Orange County Convention Center, Orlando Florida part 2

I posted some of these paintings in Orange county convention center part 1. These were done in my spare time at a conference I attended during graduate school. In the bird painting, it looks like a heron or similar bird is perched on a post near one of the artificial ponds they had set up around the convention center. The sky was done using cerulean blue and you can see the granulation, because the paper is bumpy the pigment of this paint settles into the grooves creating a patchy effect. For skies this is not desirable in my opinion because skies are perfectly smooth, but many artists like to use this colour. It was the only cyan I had, these days I mostly use phthalo blue in the yellow or red shade. I like the reflection in the water, and the triangular shapes created by the grass embankment. 5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 2001

 

This was an attraction called Wonderworks in Orlando meant to resemble a house that had blown away in a tornado. It even had creaking sounds to make it sound like it was crumbling. You could actually go in and it was all upside down although I stayed outside and painted it as my friends went inside. It was tough to paint since I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking at!  5 x 7" cold press, watercolour, 2001

 

Back at the convention center, this was a palm tree at sunset, all in purples and greys. Most colour is gone when the sun goes down but greens are more visible to the eye, something I learned on MacEvoy's handprint page. It is interesting that I depicted the greens here in the weeds and the fronds of the palm tree while everything is muted pastel. Just by observing things you can capture realistic looking detail. To make the pastel tones I was mixing the cerulean blue with rose madder genuine, and adjusting with aureolin yellow and alizarin crimson. All four of the paints are gone now from my palette for various reasons, but you can really see how great they were for capturing half tones and pastels. 5 x 8" cold press, watercolour, 2001