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Tutorial

THE VERY FIRST

No value except as a baseline for whichever progress I have made. What is interesting, though, is how one could be following the same instructions and get totally different results, depending on one's experience. It means that these instructions are mostly 'process steps' that can be conveyed whereas technique can only grow organically: it can hardly taught.

THE SECOND

I was trying the "cotton" technique for clouds: you lay a blue colour, then take a wet common ball, and press against the paper to 'absorb' out the colour. Sounds easier that it is.

WHATEVER

I will admit that the tutorial by Philip Berrill is actually quite effective at getting you quick satisfying results that compel you to continue. Check https://www.amazon.ca/Watercolor-Easy-Way-Philip-Berrill/dp/192690530X

MONOCHROME

Another example from the tutorial that shows 'creativity' within the context of watercolour. The mood in this painting is plausible, and yet, the painting is physically not plausible. Over the years, I have acquired techniques, but I have not developed much of the sensibility of watercolour that you see in this painting. around this time, I started dating my paitinings

RED LAKE

I called it red lake. From vague recollection, this painting teaches how to do 'colour gradient'. Cool stuff!

MIST

Not sure what I was supposed to learn here, but I think it is a technique that had to do with 'bleeding colour' on wet canvas. Interestingly, I have not used, in my own creations, most of the techniques learned

THE STORM

This was another exercise from Philip Berril's manual. I can't remember the specific skill that this specific exercice was meant to develop, but I see again an example of the genius of true painters: start from a vision, translate it into an unlikely juxtaposition of layers of painting, which end up conveying the initial mood/vision. In mathematical terms, the painter starts with an image, which could be real or fantastic/imaginary, and s/he has to devise two transformations f(), and g(), where f() translates the vision in a painting architecture, and g() interprets that architecture (in the eye of the 'spectator') to recreate the vision. I would say that these mappings are particularly complex with watercolour, because the layering has to be planned carefully in advance because of the transparency of the colours: you have to lay the light colours first, and you have limited room for error.

CORNY SUNSET

was one of my first attempts at creation :-). Being a man from the desert, this was a variation of red lake. Why not.

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