Thanks everyone at Daily Paintworks!
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Daily Paintworks Spotlight interview
Thanks everyone at Daily Paintworks!
Liberty Building
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| Liberty Building Watercolor 8” x 10” Chris Breier © 2015 |
Click "Read more" to watch the YouTube demo video for this painting.
I had doubts about this painting while I was working on it, but then I was thrilled with it when it was done. My goal was to paint it in a loose manner without getting bogged down in the details. This is more difficult than it sounds because you have to figure out what the essential shapes are and ignore the tendency to paint every little window and decoration; a large brush works well for this. I prefer a round with a fine tip because it will also allow me to paint into the tight corners without having to switch brushes.
I was reading about the history of the Liberty Building on Wikipedia and I never realized that the two sculptures on top it are replicas of the Statue of Liberty, and that they’re 36 feet tall.
You might also be interested in my iPad drawing of the Liberty Building.
Friday, February 27, 2015
Walking the Dogs
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| Walking the Dogs Watercolor on Arches Rough 8” x 10” Chris Breier © 2015 |
Late one afternoon, I spotted this man walking a group of dogs and thought that this scene would provide me with a much needed change of subject matter. I waited to take the picture until he reached the point on the sidewalk where it makes the most effective composition; he’s positioned so that the right diagonal edge of the crosswalk points toward him. It’s a good compositional strategy to position shapes so that they lead the viewers eye towards the focal point. The crosswalk also breaks up what would be a boring area of flat color.
The figure and the dogs were fun to paint and I just focused on painting the light and dark patterns that define their shapes.
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Red Building on Ellicott Creek 2
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Red Building on Ellicott Creek 2
Watercolor
8" x 10"
Chris Breier © 2015 |
The original painting is available.
You may recognize this image because I recently painted it in a smaller format. I normally don't paint an image more than once but I thought this one would be worth enlarging to an 8"x10."
You may recognize this image because I recently painted it in a smaller format. I normally don't paint an image more than once but I thought this one would be worth enlarging to an 8"x10."
It's
interesting to see the differences in the style that happened because
of the change in size, which one is better is probably subjective. I
like them both for different reasons.
The
composition had to change slightly because the aspect ratio is
different; the smaller painting is more rectangular whereas this one is
closer to being a square. The taller format allowed me to include more
of the sky and water.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Gourds
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| Gourds Watercolor on Arches Rough 8” x 10” Chris Breier © 2015 |
I had to battle a rain storm and high winds to acquire these decorative gourds, but it was worth it. The cashier must have thought I was crazy to stand outside in the ice cold rain with an umbrella just to buy a couple of gourds. I wasn't satisfied with any old gourd either, I had to look them all over and consider which colors and shapes would make for an interesting painting.
Click "Read More" below to watch the YouTube video
Monday, February 23, 2015
The Village
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The Village
Watercolor
8" x 10" Chris Breier © 2015 |
I recently completed a smaller version of this painting with
Goldens QOR watercolor sample and I liked it enough to paint it again as
a larger piece. It's not exactly the same composition because the first one was
square whereas this is rectangular, which allows me to paint more of
the surrounding area.
Click "Read more" below to watch the YouTube time-lapse video of this being painted.
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Dormant Tree
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| Dormant Tree Watercolor (QOR watercolor on Arches Rough) 2.5” x 3.5” Chris Breier © 2015 |
This tree can be found at Island Park, clinging to the edge of Ellicott Creek.
It was important to complete the sky first and then paint the tree over it. If I were to rework the sky after the tree was painted, I would risk picking up the muddy colors of the branches. The transparent nature of the watercolor makes it difficult to cover up mistakes–which can be frustrating. However, it also makes you a better painter because you learn to plan ahead and figure out more efficient strategies for layering a painting.
This is the last of the Artist Trading Card paintings, I'm returning to regular size. You may be interested in my other watercolor paintings.
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Grain Elevators
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| Grain Elevators Watercolor (QOR watercolor on Arches Rough) 8" x 10" Chris Breier © 2015 |
These grain elevators are a popular landmark in Buffalo NY. The white silos are a part of General Mills and the buildings in the foreground belong to a boatyard. What you can't see is that the canal in between them–grain would be shipped by boat through the Great Lakes to the mill to be processed into cereal or flour.
The blue shadow on the grain elevators is from the Skyway.
Click "Read More" below to watch the YouTube video time-lapse of me painting this.
Friday, February 20, 2015
Bridge
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| Bridge Watercolor 2.5” x 3.5” Chris Breier © 2015 |
Bid on the original painting.
This is the bridge that crosses Ellicott Creek, next to Glen Park. In the warm summer months kids like to fish along the edges of the creek, but this was a school day and it was too cold outside to play hooky-so there's no fisherman in this painting.
The bridge was the tricky part, I wanted to imply the detail of the stone work and concrete without overworking it. I emphasized the abstract quality of the shadows and the vegetation along the edge of the creek.
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Island Park Entrance
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| Island Park Entrance Watercolor 2.5” x 3.5” Chris Breier © 2015 |
It was the reflection of the water that first attracted me to this scene. I like the contrast of the dark shadows with the bright white cloud reflections in the water. You may recognize the red building in the background from a previous painting, which is a hardware store.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
October Walk
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| October Walk Watercolor 2.5” x 3.5” Chris Breier © 2015 |
I was surprised by the amount of depth that I captured in this tiny
painting. After analyzing it, I realized that it employs numerous
techniques for creating the illusion of space. The sidewalk, shadows,
street, and phone lines all converge to a point as they recede into
space; this is a common technique known as perspective drawing. Another
method for creating the illusion of depth is to make the objects in the
distance smaller than the ones in the foreground, which is how I handled
the trees.
This painting also made me think about how it's tempting to remove power lines and signs from paintings, but sometimes they can be used to enliven a composition. Here they converge with the shadow of the phone pole to create an interesting zigzag.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
The Bank
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| The Bank Watercolor 2.5” x 3.5” Chris Breier © 2015 |
While I was walking home from Glen Park, I took a picture of the rear of the buildings on Main Street in Williamsville. It's of the things that are normally meant to be hidden: parking lots, phone poles etc. Click here to view the Google Street view location for this painting.
Monday, February 16, 2015
Island Park, Late October
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Island Park, Late October
Qor Watercolor on Arches Rough
2.5" x 3.5"
Chris Breier © 2015 |
The original painting is available
I took the picture for this painting on an unusually warm day in October. I spent the entire afternoon at my favorite parks taking reference photos for paintings. I merged many of the complex shapes into a dark purple mass instead of painting every detail of the trees and underbrush. This is especially important with small paintings because putting in all of the details would require a very tiny brush and a magnifying glass! My favorite part is the bank of trees on the left, there's a bit or orange beneath the purple and that gives them more depth.
You might be interested in my other Artist Trading Cards or my other watercolor paintings.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Church on Milton Street
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Church on Milton Street
2.5" x 3.5"
Watercolor on paper
Chris Breier © 2015 |
This is a church that I have often admired on my frequent walks
through the neighborhood. I like the architecture, especially the bell
tower. I'm really happy with the way the sky turned out. The Indian
Yellow from the bell tower spread into the sky area making the clouds
appear as though they are illuminated by the late afternoon sun.
I
kept the bell tower simple; the dark shadows of the windows that are
the only details that I added to it. There are a few faint pencil lines
from the initial sketch that show through. I'm always reminding myself
to go heavier on the line drawing because I like the look of the pencil
marks in a watercolor. It's also another way to "cheat" and put in a few
details that would be difficult to accomplish with a brush.
I used QOR watercolors on Aches Rough watercolor paper.
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Red Building on Ellicott Creek
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| Red Building on Ellicott Creek QOR Watercolor on Arches Rough 2.5”x3.5” Chris Breier © 2015 |
It’s also important to create variety in the studio by working in different mediums and formats just to keep things interesting and to stretch my abilities.
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