Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Haiku Art - Hungry are the Fish

Haiku Watercolour Painting by Jenny James - Dragonflies Hover Above the Waterlilies Hungry are the Fish
Dragonflies Hover
Above the Waterlilies
Hungry are the Fish
by Jenny James

Who knew I could write poetry? There's a first for everything! My watercolour painting skills are constantly improving, proof that with practice one can achieve anything.

Here's how my page for Pam was created...

Haiku Watercolour Painting by Jenny James - sketchbook image of starting out initial ideas
In the beginning... it always starts with scribbling out ideas on scrap paper then nutting them out in my journal.

Writing a poem with the correct number of syllables was interesting. Once I worked out what I wanted to paint or create (dragonflies and waterlilies) and realised it didn't have to rhyme, it was much easier.

Haiku Watercolour Painting by Jenny James - sketching out the design
It was planned to be a pair of giant gold fish swimming underwater, as viewed if you're also underwater.

Haiku Watercolour Painting by Jenny James - water soluble pencils to start with
Less is more... so I started with water and pencils as I'm always heavy  handed when I use paint. I then waited an eon for it to dry. Well, maybe 10 minutes...

Haiku Watercolour Painting by Jenny James - Winsor and newton water colour sticks
Still trying to be "less is more" but pencils weren't giving me enough paint, so dug out my Winsor & Newton watercolour sticks... I've included this closeup to show the amount of paint used. I love the texture of pencils and sticks!

Haiku Watercolour Painting by Jenny James - waiting for paint to dry
I painted more water onto the page and let it dry again... the second fish decided it didn't want to join us, so that's where the quote is going.

Haiku Watercolour Painting by Jenny James - more layers of paint in blues and greens
"Trust the Mess" ... that's what we're told to do so many times with abstract art and other types of creativity, but its as hard to do as waiting for paint to dry! lol :) Took a couple of hours this time.
This photo is showing what happens when you give up on micro layers and just go for it. Thank goodness its meant to be water hey? At this point, I was happy with the clouds and tiny forest in the background :)

Haiku Watercolour Painting by Jenny James - photo of my workspace
This is my favourite palette! This pic was after adding pink gouache to the petals, brown to the stems and shadows in the water.
Things we take photos of when waiting (again) for paint to dry...!

Haiku Watercolour Painting by Jenny James - work in progress
I really love painting with watercolours... especially when its working! All that's left to do is all the bubbles, the fish's details and other bits and pieces.

Haiku Watercolour Painting by Jenny James - adding details to the fish
Here fishy fishy... a giant goldfish eyeing off the dragonflies above the flowers. The bubbles have white paint pen highlights and brown paint underneath to make them appear round.

Haiku Watercolour Painting by Jenny James - finished picture of dragonflies with giant goldfish among waterlilies
The above pic is my finished painting. Hope you like it Pam :)

Sorry, no progress pics for the dragonflies.... they weren't behaving! Thank goodness the turned out ok... quite happy with the wings.

I used more pencils and dry watercolours to add depth and shadow to everything. The quote is drawn freehand with pale blue pencil then again with black pencil. Then using the blue pencil again, I added extra words to make the dodgy bits look like they were meant to be there (of course they were).

Then the 3 little fishes with their teeny tiny bubbles were drawn in too, just because. The writing is all a bit crooked, but then again, it is underwater! lol

So that's my Haiku Art Page for Pam... Thanks so much everyone for reading my blog post. Hope it makes you smile!

Have a happy creative day!
:)
Jenny

11 comments:

  1. Jenny, I always look forward to seeing what you come up with! Love this scene!

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    1. Thank you so much Lisa :) Its such a privilege to create art for those who appreciate it!

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  2. Wonderful spread as usual Jenny. Love seeing your progress pictures and the media you use. Your Haiku is excellent. Thank you.

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    1. That's fantastic Pam :) I'm so pleased that you like it! I have you and our friends in mind when writing, so its more like chatting to you than explaining a process! Thank you :D

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  3. beautiful work, as usual, Jenny. I really, really love it. ๐Ÿงก๐Ÿ’›๐Ÿ’š๐Ÿ’™๐Ÿ’œ❤️

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  4. Fabulous page Jenny. I love everything about it

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  5. So Beautiful. soo much wonderful feeling in this piece xox

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Thank you so much for popping in to see our lovely journals as they are developing. We love to see your comments.