First Painting of the En Plein Aire Season

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Seattle.   So this was our first chance at painting outdoors for this season.  It was 74 degrees which is very temperate for this time of year.   In Tom's class we were looking for a simple scene and trying to capture the quality of light and long shadows.  I learned something extra.  How to paint in cars using negative painting as well as  finding the shadows and shade side of the car.

Study on Soft Edges in Watercolor

I am taking a watercolor class this spring with Tom Hoffman.  Yesterday we studied how far you can go with soft edges in paintings.  Here is a watercolor done from a photograph of Hawaii.  

The intention of this study was to do a painting all in soft edges to find out what places may need hard edges or if any hard edges are needed at all!  I worked in clear water on both sides of the paper before I started to apply paint strokes with a broad brush.