Monochromatic Colors: Ultramarine Blue
Another monochromatic color whatsit. I chose to use watercolors for this not because I am any good at watercolor, but because for what I’m doing, I can do it quite fast and inexpensively–I’ve already got several blocks of watercolor paper, brushes, and fifteen or so colors to use which I’ve had for quite a while. I know watercolor is very unforgiving, but since I’m essentially playing, ‘doodling’ you could say, it’s not that big of a deal that I can’t erase anything. I would like to try this with oil though. My preferred medium is pencil, but my colored pencils are pretty decent quality which means they break constantly and cost more than a buck a piece…I think I’d wear one out too fast trying to use only one color and getting the range I can get out of paint, and I can’t work as quickly with colored pencils.
I do need to remember/relearn how to protect watercolors (other than putting them behind glass)–the parts that look black are really a lot of pigment built up, so it could be very easily damaged.
I planned to do more purple paintings, but while I was riding back from the doctor’s office today, one of my muses decided he wanted me to paint him. OK, two of them did, but the other one isn’t obnoxious. I might paint him in purple. Anyhow, I don’t think there would be any point in telling you who the muse is, because he’s not recognizable in this form. I did have a vague idea of what I would paint this time, but it’s still all playing, I didn’t sketch anything out first, I just painted. Which will go a long way in explaining why his proportions are so utterly off. No reference for it, so he doesn’t even look like the muse in question (which is pretty much OK, since he stopped looking quite like himself a long time ago anyway).
12″ x 16″, watercolor, 1/20/2009
A short note on muses–I think most creative people have them, whatever they choose to call them. I personify mine when they ‘earn’ personification, but they are always an aspect of me, of this I am perfectly aware. This one pretty clearly is based on how he wanted to be painted.
