SEA RIBBON - watercolor on illustration board

Sea Ribbon

15" x 22"

watercolor on illustration board

Well, my first painting on illustration board is complete. There are many things I enjoyed in working with this support...

Illustration board is very smooth, and the surface is already prepped to accept wet media such as watercolor. You can use a wet-into-wet technique or a dry into wet, and it also accepts dry on dry. Up to a certain point, if you want to lift color, you can get back to almost pure white. But, be warned that after several attempts to lift color in the same spot, it no longer cooperates so well!

One very tricky thing about this board is that when you lay down the watercolor, it tends to wander from the line you placed it against. Once the color was dry, I had to go back in many places and pull the color back to the boundary lines, hoping it would stay put this time! As well, it is very easy to damage the surface of the board, so you must treat it with care.

A beautiful feature of the Illustration Board is that the colors dry just as you put them on!

With watercolor, the colors dry 30% lighter most of the time, so you always have to be thinking and adjusting for that. With the board, you do not have to worry about it drying lighter at all - and that took a bit of adjusting in my thinking!

This painting is based on a photo I took while in Campbell River, British Columbia, in June of this year. The beaches there are loaded with gorgeous rocks, driftwood - from small pieces to HUGE trees that have been uprooted, and things which have washed up on the shore with the tides. This sea vegetation was so beautifully wound around the rocks that it made the perfect subject for a painting. I have a few other photos I took along the beaches I visited which I may paint this fall.

So - I guess I just admitted that it is fall. Time to reevaluate where I am at and where I am headed as an artist! I have several new things planned for the next few months - but I am just in the planning stages right now. I will let you know more as I have thought things through and begun the new journey's direction.

As always, if you are interested in what Sea Ribbon might be purchased for, either framed or unframed, please contact me: jogiesbrecht@gmail.com

Beaches and Illustration Board

Sea Ribbon - a work in progress

In June, I visited my sister on Vancouver Island. Because I am an early riser, and live in a different time zone, I got up each morning, walked to a near-by cafe, picked up my morning coffee, and headed for the beach. With my camera and journal in my backpack, it was a short 8 block hike before reaching a spot that had a perfect seat - a big driftwood tree. I sat there each morning, watching the ocean, the boats floating past, and taking pictures of house finches and bald eagles. It was such a calming and relaxing experience - I wished I lived close enough to the ocean to do that every day!

I also took lots of pictures of the rocks on this beach. Vancouver Island rocks are so unusual - mostly colored blue or black and white, and many are spotted. It is so amazing just to pick up as many different types/colors of rocks as you are able! You wouldn't believe the variety!

I did pick up some baby sized rocks to bring back so that I could paint them accurately. They had to be tiny, and not many of them, as we are now restricted in how much weight each suitcase can be when flying. Several of my pictures were of this seaweed which wound its way in between the larger rocks, forming a ribbon of yellow. It was so beautiful! I knew it was a painting waiting to be done!

The above photo is this painting, Sea Ribbon, as it now sits on my art table. I am trying a new surface for this watercolor - illustration board. I LOVE the textural effects I can achieve with this board! It works perfectly for my rocks and the sea stuff in between the rocks. BUT it is a challenge as well. Illustration Board is not anything like cold pressed watercolor paper nor canvas. It is ultra smooth - so much so that the paint does not always want to stay where I place it. If you work over an area too much, every under-painted layer lifts off. As well, if you overwork an area, you damage the surface of the board, and then you might as well throw it away.

I have to be careful not to place anything on the surface of the painting - except maybe a dry paper towel where my hand might rest. I put my hand on the painting while it was a bit damp from doing dishes, and the paint lifted onto my hand... lesson learned! However, this same quality can make it easier to lift out whites and highlights.

So - we will see if Sea Ribbon makes it through to completion without ruining the illustration board. It has been fun to work on once I understood its properties. However, understanding and being able to overcome the challenges are 2 different things! I will post this as soon as it is complete.