Human Nature

With the exception of my Photoshop entry and my lovely profile pic, I've never featured any colorful artwork in this blog. I don't use color very often, but fall's flora is so pretty this year in Syracuse that I made an exception.



I hadn't used watercolors since, at the latest, junior high school, but I guess I'm getting soft in my old age, so off I went to the SU bookstore to purchase a $9.00 watercolor paint set (with a brush and 18 colors) and a Moleskine watercolor notebook -- don't use anything water-based on a regular Moleskine, as I learned the hard way.




Isn't it interesting how my painting style differs from my drawing style? When I use black ink or pencil, I have a spooky, for lack of a better word, "gothic" style. But when I paint, everything is very soft and quiet. My personality is similarly two-sided.

I painted these outside in Thorden park, and my feral shyness caused me to close my book whenever someone approached my area: I didn't want to draw attention to myself. Sadly, this had the effect of smearing the painting I was working on. For one painting, I was in such a high-traffic area that I couldn't handle it--after sketching the scene in pencil and making some notes about the colors, I went home to paint it. See if you can figure out which painting that was. It's a pretty easy call if you think about the clues.



I'm not a skilled painter, but I'll tell you how I got those complex, muted pastel gray tones. Some people like those colors, and ask me about them. I use that color palate with everything I paint, and it's impossible to find those tones in a tube or paint set. What I do is, I mix primary colors with their compliments:

Red + Green
Blue + Orange
Yellow + Violet/Purple

If I want something a little more "orangey," for example, I add less blue. Then, I take the mixed gray tone and dilute it with white paint. I rarely use a "pure" tone, meaning red or some other color right from the paint set or tube, unless I want something significant to really stand out. Also, I never use black...surprise.




Coming up on Bibliowhining:
An old friend of mine may have outgrown his "Almost Invisible Boy" alter ego, but if Madonna, The Backstreet Boys, the New Kids, and Michael Jackson can return from the 90's with brand spankin' new hits, than so can he. One of my classic, post-grunge-era muses returns in an all-new, true yet exaggerated storyline. Look for it soon, probably in the entry after next.