St. Simons Island, Georgia

This fresh little watercolor is my Painting A Day coming fresh from my plein aire session this morning on location in St. Simons Island, Georgia. As I sat in the bright sunshine on the pier I was able to capture this 104-ft. tower while enjoying the banter taking place between the fishermen who as far as I was able to determine are probably regulars. Looking back to my left, a giant coastal oak sprawls to the left and some smaller trees are on the left with a lush green lawn in front. The lawn ends abruptly with a breakwater of large rocks dropping off to water below. Last night at low tide there was a small area of beach. This long fishing pier juts out to a "T" at the end. The initial part of the pier is covered, but I was unable to see the lighthouse under cover and had to paint in the sun.

If you want to know more history about the lighthouse, click here. Then be sure to click your back arrow to come back to my blog.

It took some adjusting in Photoshop to get the blues even close to correct. Blues and reds are tough to tweak, unless you get lucky and your camera catches the color just right. I took photos outside under cloudy skies, inside on a white background by a window, and inside away from the window but in very good light. The low light photo turned out to be the best, but still didn't pick up the blue of the sky just right or the greens in the oak tree. All I have to say is that I am so much happier with the painting than I am with the photo, but I guess the painting is what's most important, huh?

For purchase information about this 7 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch watercolor painted on professional quality (Arches 140-lb Cold Press) watercolor paper with Yarka watercolors, click here. St. Simons Lighthouse is available in my Etsy shop, DreamON.

Painting and Paper

Have you ever imagined what things would look like through another color of eyes? If my eyes were blue I might see blue trees like these. People might also be blue, and dogs and cats.

This painting of the day is a watercolor on Arches Cold Press Watercolor paper sized approximately 10 x 13 inches. For purchase information click here. I have put this painting up for sale on my Etsy site, DreamON.

Why do I paint on this paper? Paper is probably the most important piece of making a decent watercolor painting. Brushes are the next most important. Paint is important, but not for the reasons you might think. I have tried painting with yucky watercolor paper, and it makes your job as an artist so much more difficult it is amazing to think that just paper could make such a difference. If you have a choice of where to spend your learning dollars, spend it on brushes and paper. I have found I like Arches and Fabriano paper the best. I buy Arches watercolor paper 25 sheets at a time in order to get a better price. I find some of the other manufacturers don't offer the ability to buy a pack of 25 sheets. I like Fabriano because it gives a nice soft surface to work on. Arches is familiar and predictable, and it is a great surface to work on wet or dry. It is strong. I can lift color from it, and even scrub it without destroying it, if I'm careful that is. It also makes a good surface for acrylics. Both of these papers are professional quality.