The fish WILL get their eyes.....

Water colour class...

First class...sort of like a Rorschach test, a mirror image of a horizon, experimenting with washes, and then adding tree detail and cleaning out the horizon line later...the colours are not my favourite but the effect is sort of cool no?

Second class, again experimenting with washes, and color mixing..can you tell I LOVE bright colours? And yes....the fish will get their eyes...

hmmm....

What I have been doing...My Mother's flowers...

Experimenting with acrylic paint and trying to render my first still life floral with drapery. This started with about 4 attempts in paint (which failed miserably), then it sat on my easel for about 4 solid days as a pencil rendering on oil paper while I toiled and toiled on it trying to get it just right...., thank goodness oil paper is so sturdy or I would have rubbed holes in it with my eraser.... I do love the colors though and I guess not too bad for first attempt... This is my first canvas, for an online class I am taking called organic backgrounds. I love it, though it feels more collage-y and crafty than masterly artist..the techniques are very fun though with layering and layering more stuff one over the other. It is only at stage 2 out of 5..so stay tuned.
This is a pencil drawing of a photo I took of a puppet from Asia that I loved that I pan to use as my focal element on the background above...
This is another canvas from the same class...again stage 2 out of 5...

And here is what I did today...

Here is the photo I was working from, I decided to try something a little more challenging with lots of foreshortening, and a slightly more dramatic pose. I must confess I cheated a bit as I used a few guide lines to help me get the proportions right.

Here is the charcoal outline, cleaned and lightly sprayed.

Then corrected and prepared for the watercolor wash.

The first wash not yet dry as you can see the paper buckling.

Once the watercolour is dry I begin to layer the charcoal, creating light and and dark at which point I can make any corrections that I am able to see. Then, I like to take a nice break and then come back to it, I ALWAYS see something glaring I did not notice, that is in dire need of repair...like this elbow...yikes

Ahhhh... that's better..! I also like to try to look at overall shading values to give it a realistic light dark balance. All done, what do you think?

Here is what I did yesterday..

A little more work with Charcoal and watercolor together...


The photo I chose to work with, I think it is gorgeous..no? I love the hand



First I decided this time to work a bit larger so this one will end up about 3'X4'. So, the first step is to do a rough sketch of the form in charcoal, just lightly, get the form right, then you clean it by gently flopping it with a soft cloth, like dusting, but not rubbing, then set it lightly with a fixative spray.

Then you do a soft wash with a watercolor deepening the shadows and leaving highlights, and then let it dry.
Keep layering the water color progressively getting darker, until you have a contour you like and then let it dry.


Once the work is dry start adding more charcoal lighter and finer first and then finishing with darker accents, remembering to look at shadows.

This is the end result.
What do you think?

Ok, SO YES, I DO have a great big creative fire burning under my behind...

And some more new things...

This is another portrait attempt using the same technique as the last one (layers of watercolour washes), using another B/W portrait from my book, and this is the rendering,I tried to be a little looser in my style and not be so "illustrator" It looks a bit better I think thought I have still made some obvious errors regarding the shape of the face, and it could use a little more work on the high and low lights. It is amazing how obvious things become in a photo or mirror while it is sometimes tough to see when it is right in front of you! I guess it sort of looks like maybe his brother or dad...

This next is what I did in class yesterday, a first attempt at a charcoal sketch with an overlaying wash of water color.

Not bad, though I was working from another piece of artwork while I would prefer a model or photo. After class I went and got some charcoal and some big paper so I can try a few at home this week... *Can't wait*!

I am sure my family will be thrilled...*Any one feel like getting nude?*

...*Just kidding!*

BTW I would really love any critical comments you have as a viewer, or artist, technical or any suggestions and please Be HONEST!! I would love to hear your ideas...besides nice stuff... REALLY!

SO what are YOU working on? Show me!

Some more fiddling with portraits

So this is the portrait I worked from, taken from a book of B/W portraits. Then using the watercolor technique I began in a rougher stage I started to sketch out the face shape and the depressions, and roughly the details, as each layer dried I began to define and redefine the features, mindful of light and dark. Not bad- but not an exact likeness... (I actually think he is cuter...) LOL!

This is a pencil sketch I did of Lily tired and sucking her thumb while watching TV...

*Sweetie pie!*
And these are two more experimental portraits taken from engravings on money, again with no pencil, only a brush...

More to come in a few days!!

A little of this- and a little of that...

A few weeks ago, before the holiday, Torsten (that is my art teacher if you have forgotten) ushered me into the painting room in his 3 room studio, to where a large easel sat, already prepped with a large piece of white paper. He gestured to some brushes and a palette of water color paints. Then he rummaged around in a resource folder and produced some things for me to work from. Then he handed me the brush, and said...PAINT.

*You mean with no pencil sketches first?...gulp*
*With all these other people around to see my flub up*
*Perspire...what if it's a mess...or loos silly...perspire*

I was not prepared to work on the fly, with my usual calculated and planned style being the crutch...plus the entire idea of making something less than perfect...
Well ugh...*Oh goodness get over yourself girl....*. But Torsten continued to further gesticulate and encourage, while of course this all goes on in German just to further complicate matters...

SO this is what I ended up with at the very beginning ...(Can you tell I was looking at Picasso's fawn ink drawings earlier in the day??) and I must say that while all of this intimidated the living H*ll out of me it was actually felt quite nice to be working only with paint...though I am finding that one of my biggest handicpas is loosing the "Illustrator" style to get things to be a bit more real... I'm workin' on it...This is the version of anothe rimage free hand again in paint only, and the same image again below, but with a pencil sketch first and then several paint washes over top.

The secret it seems to me is to make all of your main lines very lightly in a wash and then to build the colour up refining the shapes as you go. At the end the guiding lines are virtually invisible, so if they were a bit off it is no problem. The beauty of water color if you are using good paper it is easy to lift ant excess color off after the fact, even if it has already dried, with a little light pressure (cutips or TAMPONS work well go figure) and some water.
The next is a rendition of one of Torsten's pieces.
This next peice is something have been fooling around with for a while, wanting to experiment with my pen and ink a bit more, using the pen to do some really super fine detail, and then water color and some ink washes for shadow and depth...It was fun to fool around with the different things...it is called "Chronic Pain", and relates directly to my Prolotherapy experience, those having had prolo for chronic pain are the ones taking little ballons up up UP from the mountain and those for whatever reason didn't/couldn't/or wouldn't are decending to I know where not...sort of dark I know, but being free of pain is what enables me to do all of this!!! YAhhoooo!!!

Got some more watercolor portraits to show you tomorrow!! Check back in!!