The New York skyline and the port of Hamburg adorn the 11th edition of the watercolour postcard boxes. Watercolourist Marina Abramova painted both motifs exclusively for the small metal boxes. They are now available for one year – in limited quantities. So get yours quickly as the boxes have become collector’s items.
Each box contains 30 postcards with a printed address field on the back. The front invites you to paint – on a matt surface structure or on a rather rough artist’s paper, as desired. To distinguish the qualities, artist Marina Abramova has painted two urban motifs for the boxes. Here she explains why she finds technical, urban watercolour motifs so exciting – in a step-by-step article on the creation of the 11th edition of our Watercolour Postcard Boxes.
“For the brandnew metal boxes, I chose motifs from New York and the port of Hamburg, because I like technology, city life and modern architecture even in paintings. They are not the classics like flowers or idyllic landscapes. Urban motifs or painting in cities is totally en vogue and the subjects have a lot of potential for watercolourists.
But now to the creation of the pictures: As always, I start with a pencil drawing. I chose the matte postcards for the watercolor of the port of Hamburg. On the smooth paper, detailed paintings are possible, e.g. the letters at the “Dock Elbe 17”. The rough paper for New York has more “character”. It fits well to show surface structures, e.g. the surface of the bridge. Even the house, which is only painted with one colour, does not look boring. It works through the rough surface of the paper.
For both pictures I have chosen two complementary colours – violet1 and yellow2. The motifs should be created in an evening mood and so I opted for these colours. I use the watercolor paints litested below from Schmincke and da Vinci brushes.
In the second step the sky and the water had been applied on the wet paper. At the harbour I immediately covered the entire sheet with paint3, but at New York I first started with the sky and then, in a second step, painted the water. Because in the water the mirroring of the bridge is also created and this is easier in two stages. The moon is covered with masking fluid.
The third step is houses, bridge, harbour constructions and waves4. I use violet and yellow plus orange and turquoise5, blue6, so that the picture has a ‘play of colours’ in it. With red7 colour some accents are set. I spared the windows out and by the yellow of the background they light up immediately.
At the end the small details had been added with a small pointed brush8. Then I remove the masking fluid and put my signature under both works. I love the boxes and I`m proud to have my paintings on the cover.”
List of art supplies used by Schmincke paints and da Vinci art brushes:
1Violet: quinacridone purple 472, manganese violet 473 und perylene violet 371
2Yellow: indian yellow 220, cadmium yellow light 224, cadmium yellow lemon 223
3Series 5580 No. 10, COSMOTOP-SPIN Water colour brush, round
4Series 5580 No. 6, COSMOTOP-SPIN Water colour brush, round
5Turquoise: cobalt turquoise 509
6Blue: ultramarine finest 494, cobalt cerulean 499,
7Red: cadmium red medium 347
8Series 5519 No. 5, Liner brush
Interesting blog!
Your watercolour papar is great!