Old Wooden Structures

Winery Barns
Watercolour on Paper
16.5cm x 24cm (6.5" x 9.5")

Old Wooden Structures is the sixth and penultimate topic in the Wood Grain Patterns chapter of Creating Textures in Pen & Ink with Watercolor by Claudia Nice. 

These are some barns at one of the wineries in Niagara on the Lake. I took the photo in 2011, so I can’t be sure which winery and I suspect the barns have gone. The one on the right was the tasting room.

I cross referenced Claudia’s guidance with suggestions from John Lovett‘s book Textures, Techniques and Special Effects for Watercolor; which is sadly out of print.

Painting the texture of the timbers was harder than I expected even with two sources of advice - I need more practice.

Drawing and Painting the Landscape – Masking

Dart Moorings
Watercolour on Paper
15.5cm x 23.5cm (6" x 9.25")

Lesson 36 of Drawing and Painting the Landscape by Philip Tyler starts with a discussion of masking and then introduces a number of other watercolour topics.

Masking is the technique of using a fluid (rubber solution) or tape to preserve the white of the paper. You could just carefully paint around the white areas, but masking them makes life easier. I wrote about this approach recently (see A Fuzzy Background).

Some people never use masking because it can cause problems. Most notably, the edges created by masking can appear too hard and prominent. Masking fluid is also notorious for wrecking brushes. You have to use an old brush and protect the bristles by covering them in soap; which can make it difficult to apply the masking fluid accurately. It can also tear the paper if you leave it too long before removing it.

In honour of this lesson, I bought a fine tipped masking fluid applicator (Jackson's Masking Fluid Applicator) to mask the boats in this painting. It was the least stressful masking fluid experience I can remember.

A monochrome study of this scene in which the horizon was much lower (see Drawing and Painting the Landscape – Monochrome Study) made me suspect the composition would work better with more water and less sky.

Dart Moorings -  Thumbnail Sketch - 6.5cm x 10cm (2.5" x 4")
Pencil on Paper
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook

A thumbnail helped to confirm this before committing to paint.