Thunderstorms

Lightning
Watercolour on Paper
12cm x 16.5cm (4.75"x 6.5")

Thunderstorms is the fourth topic in the Skies and Weather chapter of Creating Textures in Pen & Ink with Watercolor by Claudia Nice.

I haven’t seen lightning in ages and I don’t have any photographs. This picture is based on Claudia’s example, memory and imagination.

Claudia suggests drawing the lightning with masking fluid (frisket), so you can paint clouds over it, rather than having to carefully paint around it. This worked reasonably well, but if I paint lightning again, I will make the lines thinner and more spidery (is spiderier a word?). I was glad for the prod to check my bottle of masking fluid because I am planning to use it soon on a bigger picture. I don’t use it very often and usually when I reach for the bottle, I find its all dried up, rubbery and unusable.

More Quick Paintings

Castle Cove
Watercolour on Paper
12cm x 16.5cm (4.75" x 6.5")

These were all painted more slowly (with more layers) than the pictures on the original post (see Quick Paintings), but they have the same focus on experimentation, spontaneity, interesting washes and exploiting opportunities to work wet in wet.

Beachgrass
Watercolour on Paper
12cm x 16.5cm (4.75" x 6.5")

The picture of Castle Cove is based on the same photos I used for Castle Cove, Dartmouth in 2014.

Atlantic Waves
Watercolour and Gouache on Paper
16.5cm x 12cm (6.5" x 4.75")

The seascape uses an approach described by John Lovett (see Painting The Sea). It is inspired by the same photos I used as  reference for the waves in Granite.