighting.

 

[Chris V++]

Which watercolor paper do you usually use when you are not using Yupo?

I have found Arches to be the best for any type of heavy washes.

.

I never tried arches. The pad in the picture is 140 lb Canson. It's pretty tough but the pigments just don't sit on top as much like the non absorbent yupo. I lose the harder edges with paper. What I really like about the yupo is that it's easy to wipe out pigment to get back to the white of the paper like in the whites in the breaking wave painting. They were done by removing painting with a wet brush and sponge, no need to reserve any white in advance. You don't have to plan ahead

 

[Chris V++]