27th day, a bit boggy today

Well, it is the crud, I had a really hard time getting this one done, should have taken the flower one instead, but I had this one farther along, I am glad that I didn't take my painting stuff to the studio yesterday when I got back from the Gallery, or I wouldn't have gotten it done at all, I worked on it off and on all day, still not feeling well, and I am not sure that this one is quite as finished as I usually do but I got so tired, had to call it quits, on my way to bed, hope I don't cough all night, my throat is a bit sore and my chest hurts from coughing. Well, enough of that on the the painting.

This painting is done on a very smooth paper, not the regular paper I use, I think it's Arches Cover, a smooth print paper, I was at one time going to do some silk screen printing, I figured out really quickly that it wasn't for me, I really need a more immediate type of technique, I would not make it as a printmaker. I do have the paper though and it does paint nicely, it isn't quite as heavy as 140# Arches but it really doesn't buckle too much, so I'm using it for watercolor. I gave everything a basic middle value in the local color, what I mean by that is that the green is green and the yellowish color was yellowish (I seldom use the pure pigments, they are too bright and don't look good), so, I washed a light grayed down violet for the foreground water, the background water is greenish and brownish, the rocks are a warm gray/brown, then I start to figure out the details, I start at the farthest and work my way forward, this is a typical pastel painter's way, of course that is where I started, and probably why I love these opaque watercolors. I like working from the farthest to the foreground, it seems like the correct order of things, what you paint in the background can be layered over with the twigs and leaf shapes that make it look like it's coming forward. I finished the background and farthest water area, then moved on to the rocks at the broken dam, this is behind the Bedford Mill, in Bedford, MI, for those of you who don't know where Bedford is. I painted the foreground water then, as it is under the very foreground bushes on the left. I have to finish this as we are about the loose power, the ice storm has really gotten bad, we may loose it so I'm cutting this short, hope you like this, at this point, I do. Good night, hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.