Direct painting

I added Citizen Sketcher to the blogroll, right. 

It's really worth looking at. 1. For the beautiful paintings, 2. For the artist's commentary: each painting is followed by "what works" and "what doesn't work," which is a model worth emulating.

I signed on to Citizen Sketcher's FB page, #30x30directwatercolor2018, where I can see the work of other direct painters.

I painted these sketches last week to post there-- though I have to admit, they are not 100% "direct"! There are pencil guidelines.

What worked: I sat down to paint! And, in the first one, I like how the shallow water turned out. Painting that translucent blue water with the sand underneath always confounds me. Here, i painted it blue and while it was still wet, added a few streaks of raw sienna. That simple.
What didn't work: "direct" doesn't mean slapdash! I painted these too quickly, without much thought, and it shows, especially in the allover too unsubtle color.