Joshua Elek

Watercolor Paintings

Category: Year 1

  • Surowicz Abandoned: #1

    Surowicz Abandoned: #1

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    This is my finished painting from Rick Surowicz’s podia Abandoned. This podia was another very helpful course for me from Rick Surowicz. My final painting doesn’t have the same sense of disarray that Rick captured in his painting because I focused much too tightly on the house when it came time to paint it in.…

  • Nimisilla Sunset: #4

    Nimisilla Sunset: #4

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    I will do a write up on this later. I painted this last night, and I like it. I’m proud of myself for not going longer than I should have and creating mud on the left.

  • Saturation Notation, Tree Technique, Atmosphere, and Perspective

    Saturation Notation, Tree Technique, Atmosphere, and Perspective

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    There are two big things I’m consistently disappointed in when I look at my landscapes: trees and atmosphere. Today, I set out to practice these. I grabbed some scrap paper (A.K.A. the back of a failed painting). I painted a very simple horizon and sky. The goal here was two-fold: practice painting atmosphere, and give…

  • Nimisilla Plein Air: #1

    Nimisilla Plein Air: #1

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    I went out to the reservoir to paint tonight. I planned on walking a bit out to the peninsula, but this little window into the kayak launch struck my fancy. So I painted it. As I painted, I met a nice woman who has been an art teacher for a long time, she seemed happy…

  • Nimisilla Sunset Recipe

    Nimisilla Sunset Recipe

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    I think a good idea is to think of a painting in terms of a recipe. You need to add the right ingredients at the right time with the right motions in order to get the right end result. With that in mind, I took the lessons I learned from my practice sessions, and tried…

  • Nimisilla Sunset Practice

    Nimisilla Sunset Practice

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    I played with the Nimisilla painting a lot today. I took a bunch of failed paintings, and quartered them on the back with masking tape. In each quadrant I tried a study of the painting to “solve the problems” as Rick Surowicz puts it. But you can’t solve problems until you identify them. Here are…

  • Nimisilla Sunset: #2

    Nimisilla Sunset: #2

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    This is a pre-test for a painting I want to do of a scene in my memory from last week when I went fishing with my friend Babs. Babs and I have been good friends for over 20 years now. That’s a weird thing for me to say because in my mind, I’m not much…

  • Surowicz Rocks: 5.2-5.5

    Surowicz Rocks: 5.2-5.5

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    This is the final version of the painting from Rick Surowicz’s Podia Rocks and Water. I am genuinely proud of this painting, and very happy that I purchased this podia. The lessons I learned here are invaluable, and will easily apply to painting more than just this image. I seriously can’t recommend it enough. This…

  • Surowicz Rocks: 4.23-4.28

    Surowicz Rocks: 4.23-4.28

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    Here are my renditions of exercises 4.23-4.28 from Rick Surowicz’s podia Rocks and Water. There is a surprising amount to discuss regarding these exercises. Pedagogy I love the way Rick laid out these lessons. At first, I played with a full painting by doing value studies. Then, there’s a “wax on, wax off” moment where…

  • Surowicz Rocks: 4.21-4.22

    Surowicz Rocks: 4.21-4.22

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    This is exercises 4.21-4.22 from Rick Surowicz’s Podia Rocks and Water. It strikes me as I type this up that I might need to get Rick’s permission to post these. I’m going to post this, and then ask him-he’s responsive on Facebook. My concern about that is that someone might stumble on these and decide…

  • Surowicz Rocks: 4.12-4.19

    Surowicz Rocks: 4.12-4.19

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    This is an exercise from Rick Surowicz’s Podia Rocks and Water. In these exercises, the top row focuses on mixing warm and cool washes, the bottom focuses on those same color variations, but now the focus is on value. Lessons I learned: Stop Stabbing I didn’t notice until I was doing this that I have…

  • Surowicz Rocks: 4.3-4.10

    Surowicz Rocks: 4.3-4.10

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    Above are the mixing exercises from Rick Surowicz’s Podia Rocks and Water. These exercises are admittedly basic. So much so that I almost skipped them. But, I’m a student. I want to get better. And if I want to improve quickly, I should be a good student. That means I need to trust the pedagogy…

  • Mohican Covered Bridge: #1

    Mohican Covered Bridge: #1

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    It’s absolutely gorgeous out today, so I went to Mohican State Park near Loudenville, and painted the covered bridge. On my way out, as I walked across the bridge, I passed a park ranger, so I gave this to her. It took a lot for me to paint this outside because there were a ton…

  • Surowicz Rocks: 3.4 – 3.5

    Surowicz Rocks: 3.4 – 3.5

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    After discussing a bit about composition and source selection, as well as materials, Rick Surowicz starts the lessons for this course by having you create a value study and a color study. I have never done a value study in watercolor before, I have always done them in pencil, so this was a big lesson…

  • Surowicz Rocks: #1 (Before)

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    I purchased an online workshop offered by Rick Surowicz, whose YouTube channel has been very helpful and inspirational to me as I try to learn to paint. Rick Surowicz’s Podia Rick Surowicz’s YouTube Channe Before I go through the workshop, I decided to give the painting a go, as a pre test. I want to…

  • Mites, mud, and a microscope.

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    I spent a glorious day yesterday outside with my dog Lego. We fished in my inflatable boat. We walked through the woods. She sat while I painted a church. We drove for an hour and a half through Amish country to my favorite camping grounds. And, she lolloped through tall grass as we climbed a…

  • Back in the saddle…

    Back in the saddle…

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    I went out today to fish, but it was really too windy for my boat, so I decided to do some Plein Air painting instead. I drove around looking for something interesting to paint and found this church on a corner in Berlin. I set up my easel on a patch of grass in a…

  • Self Portrait Charcoal: #1

    Self Portrait Charcoal: #1

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    I took two weeks off of painting. During that time, I dedicated time to learning a little bit about drawing. I have no desire to specialize in figure drawing, but I do think I can learn a lot about painting by learning how to draw. There are a few things I learned are important, which…

  • Reilly Method Infographic

    Reilly Method Infographic

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    I have been trying to learn how to draw, and I came across the Reilly Method, which is sort of a middle ground that help go from the Loomis Method to see the Asaro planes. You can Google those terms if they don’t mean anything to you. I really like the Reilly Method, probably because…

  • Drawing Exercises

    Drawing Exercises

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    I am a little over halfway through my two week break from watercolor painting. I keep having to force myself to stay away. I decided to use this time to work on my drawing. I haven’t focused on drawing much largely because I get frustrated by how bad I am. I want to draw from…