Oyster farms

I mentioned in an earlier post that I would be taking a watercolour class soon. I'm now part-way through the seven week class.

During the last fortnight or so I have settled on a theme, which is posts in water with a one point perspective (vanishing to a point on the horizon). That developed from, firstly, putting fencelines in landscapes, and then the posts in the water that I saw on a bike ride.

It is also inspired by oyster farms, something I have only seen in pictures. I think oyster farms (like the ones on the Hawkesbury) look really cool. I'd love to do a tour of an oyster farm and perhaps one day I will.

I looked up 'oyster farm tours' and (unsurprisingly) they are very foodie-focused, which doesn't do me much good because at some point in time I became allergic to oysters (I used to really like them, natural with a nice vinaigrette). I'd like to just cruise around an oyster farm in a boat and take photos.

This photo shows today's effort. It's the best one so far. I used indigo and sepia to make the grey. In future attempts I will see how it looks letting those two colours come out more individually. And I suppose I should try some different colour combinations too. I'm looking forward to using up my indigo and sepia so I can restock in a professional quality paint (these are Winsor and Newton Cotman).

The dry brushing I did for the water is one of those things I thought was a bit crap when I first did it, but looking at the painting now, I think I have done a decent job. I'm still unsure which is the best brush to use for dry brushing.

And you can see near the top of the left-most post that I did not wait for the coastline to dry before adding the post, and then I dabbed at the bleed. Oops. That's now a feature.