Mother-Daughter Dinosaur Paint Out

[Fredrix 45]

My daughter and I paint out together, as often as we can. Lately we've been going to Dinosaur World in Polk County, Florida. It is a dinosaur theme park with over 150 life sized dinosaurs in set outside in a natural landscape.

My daughter Leela Siragusa, is professional 3D artist working in environments, specifically for video game art.



This Saltasaurus Dinosaur Family was painted en plein air with Koi watercolors on Montval Watercolor cold press 5.5"X 8.5" by me, Aleada Siragusa



Here I am painting





This is a Saltasurus Leela drew, with pen and ink with an emphasis on the waterfall.


Leela's drawings all were done in ink on Strathmore Sketch paper 3.5"X5"




Here is a photo of Leela drawing.







This dinosaur was drawn by Leela using ink, pastels, and watercolor.





Here is another watercolor I painted on an Arches watercolor block, cold pressed 7"X10"




Leela looked at the opposite side of the path where these small dinosaurs were lurking.



Here is a photo of us both working together at Dinosaur World.
For more pictures and information please visit my Blog

Here is a link to Dinosaur World; there are 3 different parks in the USA.

I would also like to suggest: Gurney Journey by James Gurney the creator of Dinotopia.

"This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums."

Thank you for looking; comments are appreciated.
Aleada Siragusa

Aleada's Website
Aleada's Blog

[Squeaky Swan]

How fun! Nice paintings and drawings!
Squeaky

[acadianartist]

Great work Aleada! I love how saturated your watercolours are - that's one of the challenges I seem to face when working in this medium. Perhaps I am using too much water?

So wonderful that you get to share this with your daugther! Mine has painted with me on occasion, but since she is only 7, I can't get much done. Maybe someday!

[Fredrix 45]

Thank you Squeaky,

It is so much fun to paint dinosaurs in the wild. I'm glad they are behind ropes though, so many big teeth, oh and it's especially fun with working along side Leela.

Chantal,

You made me laugh so when I read she's only 7, yep that would crimp the concentration but it so good to share this time with her, how special this is something she will remember the rest of her life. I hope she will always enjoy painting with you and you can paint out with her all your life.

I like the Koi field set I have but I also have a Windsor Newton set that I also enjoy. I like to start with a wash but also go to a saturated brush with less water, a dry brush, so to speak. I squeeze some of the white tube watercolor paint out on my pallet and it makes the paint more pliable, sort of like an oil paint in that you can go into it and move around the pigment which stays above the paper, it's great for forming tree trunks. I'll post another painting of a tree I did this with using the white soon.

I like painting also with tube watercolors but I packed most of mine for moving; we are in the process of selling our house in Florida and heading west to NM. I have my oil paints on hand, which are my most favorite paint but in theme parks they often would rather you paint with watercolor because of the mess and it's also quick and easy to set up and use.

I'll post some more watercolors here soon. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work also.

I would like to suggest William Turner to you for a watercolor artist that works both lose and detailed, I have a few books about him and study his work often. I will post some information on him and his sketchbooks on my blog soon. He took watercolor and body color which is also called gouache and made them work like oils in one of his sketchbooks, as a precursor to using this new medium, interesting studies he did with this.

I'll post another sketch I did at Dinosaur World later but I'm not near my scanner now.

Aleada Siragusa

Aleada's Website

Aleada's Blog

[Fredrix 45]

The tall necked diono is missing his name sorry but the large one on the right is the Acrocanthosaurus and the one just below it is a juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rex



Here I am drawing from a picnic table outside the museum with the Acrocanthosaurus in the background.

These dinosaur sculptures are located at the first courtyard when you enter Dinosaur World. I drew them while I waited with the dog for Leela and Guy to get out of the new museum. As I mentioned before, they are life sized and very realistic, which of course, you can see in this drawing. Since the sculptures are in the courtyard they are on a mowed lawn with a plain building in the background, I chose not to include this because it would just clutter the design.

Aleada Siragusa

Aleada's Website

Aleada's Blog

[acadianartist]

Thanks for the information Aleada!

Indeed, painting with my daughter is an exercise in patience -- for me!!!

You can find some of my wc sketches here:

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/show...2#post15605592

I hope to get out again soon to take more time to work on some more finished paintings, but I really enjoyed the portability of wc! And though the sketches are rough, they satisfied my need to paint and draw while I was on vacation.

[Fredrix 45]

Yes Chantal, being a Mom is the most important job and it's so rewarding, this I know but it's hard to find the time to get out and paint, so painting on the fly is the best, in the car waiting and the like, just tiny sketches. .

I also like a pen brush coupled with the waterbrush for quick sketches, you know the 2 or 3-5 minute sketches. I'll post some of these in Wet Canvas and on my blog soon.

The thing with watercolors and oils is; I think they compliment each other, they bring information into our painting that improves our abilities in special way that carry over to all our work.

I think it's good to be well versed in different media and techniques. Also mixed media is so good to use with the watercolor, the colored ink pens, water soluble pastels, and the watercolor pencils, and they can bring back a painting that is not quite there yet. That's how oils are; it's going great then it's not, but with oils you can scrape and manipulate the paint. Now with watercolor we can go into the other media and a good thick paper can be scraped a bit for high lights and there's always friskit.
Aleada Siragusa


Aleada's Blog

Aleada's Website

[acadianartist]

Yes, being a mom is a big job! But I've learned that it's healthy for me to take the occasional break and treat myself to a bit of painting on occasion... not as often as I'd like, but it keeps my conscience guilt-free

I really like mixed media too, I like those pen and watercolour sketches a lot. I have a couple of pens in different colours, but right now I am not using them because I fear I will use them too much as a crutch initially. I don't want to fall back on sketching the whole painting, then colouring it in, I want the paint to do the work and the ink to be a supporting player. I think that once I master wc by itself (getting enough saturation, layering without making mud, etc.), then I will add pen drawings.

Yes, oils are more forgiving in a lot of ways, but they certainly have their own challenges! Wet-in-wet was a challenge for me, but I eventually mastered it, so I remain hopeful that I will master wc.

One more question for you: you mention that you like to start with a wash. Do you mean that you wash the whole surface of the paper? Or do you mean several washes to create the main shapes? If so, how do you make sure you keep a little bit of the white of the paper? As you probably noticed from my sketches, I am very fearful of areas touching each other! I don't like it when my colours bleed together because I want to control the paint. As a result, I ended up with a lot of little shapes separated from each other. With more time, I could layer more, but there wasn't much time for this in the quick sketches I did.

All your insights are very helpful, thanks!

[Fredrix 45]

I like to start with the paint light then go darker. I use a dry brush scraped over the surface to give some sparkle. I want to stay away from pencil also unless I need to go in with my tools and save that work. I don't layer too much except I mix certain colors on a limited color pallet I did buy the 24 pan to give me more choices, I like to use several blues at times when Ultramarine just won't do. It's fun to limit and also to expand.

Just one more thing, take a scrap watercolor paper like what you are using to test the saturation and the color mixing and how an over lap will work, this helps so much. Also colors next to each other on the color wheel shouldn't muddy, don't mix them together too much, be more careful toning with opposites, and don't over do, WC doesn't like too much over working.

I like your quick sketches, your on your way, don't be afraid to overlap and use some white, if need be, or really dig in there and saturate the brush to bring out the color later in the painting, I think you are doing great and will get the results you want very soon. Just be happy with your quick sketches, they are lovely. Play to learn even if you destroy something to experiment, this is good and brave.

Oh I know oils has plenty of challenges too, I love them both for different reasons, oils is my favorite for sure.

I agree you need time away from the child and just be you, Oh the demands and the joys of Motherhood

Aleada

[Fredrix 45]

I forgot to mention,I often put two colors on the brush in separate places, one color then turn the brush, another color then stroke, the color just mixes slightly; it's a technique I learned studying Oriental painting. Aleada

[acadianartist]

Thanks again for all the tips Aleada! I like the idea of scraping the dry brush against the paper to get texture for things like tree trunks. Also the two-colour loaded brush is a cool idea!

Indeed, I have found that it was very easy to overwork the surface and ruin the whole thing. Wc requires such delicate hands! But I will fearlessly keep trying. Thanks for your encouraging comments!

[Fredrix 45]

Chantal, you are very welcome. You can see what I did with the two blues on my blue dinosaurs I painted from my photographs I used the two color loaded brush using the blues. I have it posted on the watercolor forum.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1048932

Aleada Siragusa

Aleada's Website

Aleada's Blog