Not whole lotta baseball going on.
So, please indulge me.
Here's a simplified lesson on how to paint a Wrigley Field watercolor.
#1 Go to the park and take an AWESOME photo and print it out.
Then lightly draw it on some watercolor paper.
Since this photo has the Wrigley lights, I use a masking fluid to block out where the lights are. Really, "masking fluid" is just expensive rubber cement, and it blocks the paint so the white of the paper will show through later. This stuff will ruin a brush, so either use a real cheap one, or I just use the brush handle.
Then I put in the sky, painting right over the masking fluid (you gotta make sure that stuff is dry before you do this). I use a little Windsor Newton watercolor set - they're under $20 and come with a travel brush and make a fabulous gift if you know any potential artists. That plus this big John Pike palette I've had for 20 years.
There's probably a tool for this, but I peel off the masking fluid by rubbing it off with my finger.
If you look back at that original photo, the crowd part is very dark except for the bottom near the field. So I painted the whole part really dark with some fresh indigo, and then you watch it for a little bit. You can hold the painting up to the light and see the paint drying - the sheen gets softer. Just before it gets all the way dry, I dip the brush in plain water (no paint), and touch it to the paint down at the bottom. The water forces the pigment away, and gives it that nice gradation.
Then I put in the details on the field part.
I'm going to use a splatter technique to fake in the crowd. You generally want to save the splattering for last - once the little dots of color are down, you can't really change that part.
Before splattering, I need to mask where I don't want the splatter to go. You can buy this sticky clear plastic (it's for airbrushing) and cut the mask exactly, but I'd rather be not so perfect. I take a piece of thin layout paper and trace the masking line (the playing field), cut it out and tape it down. Then I just put a couple pieces of paper on the sides.
I use an old toothbrush to splatter by loading the front of the brush with paint and then bending back the bristles and lettin em go. For paint it's titanium white (acrylic) with some water, and then I've found if you just splatter with the primary colors (red, blue, yellow) you'll make it feel like there are the many different colors in a crowd you'd really see.
Take off the mask and poof.
A painting.
You may recall our Guess the Manager contest?
Bud won.
Somewhere in the middle of that contest, I looked at the painting/prize I was offering and thought maybe it wasn't for everybody since it was kind of twisted.
So I offered to do a Wrigley painting if the winner didn't want the other one, and that's what Bud chose.
Bud, this one's in the mail, and thank you again for participating in that contest.
Sorry it took so long but brother, I've been busy.
