Early Watercolors: A Part of Art is Learning.

As I put some of my artwork on this blog hopefully there will be a noticeable progression of skill. In many ways, this blog will chronicle my own skills as they grow and expand. For example, I desire to get more into painting. I have, somewhat recently, been experimenting with watercolors and I have found them to be great fun. Eventually, I would like to get into oils but working with watercolors, at least, I can learn the medium and how to work with colors. So here is my first real attempt at watercolor painting.

 Pretty good, huh? The initials do say that Charles did it. Well, that was another Charles whose last name didn't have so many vowels. There are some artists that I consider a little depressing because they remind me how far I have to go and C.M. Russell happens to be one of them. Although, He is "inspiring" too. While his paintings can be a bit depressing, at the same time he is encouraging. He was completely self-taught and often used less than professional art supplies because he was poor and lived in Montana which at the time had no railroads. As he gained popularity, though, he used more professional supplies which became cheaper and easier to get as Montana grew.
Russell like to use watercolors and the majority of his paintings are watercolors. The painting that first introduced national attention to C.M. Russell was a simple watercolor drawing that he did on a cardboard box. I probably enjoy his watercolors more than any of his other works.
So now that things have been put into perspective, here is my own attempt at a buffalo using watercolor paints.

 

It isn't that bad, I guess. You get the idea of a brute staring at you. Details may be wanting perhaps, though I have gleaned much satisfaction from it, particularly at how the nose turned out. I will try not to point out all the cow-pies in my work but will keep them to myself.  I do not think that is a good habit; I will let the viewer notice the discrepancies. The white streaks in the buffalo's beard thing, more technically called a dewlap, are from the hairs of my paint brush including themselves into the painting, then falling out of the finished work. There is a low commitment level with paint-brush bristles, fickle beings that they are.

One other thing. While I was playing around with the paints, a picture grew out of a random streak that I made, that I then developed into a simple little painting. I kinda like it.

I just flicked my brush across my paper and the general shape of this side profile came into view. I imagined different things that would look good and painted accordingly. It was fun. I imagine him to be a samurai warrior turning his head. .You would see his back and he would be dressed in classical Japanese armour. Although, I don't know if a Japanese warrior would of had that kind of facial hair. Maybe you see something different. Let me know in the comments.