Danny's truck

My sore back has kept me inside during the gorgeous spring weather here, but today I could no longer resist, and I gingerly set up my easel on my front yard and painted this truck, using mostly gouache — transparent watercolor. I haven’t touched my gouache in a while, and my blue and red tubes were caked dry, so I had to improvise to get the colors you see here. Time to buy some new paint!

The underlying drawing is better than the finished painting. I did a very careful and accurate pencil drawing, but I chose brushes that were too large. Artists always say use the largest brush possible, but I think I took that principle too far here. Still, it was great to get outside and paint again.

Geoff Watson, “Sketch of Danny’s truck,” gouache, watercolor & graphite on paper, 5” x 7,” 2019.

Car truck

It was cold here today, but I saw this car-truck parked outside my local pharmacy, and I just had to paint it. I knew the clock was ticking because my hands were cold, and the skies were threatening a cold rain. So I made myself paint loosely. I'm glad I did: I got some of the painterly look I was going for.

Unfortunately, it did start to rain after about an hour, and by then my hands were really freezing -- even though I had them in thin plastic gloves. Even if I could've toughed it out, the truck driver suddenly appeared and fired up the engine. I rushed over to show him my painting. He seemed kind of unimpressed. "Aquarella?", he asked in Spanish. (Watercolor?) Nope -- oil, heh. 

Anyway, it all ended abruptly -- I didn't even get to put in any tail lights --  but I like what I got on the canvas.
 

Geoff Watson, "Car Truck," oil on canvas pad, about 16" x 20," 2018.