Ollie's Pond

Ollie's Pond, October 2014, watercolor plein air, 6.5x6.5" ©Diane Mannion

What An Oil Painter Can Learn From Watercolors and Pastels

Painted in Port Charlotte with the Punta Gorda Plein Air group this morning.  Wonderful to see so many snowbirds and new members!  

This was painted on an Arches 140lb, 8" square watercolor block.  Taped the sides to get a neat edge but really prefer the shaky, scribbled edge like my previous posts.  Every painting's an experiment!  

 Didn't see any gators... but they were lurking just beneath the surface.  Carried my own water supply so I didn't have to dip into the pond.

 Location shot.

What An Oil Painter Can Learn From Watercolors and Pastels

Going through a learning stage, still totally obsessed with watercolor.  I'll be going back and forth to oils, but what I'm learning though watercolors is an education for oils!  It's healthy working in different mediums, learned a lot during my pastel obsession a few years ago.  

Watercolors... seeing the masses, making stuff up, and letting things happen, importance of thinking ahead and planning.  

Pastels.... seeing color in a totally different way, understanding stroke direction and energy!  

And with any medium... the importance of thumbnail sketches!

My sketchbook thumbnail for this painting.  Lots of decisions made before touching the brush.  A scribbled short-hand of my thinking... a map to approach the painting with.  It's not set in stone, many changes were made during the painting process, but it really helped me visualize the "design."

Now, if I can only get the watercolor to behave!