DockOar

DockOar, 5x7"oil, DMannion

Stump Pass Marina

Found a shady spot this morning while painting with the Englewood Plein Air Posse.  Was having a fine time with this aqua colored boat!  Usually the boat will leave before I finish, this time, two huge boats pulled in blocking the view.  Oh well… thank heavens for iPhone snapshots!  Even caught the pelican while landing on the piling.

How much I got done before view was blocked...

 Thumbnail sketech

Working small for field studies and practice for travel.  Not freaking myself out about creating finished master pieces while painting outside.  Just collecting enough information to use later in the studio.  Makes the whole plein air process much more fun, at least for me.  

Still experimenting with water mixable oils… and getting the hang of it.  Forgot to bring water to clean brushes with, simply wiped with a paper towel.  Used water mixable linseed oil.  Feel a lot better about water mixables after doing more research.  They can be used with regular oils!  They can also be varnished with regular varnish.  Possible to do an underpainting with water mixables, then use regular oils for next layers.  So now that I've invested in these paints, I feel better knowing they won't go to waste.

***Also… struggled with water mixable Hue colors, avoid them if possible and stick with pure colors.  Purchased cadmium yellow to replace cad yellow hue, for instance and it made a great difference.  Holbein sells some high quality pure pigment colors, also Winsor and Newton… check the labels and avoid hue colors if possible.  The problem happened because I started out with "sets" and they contained many "hue" colors.  Hue colors contain more white, they're a tint of the pure colors and not nearly as rich.

Do your research before experimenting with water mixables!  Holbein Duo, Winsor & Newton Artisan, 

and Cobra are a few top rated brands.