Let's Relax - Watercolor Painting from Stock Photos

In this painting, I wanted to create a Locally Colorful (i.e. umbrella, white sand beaches, Emerald waters--more to come on Local Color) and inviting beach scene that would appeal to most beach fans, and also to:

• Practice watercolor washes (link is to Steve Mitchell's Mind of Watercolor channel on Youtube, Basic Washes episode--Mind of Watercolor is an excellent A-Z Watercolor resource; Steve is an excellent teacher and very generous with his high quality videos, skills, and information).
• Building up cloud detail
• And, as always, The Big 4 - Drawing, Value, Design/Composition, and Color (Link is to the Plein Air Podcast, Interview with Matt Smith--The Plein Air Podcast is an indispensible podcast on the subject as well as a great way to make driving long distances more enjoyable and productive for any artist/painter).

The familiar, quintessential, rainbow umbrella was my original inspiration and an easy image to find. 

My next step was a quick search for photos with each of the elements that I was looking for, that if combined, would create the complete composition I was going for...My cloud and water inspiration were cropped from a larger scene to create this photo--the backdrop for the umbrella and chairs.

I used Adobe Photoshop Mix (in 8 easy steps - Feel free to ask how I use Photoshop Mix and other Adobe products for painting from photos) to create a left-facing adirondack chair from a right-facing one.  Note:  There are MANY Adobe Photoshop "cousin" apps (ex. Photoshop Express, Mix, Fix, CC, etc.) for ios/Apple devices that allow you to create a single, free, Adobe ID to pass along your photo project from one App to the other seamlessly (like having a photo-editing-factory on your device) for use of a relatively limitless number of possible editing tools.

To complete the drawing/painting here, I simply used the "Rule of Thirds" which has VERY interesting historical, scientific, mathematical (perhaps Spiritual) underpinnings (i.e. Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Mean) to place the focal point in the drawing amidst all the other elements in a location most pleasing to the eye. Interested in the Science of Art and the Art of Science like I am?  Following the links in the first sentence alone could help change your photo and painting designs/compositions for the better while also helping you understand Nature's compositions on a deeper level.

Check back for more information on mounting (and finishing--Gloss surface) watercolor paintings to cradled wooden panels for a contemporary gallery-wrapped canvas aesthetic and Thank You as always for your friendship and readership!

Welcome to Brady's Art Blog

Dear Friend, 

Hello!  I will make this one quick! My name is Brady and I am a multimedia Artist, an avid Plein Air painter, and a fun-loving creator of entertaining media living in Laguna Beach (Panama City Beach), Florida. I am new to blogging, but I have always enjoyed writing, entertaining, and especially, Creating!

I have MANY ideas for the direction of this blog--everything from taking a break from creating art and carrying out business and marketing activities to act on Inspiration while it is fresh, to mapping out my journey from the very beginning as an artist (I have actually logged a reverse chronological list of my journey as an artist and plein air painter including all the highlights of how to do, how to make, artists that I discovered all the way, and including the Big 4 skills of 1. Drawing, 2. Establishing Values, 3. Design and Composition, and 4. Color-using/mixing, and even conducting the successful business of Art!

I really want my blog to be: A) a meaningful social give and take, B) a quality resource for learning how to paint, create and about excellent Art, and C) plenty entertaining and fun! I will likely be back to revise this first post and let everyone know with great clarity who this blog is really for (although all are Welcome) and outline the direction as I go. Thank you again for reading my blog and Be Well in your journey of Life and Art!

~Brady