Visited Pt. Lobos/Carmel area of California the past few days. What a wonderful spot to see the meeting of land and sea. I worked on a quick gouache sketch painting using Fabriano 'Artistico' cold pressed watercolor block paper (5"x7"). The paper had a strong coating of grey gouache from a previous painting-prep session, so this was nice to work on in the brighter sunlight. I painted thicker than usual and then finished with more watercolor touches and weak glazes. The Asilomar black and white sketch was created quickly using brush markers and a bit of pencil. I would like to take this further as a painting in the studio and work from these notes. I always suggest some kind of warm up thumbnail sketch to get a feel for the subject matter and potential framing before painting.

A small sketch on prepared hot press paper (300lb). Working on a dried wash of grayish paper bag brown, I put down a rapid under drawing with a dip pen and acrylic ink (burnt umber). Very simple palette of white gouache, sepia watercolor, blue gray gouache and black watercolor pigment. I took liberties with the location, not being topographically correct but getting the spirit of the location. Just as a note I used tube colors more than the half pans shown in the photo.

A few more sumi-e brush studies painted on rice paper. The tree study is based on a rapid pen sketch I made while walking on a coastal trail near Pacifica, California. The mountain study is more of calligraphic exercise from imagination. I'm curious to try other unique papers with ink and watercolor.

Recent experiments with sumi-e ink (水墨畫) Chinese & Japanese names (水墨画) brush drawing. Out of complete enthusiasm and ignorance I made up the brush characters in the sketch but enjoyed the process of seeing how you can't work back into the paper and make changes. It is all additive on the mulberry kozo paper (Shoji Gami). My daughter and I made some birds and flowers as well and added watercolor pigments for some color. I recommend that everyone try these materials.
The Asian Art museum in San Francisco has a wonderful collection of treasures including some contemporary sumi-e art work.

Wanted to share some rapid studies from my flat files. Experiments on blue gray and green gray toned paper. In addition the clouds above the water contain several types of opaque whites (Zinc & Chinese White - Titanium, different manufactures, materials, etc.

Venetian study - 3x4 1/4 inches - Gouache & Watercolor w/ dip pen & brush

Clouds over Water - 5x6 inches - Gouache & Watercolor w/ dip pen & brush

Happy New Year!!

Jumping back into it with a gouache and ink study from an oil sketch by Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (Toulouse 1750 - Paris 1819). A remarkable painter and theoretician of Classical Landscapes. He was a major influence on creating the Prix-de-Rome du Paysage Historique... the big prize for landscape painters. Archille Michallon was one of his students and Corot being his student.

His Landscape with Ruins has a Roman setting. I think it's interesting to see nature take over the building forms and dissolve early architectural profiles.

Just to mix things up a bit I'm posting a recent oil on linen painting created this last August on the shores of Connecticut. The day I finished it, Hurricane Earl was roughly coming our way that night, but it ended with a sputter and nothing much. I had to rig an umbrella to my easel as it was starting to rain towards the end of the painting session.

The painting is currently for sale Susan Powell Fine Art - Gallery in Madison, CT.

I've been curious about paper making recently and over the weekend experimented with a hybrid linen cloth & 100% cotton rag watercolor paper blend to form a stronger than average handmade watercolor paper (Am I crazy?). I've contacted several specialized paper companies and wish to learn more about this historical process. Very labor intensive but rewarding to say the least.

On location nature study. Gouache on gray toned paper - 6x9 inches.

After seeing numerous watercolors at the Yale Center for British Art's archives I was inspired to experiment on my break back on the East Coast. Girtin, Turner, R.P. Bonington, Cozens, Gainsborough among others was outstanding to see up close.

Sketch from imagination on prepared Arches MBM Ingres (Michallet) paper with gray wash, gouache, w/c and pen&ink. 5x6 inches.

Getting close to finishing the mini ebook tutorial, thanks for your patience! Here is a recent value study for a stormy cliff composition. Perhaps a French sailing barge grounded with crew looking on, dwarfed by the scale of the crumbling precipice above.

Gouache on gray canson paper, dip pen loaded with diluted watercolor and gouache, touches of pastel pencil. 6x10 inches.

This is an invented high mountain scene starting with light transparent washes and smaller opaque passages in the center rock area. Winsor & Newton extra large full pan watercolors with M.Graham Chinese white was used. 9x12 Montval watercolor block paper and small amounts of sepia pen & ink work added at the end as well.

As promised a few shots from my demo lecture on a recent gouache/watercolor painting.

I am writing a twenty page plus breakdown of the process and it should be informative for those interested in learning more about gouache painting and how to start simply when developing more complex imagery.

I will keep you posted when that is ready in the near future. The tutorial will be available as a PDF for viewing. I am considering a small fee for the time I am putting into it.

Some casual sketches from the back yard and dinner table today. The plate of artichoke petals dissolved away in the evening light. I love springtime. Pencil on smooth moleskin style sketchbook. I will post the previous work in progress photos this Sunday!

Thanks to everyone attending this last weekend's workshop at Kevin Chen's Concept Design Academy in Pasadena, California. What a wonderful group of students and Kevin and his wife Estelle were terrific hosts. I enjoyed the Eaton Canyon location on Sunday's portion of the landscape painting/sketching workshop. Springtime near the base of the mountains provided us with babbling streams and shimmering leaves of sycamore to inspire us in our artwork. I will post some demos and quick sketches from the class soon. Here is the full picture of the painting I promised last week. This was also part of my slide lecture on the process of starting and completing a painting in gouache and watercolor. Later in the week I will show a collection of in-progress stills on this painting.

A small detail from an imaginative gouache and watercolor painting called 'Turner's Valley'. I captured the process with digital photos showing various stages in creating the image. I will go over these in my upcoming workshop next weekend... looking forward to sharing! 9x12 inches - Fabriano Hotpress watercolor block. Small additions of pastel added.

A few spots still open for April 17-18th 2010 Painting workshop!

Upcoming Workshops in beautiful Pasadena, California. At the Concept Design Academy -


Gouache & Watercolor Painting with Erik Tiemens - April 17 -indoor lecture/demo only

Gouache & watercolor Painting with Erik Tiemens- April 17+18 with outdoor painting. Limited spaces.


If you are interested in enrolling contact the Academy at - contact@conceptdesignacad.com


http://www.conceptdesignacad.com 818-669-4657

Rapid watercolor/gouache sketch at the bay's edge. Boatyard with repair cranes and good low tide muck at the waterline to study. Grayish clouds building to a weak storm front. Additions of brush pen marker, dip pen with sepia ink and Caran D'ache water-soluble gray pencil on a Daler-Rowney sketchbook page - 65lb paper.

Pine trees near the Palace of Fine Arts museum in San Francisco. A cold breeze out, but wonderful atmospheric layering of tree groups in the distance. Sepia ink with gouache burnt umber and freshly prepared sumi ink. Exploring metal dip pens and reed pens today.

Rapid limited palette study of a river bank with active water. Hot press paper (not from a block) with an ink sketch painted out on the upper left. 5.5 x 7 inches. My daughter was painting next to me using post-it notes and watercolor.

Greetings Virtual Gouache Land followers, I wanted to let everyone know that I have redesigned my website - Watersketch.com. I will be posting info regarding prints for purchase and upcoming workshops soon. It is still a work in progress but much easier to navigate.

Happy New Year

Link: http://www.watersketch.com/

Tree trunk study from imagination. Ink, gouache, watercolor and small additions of chalk and crayon. 4x8 inches on fabriano cold press paper.

Imaginative landscape study with hunters approaching a lake side castle. Pen and wash with additions of transparent watercolors. I am trying out Winsor & Newton's large pan professional watercolors. Original on cold press Sennelier paper, 4 x 9.5 inches. This ratio is similar to a widescreen movie format like Panavision's 2:35.

Eroded cliff with exposed eucalyptus roots. 10x14", Canson -Montval watercolor paper. Limited palette with additions of red/brown ink, gouache white, light gray and transparent watercolors.

Small ink, watercolor & gouache sketch from life. A grouping of eucalyptus trees with various sapling undergrowth. Fabriano paper.

Large 24"x18" warm up sketch 20mins over abstract transparent doodles. This was a class demo while everyone was warming up. Starting very transparent then mix gouache into the wet washes.

Part III. Color Warm ups and example of sketch to larger color painting.

Gouache & Watercolor class Part II. (two images are from last year's class, the stormy cliff sketches and wide format gouache/wc image.

What a fantastic workshop last weekend up in Mendocino, California. There was 21 students who signed up and I tried to do as many demos as I could muster. We also had several hour sessions to sketch outside and take in nature. The focus of the class was to take these sketches and work on variation from memory in small warm up sketch paintings. Everyone was a good sport when some sprinkles rolled in. Wonderful work by everyone! Various sketches, photos of the area and workshop pictures to share.

Experimental composition with Prussian blue under painting and additions of India ink - pen work. Zinc white gouache was used to build up opaques. This is a hybrid of English and Dutch landscape influences from the 1600's to 1800's. (6x9 inches on Cold press W/C paper)

I will be going over techniques in my class this weekend on how to improve usability of outdoor rapid sketches and employing them in the studio for more elaborate small format paintings that capture complex lighting situations.

To mix things up a bit I wanted to share an oil study I made this summer on the east coast. Pretty small, 5x9 inches or so, linen mounted on wood panel with a middle warm gray ground. Rapid painting on location. I love the lush greens in Connecticut and all of New England for that matter. There was so much rain in June, that this was a rare moment to brave the elements and capture a small slice of nature.