Geotagging

I upload some of my sketches on Flickr. One of its most attractive features is the map: you can geotag your photos –in general, all your material– to show where they are taken. Unfortunately this map can not be easily embedded on websites, thereby I have been maintaining my own urban sketches map in Google Maps for the same purpose.

Each blue flag on the map represents a different sketch. When a flag is selected, a thumbnail of the sketch and a link to the blog entry are shown. There is also a zoom in option, so it can be explored the area where the building, landscape or urban element is located. And even the street view can be used when the link view larger map is followed!

View Larger Map

Painting Course – Day 6

The sixth day and I did not finish the painting. Now I am not sure if I want to finish it. If I finish it the next day, it will remain just three days for a new painting. Maybe it is better to add more details or to improve some areas. I will ask to the teacher.

Today I was working on the mountain. I am more satisfied when I see the photo than when I see the painting. Follow this link to compare it with the earlier version. Basically I had to use light colors with lots of white, thus the mountain seems farther than the other elements. I started with a light gray –ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and white– with a bit of magenta and I was adding some ochre for increasing the contrasts.

Also I redid some trunks. I was adding more volume to them. And I also started to paint some branches. I must keep working on the branches and the first and fourth trees. The first tree is different to the others, it has three small trunks (perhaps they are three small trees). And I want to bring the fourth tree, just moving the base. The teacher said we will only define those five or six trees, we will not change the others, so it seems they are farther than the defined trees. I guess I will add more foliage with the magical fan brush.

I must work on the path and the house. I also want to improve the area that divides the grass and the mountain, now it looks like a wall. I will add some contrast there, too. I must add more reflections in the water… and I guess the teacher will suggest more changes. Today he said the island area and the grass look well.

I am starting to enjoy oil painting. I am starting to see the results.

Rembrandt watercolors

Recently I bought some tubes of watercolor. Really I do not need more watercolors, I am happy with my Winsor&Newton Cotman box, but a store had a 3-for-2 promotion in Rembrandt watercolors and I got a good deal. Also I wanted to check out an artists grade watercolors. They are really good pigments that offer beautiful basic colors and combinations. Although I have not used them extensively, the colors are much brighter than the Cotman equivalents. Nevertheless, Cotman is the student grade of Winsor&Newton, I should compare them to the artists grade.

Concerning the colors, I am happy with my current palette although I do not use some colors very often, like the viridian and the sap green, and I never use others, like the white. I was pretty sure on some colors like the Prussian blue and the Payne’s grey. They were not in my palette and I was very interested on them. For the rest of colors I used the Bruce MacEvoy website. If you are interested on watercolor it is a must read. Great detailed descriptions of colors, pigments and palettes.

Finally I was on these colors: raw sienna (234), azo yellow medium (269), rose quinacridone (366), Prussian blue (508) phthalo green (675) and Payne’s grey (708). Some days later I added some new colors to the palette: burnt sienna (411), burnt umber (409), ultramarine deep (506), blue phthalo rouge (583), permanent red deep (371) and permanent yellow lemon (254). The idea is to keep a warm and a cool tone of each basic color and several earth tones. Usually the greens are a combination of a blue and a yellow, sometimes the greens from pigments seem unnatural in the paintings.

Gran Telescopio Canarias

The Gran Telescopio Canarias is a 10.4 m (410 in) reflecting telescope undertaking commissioning observations at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma.^[1] As of 2009, it is the world’s largest single-aperture optical telescope.^[2]

There is a gallery of astronomical images where it can be seeing the kind of images acquired by the telescope. The images are representations in color of the received data. The colors are assigned using different schemes. Usually it depends on the data they want to represent although sometimes they use purely aesthetic criteria.

Roque de los Muchachos

Roque de los Muchachos Observatory is an astronomical observatory located in La Palma. The seeing statistics make it the second best location for astronomy in the Northern Hemisphere, after Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii. The site has some of the premier astronomical facilities in the Northern Hemisphere, including the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias which is the world’s largest single-aperture optical telescope as of July 2009.

My current technical skills for drawing do not allow to show the so-called sea of clouds. Roque de los Muchachos and many other places in the island are above the clouds, thus it is possible seeing the cloud top. At some periods during the day, the clouds show a bluish color and some people mistake them for the sea.

Painting Course – Day 5

I guess I am starting to finish the painting. I could be painting it many days more but surely I would not improve it. I was working on the water. Basically, I used a dark brown for the side nearest to the trees that I was lightning gradually. Then I added the reflections of the trees. The teacher said I only had to add a few of them. I have no idea if we will add the others the next day. It seems incomplete to me. Once I painted the reflections, I blurred them. I also added some touches of dark greens and reds.

Also I work on the island in the foreground. I used the small fan brush like I did the last week. I used cadmium yellow and ochre. It has light colors. I used the same colors for the grass to the left of the trees and the area near to the mountains.

Finally I added the shadows of the trees. It changed drastically the painting. I am happy with this area. I think it is the only area which I am happy (better partially happy). The light goes from left to right, so all the right area has darker tones than the left one.

What’s the next? Really I don’t know. I have not worked on the path neither the house behind the trees. I should work on the trees: they require some branches, now they seem posts. They mountain also needs some work, maybe I will use the magical fan brush.

More litter bins

Perhaps you remember an old post with an Irish litter bin. Litter bins, garbage cans and many other urban elements are good subjects to draw. Usually they have simple forms.

Today I am pretty happy with the results I achieved with the garbage cans. I am happy with the litter bins, too. However, I prefer the garbage cans. Maybe it is because of the bright colors or the own composition.

Brown and blue balconies

More houses in the same avenue in Santa Cruz de la Palma. Those people keep the balconies perfectly clean and tidy. The flowers add a nice contrast. I am not happy with those drawings, probably they look better in the sketchbook.