Tag: art classes

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My magic watercolor brush

Fall leaves, watercolor

Every paint brush becomes magic once we learn how to use it properly.

It’s how you use the brush

It matters how much pressure we put on the brush and what part of it we use. It matters that you use specifically watercolor brush for watercolor. Watercolor brushes are soft and able to hold plenty of water and paint. While the shape of brush matters, too, the most important part is still how one handles the brush. If you just try to aimlessly move some paint around the magic brush loses its ability to create something great. I usually use only a few brushes for every medium, most often just one or two.

My preferences for watercolor brushes

For watercolor, I use number 14 round, soft watercolor brush with a very fine tip mostly. Therefore, it performs quite a few functions. When we hold it perpendicular at a 90° angle, we can draw very thin lines. Since this brush holds a lot of water and pigment which is important for watercolor, we can use the side of brush parallel to paper and cover large areas fast with either water or paint.

Time it right

Timing is also important for watercolor. We can use just part of a large brush and move paint around. We can use full body of a big-size round brush and cover large areas of paper fast. We have to time everything accurately; if you want fine details, you will do them on dry paper. If you want smooth washes and color transitions, you most likely will wet paper first. Wet paper is also safer for those who are slow with paint application. That will allow avoiding streaks and patchy paint spots.

Fall colors

We have beautiful fall weather at the moment in Southern Canada. Leaves are turning golden, red, orange and purple. It is a good time to practice color mixing and color application since inspiration is everywhere. Bright, sunny and golden colors shine on grey and blue backgrounds. Use that in your favor when creating fall paintings. I started the painting of fall leaves a few years ago for watercolor painting class and finished just yesterday.

Fall leaves, watercolor
Fall leaves, watercolor
Fall leaves, watercolor
Fall leaves, watercolor

The most recent watercolor painting class image

This a quick watercolor painting without drawing and applying rather washes. Mine was done on not that great watercolor paper, but it still makes a lot of sense. Not to mention, that real painting always have more balanced colors and look way smoother than extra sharp iPhone pictures.

Watercolor brush

I hope you enjoy these paintings.

Fall, watercolor painting, large size

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Art classes, schedule and registration

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Art collections by Inese Poga

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Summer sketchbook: easy flowers

Red poppies, pen and watercolor sketch

Fill your summer sketchbook

This year, I am filling my summer sketchbook with floral art. Watercolor sketch, pen and watercolor or purely watercolor are excellent ways to paint summer scenes, summer flowers, summer landscapes and simply enjoy the outdoors and beauty. The easiest way to practice painting with watercolors is using pen and watercolor wash, that will fill your sketchbook in no time. That enables us creating great composition and not caring too much about pencil lines and perfect application of watercolor.

Summer sketchbook, poppies
Summer poppies, 12 x 16 in or 30.5 x 40.5 cm

Summer poppies, 12 x 16 in or 30.5 x 40.5 cm

Excellent technique for beginners

Pen and watercolor wash is a great technique for beginning watercolor artists. The most exciting part is adding watercolor washes, as well as more detailed areas with more concentrated paint. We can create a wonderful painting in less time this way because we do not need multi-step drawing transfer onto watercolor paper. It is also much easier to know where to use paint because the black outline clearly identifies that.

Summer sketchbook, Pink rose

The spring rose, 15 x 11 in or 38 x 28 cm

Greatness takes time

If you are new to a particular medium or absolutely new to drawing and painting, you have to remember: nothing happens right away. Every skill takes time, efforts and work to develop.  It is no reason to give up painting or drawing if you are not happy with the first few drawings and sketches. You might be surprised how much better one becomes after a while.

Summer sketchbook Sunflowers

Sunflowers, pen and watercolor, 12 x 16 in or 30.5 x 40.5 cm

Not every painting is masterwork

Focusing on perfection right away will cause you to be disappointed. Any artist will tell you that they have damaged, and thrown out lots and lots of initial sketches, painted over initial scenes, changed the layout and composition completely, switched to a different color or tools. They have done many things before they have created the first amazing painting. Not every drawing or painting is or should be a masterwork. It should be a stepping stone on our way to better art. We use our errors as a way of discovering how to achieve what we want and have intended.

Summer sketchbook, Red poppies

Red poppies, pen and watercolor, 11 x 14 in or 28 x 36 cm

For your inspiration

Get inspired by my simple pen and watercolor sketches. This time, they are floral sketches and paintings. Go outdoors; see what you have in your backyard. Sketching is always better if you do not use any photos, but the real thing in front of you. Pen and watercolor technique allows achieving fast results, therefore, your subject will not change while you draw and sketch it.

Summer sketchbook, Clematis, pen and watercolor painting

Clematis, pen and watercolor, 12 x 16 in or 30.5 x 40.5 cm

Art supplies for drawing and sketching to fill your summer sketchbook

CANSON XL cold press, 140 lb watercolor paper, size 12 x 16 or 12 x 18 in

Arches, cold press, 140 lb watercolor paper, size 12 x 16 or 12 x 18 in

Saunders Waterford, cold press, watercolor paper in whatever weight is available and affordable, size 12 x 16 or 12 x 18 in

For pen, you can use any black pen which does not bleed with application of water. I recommend MICRON brand which contains archival ink, size from 1 to 05, test it. You can test it at the store for thickness of line before buying to see which one you like.

Graphite pencil, HB or even harder

Soft, kneaded, artist’s grade eraser, it is sold in art stores.

Paper towel, a few sheets

Set of watercolors in basic colors

All my art prints, art cards and other products on FAA:

Art collections by Inese Poga

If you’d like to sign up for my art classes, please click on link Art classes

Private art classes: Take a private art class

Art for sale: Shop Inese’s art

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Spring paintings in acrylic

Country barn, original art

Spring paintings feel like a good choice when nature awakes

When else if not now to engage in creation of spring paintings? One can tell how much I love spring by just having a look at what I have painted recently: spring flowers, spring scenery and spring landscapes. I think I feel seasonal changes on a mental level very strongly. I cannot imagine I would be painting snow right now. Still life in that regard is the most neutral subject, but I felt I needed something more impressive.

Spring road, acrylic landscape painting

My personalized realism

Most people believe I paint reality, but I do not. I use quite frequently real things, like I used real daffodils for the front part this time; however, I always beautify the reality and make any subject my personal reality. That means I give the subject my colors which I love at that moment, enhance the layout, and add extra contrasts or values, just to make everything more of what I experience at that moment.

Dogwood, acrylic painting

Nature does not always cooperate

The truth is the spring has been slow again in Ontario. We even had very winter-like weather a week ago. Therefore, to facilitate the feeling of blooming and warmth, I just paint it. I decided to mostly post one image at a time whenever possible. Most people never read posts, so, they only have a glance at the featured image and move on. That is why most paintings, advice and images which are in the article go unnoticed.

Daisies, spring

Taking pictures

Taking pictures with iphone  is very difficult. The extreme contrast is fine for any regular pictures, but not art. My solution is taking pictures with backgrounds, extra items, paints, brushes and similar. That works for the most part, but the painting area one works on, can be very messy sometimes. I mean, there are paint tubes, dirty paper towels, plates with leftover paint, brushes, sponges, jars with dirty water and all kinds of other things. Therefore, some pictures look messy by accidentally displaying some item which completely doesn’t fit the view.

New spring painting, acrylic by Inese Poga

Just imagine how it looks on my wall

My pictures still display more contrast than they should. Everything is usually well-balanced in my actual painting. I work in layers and for many hours in order to achieve the color balance. As you know, acrylic paints, at least the ones which are available in Canada, become much darker as they dry. One has to calculate that in when applying paint. It can happen so that sometimes white or yellow paint is very weak, and fixing the value imbalance requires extra work.

New spring painting, acrylic by Inese Poga

Available for purchase

Any of paintings are available from my studio. Paintings which are displayed in this post are 16 x 20 inches or 41 cm x 51 cm. I have to mention that because pictures look all the same on the internet. Anyway, enjoy the Daffodil barn and spring paintings! Daffodil barn got lots of great comments on Facebook and Fine Art America site this time, in particular, in acrylic artists’ groups. Please, see links to other posts and FAA sales site.

Register for painting classes, including private classes, from here: Registration for painting classes

Previous post about recent acrylic paintings: New acrylic paintings

Art collections by Inese Poga

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Enjoying spring nature and presence of painting subject

Nostalgia, acrylic painting by Inese Poga

Spending time with spring nature

Spring is already here. Art studio is a place which is always in bloom. Art studio has all seasons at once, and spring is presented to a high degree. Spring also means, one can take a canvas or sheet of paper and head out to be closer to the big awakening. Spring nature is an excellent subject! How much time do we really spend in nature and with it? Only with nature, without checking your phone or texting, or listening to music instead of bird songs? The research finds that it is a very insignificant amount of time compared to what we spend in a car and indoors. So, head out!

Outdoor drawing and painting

Outdoor drawing allows not only being close to the nature, but also experiencing a great presence of our subject. Many people use plants, flowers, leaves, blooms, trees, and other live natural subjects in their art. Being able to create a good reference drawing comes from observation. Outdoors is the best place to observe all growing and blossoming things and to understand how they change along with seasons.

Being close to the painting subject

Outdoor painting teaches us how to use fewer art supplies, but use them more effectively. Being in a close distance to our painting subject and having a chance to observe it is an extreme bonus. All tracing and photo editing software can never compare with direct observation. It is because of the presence. Any painting you do using real things and looking at the real painting subject will look more convincing. We can definitely feel the presence of painting subject or lack of it in the finalized art.

Direct observation and drawing

I feel that my duty is to teach other people enjoying things which are not costly, but rather a true source of happiness, pleasure and satisfaction. It would be tough going through life without art and beauty.

Daily drawing practice

We can keep our brain flexible and our cognitive function in great condition by simply drawing and sketching every single day. Just like you go to the gym, you need to engage your brain to its capacity with pleasurable things like art even when out of work and school. Observational drawing and painting is number one brain booster.

Spring nature

The best medication for mental issues

Drawing and painting are the best medication for any trouble, but especially mental issues, such as depression, grief, persistent, obtrusive thoughts and anxiety. We shouldn’t ignore the importance of new and challenging activities as brain fitness exercise. While one paints, they also completely forget about things they are addicted to: food, snacks, alcohol, drugs, smoking and devices, as well as phone. This gives us the much-deserved break from mind pollution.

Spring nature

The immediate result of painting is not the ultimate goal

It is often assumed that the only goal of drawing and painting should be the immediate result. We should not forget that here is so much to gain from the process. If you stop being concerned about the result, you will find out how rewarding the process is. Everybody achieves good results if they practice and keep painting, but certainly the process of creation is the one that deserves to be finally acknowledged and considered the main part of creativity. Along with feeling relaxed, trouble-free and happy, you will also create art that becomes better and better over time.

Picture taking

I tried to take pictures side by side, just to keep colors more relevant. My phone camera has too much contrast and my pictures come out extra bright. They have strong dark contrast which is not present in art. The real paintings are well-balanced. That is a good reason to make a trip to my art studio.

It’s not only color which is not true on photos, it’s also contrast, but especially the size. Size makes a big difference, but it is impossible to see that on the internet.  Everything from very large to very small art will seem to be the same size.

Acrylic painting, landscape, enjoying spring,

Spring, barn Nostalgia series, 24 x 20 inches, or 61 x 51 cm, acrylic on canvas

Anyway, enjoy the new art, and you are welcome to attend my popular art classes.

My art products and prints of paintings on Fine Art America:

Art collections by Inese Poga

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Watercolor flowers: serenity and hope

Roses for my mom, will she see them

Sad as I am today, I can only paint some flowers.

Sometimes I can forget the reality and sometimes it is too persistently reminding that nothing is going to be as it was.

I did not have any energy left to sign the most current flower painting yet, but it is watermarked.

I look at this painting and think about spring and things that won’t be the same.

We are always in a different place in space. We travel so fast it would be strange to hope things never change if everything else does.

To me, painted flowers are like music to eyes.

Poetry to mind.

Water to the desert.

Hope in hopeless moments.

Beauty when everything is frozen and dark.

Light in the middle of night.

Watercolor flowers: pink and white roses painting

11 x 14 in (28 x 36 cm), watercolor on Arches watercolor paper.

I hope you will love it.

Other recent flowers: Roses from me to you

Some more:  Pink watercolor flowers