Watercolor Painting - Portrait of Girl Update #2

I am much happier with the background now but still not sure if it is done yet. I am toying with the idea of either making the dots bluer/greener or possibly even iridescent but I need to do some playing on scraps first.

At least I can move onto the portrait again now as I think the color is much nicer and brightens things up again. I used a light wash of the background colors and then dropped in indandethrene blue in areas. It was ok but not as bright as I would like so I then went over the entire top area several times with winsor green. This really helped to brighten and enrich the backgroun color. It also gave a richer color & more depth to the dots.

Abstract Acrylic Demo by Danusha

Last night was the monthly demo at Art Focus and we had a wonderful artist, Deborah Holowka (paints under her Ukrainian name Danusha) do an acrylic abstract painting. Well, I think we are at total opposite ends of the spectrum both in subject matter and technique so it was really cool to watch! Deborah has a great energy and is so full of enthusiasm that it is hard not to be inspired. And here I thought you had to be filled with angst or pent up emotion to paint abstracts...interesting.

She gave a lot of cool tips on how to approach an abstract painting as well as which brushes will fair the best and some of her color choices. She walked us through her layering process up to 4 layers, she usually does around 12 layers, which was really cool to watch. As each layer is added it either hides or brings out the layers underneath which is really cool, and a little terrifying for a control freak like myself. I was comforted by the fact that there is a process and a method to the madness and I even got to try my hand at pouring some paint on the canvas which could become very addictive I think. Of course it is much easier to pour paint all over someone else's painting than my own ;) She does pretty cool work, check it out at her site, Danusha

Watercolor Painting - Portrait of Girl Update

Well this was going along nicely until I decided to darken the top background a little to add a little more depth. Should be fairly straightforward but for some reason when I added a darker wash of my background colors, ugly black dots appeared! Trying to darken it to cover them up made things go from bad to worse and this is the updated of me trying to remove the dark, yucky color that emerged hmmm.

Sooo, I think I will leave this for a bit until I decide what to do about this calamity :) I think I may use some gouache or gesso or possibly even acrylic to cover the black ugly dots on the background but will have to do some experimenting.

Live Demo at Place des Arts - April 5, 2009

It looks like the date for my demo at Place des Arts will be April 5. The staff there have been busy developing a new program called Family Day which is a chance to learn about art in a fun interactive way. The first Family Day was held last weekend which included a tour of the exhibitions that are currently on display with guest artists.

After the tour, there were three drop-in style workshops geared for all ages. This gave everyone the chance to create their own artworks based on what they learned during the tour. Michael Fera (they guy holding the palette & brush in the cartoon) then hosted some interactive art activities. Talk about an afternoon well spent!

I think the format will be similar on April 5 and I am totally excited to see how it all unfolds. It sounds like a great program, what a great idea! Check out their site for future dates and to register for the upcoming Family Days on April 5 and May 10 at http://www.placedesarts.ca/content.asp?chapterID=2&subchapterID=2&pageID=2&portal=1&eventID=84

Watercolor Painting - Portrait of Girl

The flowers have been underpainted and several layers of skin and hair have been built up. The wisps of hair have been lost a little so I will build those up again after the background is completed. I think I will add a darker area to the background near the top so it does not look so flat.

The skin looks a little choppy right now but there are still many layers to be built up so things should even out. No color has been really added to the lips yet so I should start on that soon to judge the rest of the skin values and the flowers will soon get their pinkish red color to brighten things up a bit!

Watercolor Demos from Beginners to Advanced

I just came across this site and though I would share it as it has great short demos that get to the point and provide great info for all levels of painters. Captain Watercolor is shares all his information for free using videos and giving you the reasons for his choices as well as a great view of everything he is doing. He has obvsiously been teaching and painting for many years and it is great to see such well laid out demos so easy to access!

Watercolor Painting - Portrait of Girl

The under painting of the skin has been started and the background has been painted in using winsor lemon and cobalt blue. Many layers have been used to slowly build up the form of the hair, hands and face. Salt was sprinkled on the background for added texture and left to dry thoroughly.

Watercolor Painting - Portrait of Girl

This is a portrait I started of a girl that I just could not resist. I will simplify the shirt stripes to be only white and pink. The flowers are a similar pink as the shirt which should add continuity and keep things simple even though there will be a lot of details added.

I took the photos while she played with a flower necklace and as she danced around her expressions changed so quickly that I think I may have to do a series!

This is the sketch that has been transferred to my stretched watercolor paper using graphite paper.

Watercolor Statue Painting

This is a painting I did recently but just got around to taking photos of it today.

Hanging Art Work in Studio

Over the holidays my hubby and father-in-law set up shelving and a hanging system in my studio for me. I have been waiting for a bit for this to get done but it was so worth the wait!

They installed several shelves in the closet for flat storage of all of my art paper, matts, giclee prints and odds and ends. We moved my drafting table next to the bookshelves so that I could actually store my art supplies in the book shelves rather than having to walk across the room for things and of course having a mountain of stuff on my working surface.

They then installed an aluminum rod that we picked up at a steel manufacturing place and polished it up and screwed it to the wall studs (it looks curved in the photo but it is straight, just my 'photo skills' showing). They then cut little steel mounting hooks and used some heavy duty fishing line to hange the artwork. It looks really cool in real life as the lines are barely visible so they almost appear floating depending on the lighting.

I will take more photos in the near future but just could not wait to show how cool this looks. The whole hanging system cost under $20 I think. Of course I owe my hubby & father-in-law big time ;)

Watercolor Seashells - Completed Still Life

I think this is 'completed' but I will leave it for a bit to be sure. I darkened the upper half of the sand to add a bit of depth, I may darken it more but need to get a break from it to be sure.

I also lifted out some highlights to the shells to provide more contrast and shape. The darks inside the shells were touched up using burnt umber and burnt sienna.

Watercolor Seashells - Update 4

Still more darks have been added using the same colors as previously used just in darker mixes. Still a ways to go!

Watercolor Seashells - Update 3

The shells are really starting to take shape now and the shadows underneath have been painted in to allow me to better judge my dark and lights. I will likely do another layer for the shadows at least near the shells but this gives me a good idea of the darkest darks.

I used a mixture of Winsor Red & Winsor Green for the shadow which gives a really nice velvety dark. The pigments separate a bit which adds texture as well which is nice.

The shells have been painted using many layers of burnt sienna, indian red, french ultramarine blue and sepia in various combinations.

Watercolor Seashells - Update 2

The background is much richer now and I am nearly happy with it. I will add a bit more variation to it once the shells are further developed. I used more french ultramarine, yellow ochre, indian red, burnt sienna and cerulean blue which are then also used to develop the shells.

Watercolor Seashells - Background Update

The background has been roughed in and let dry but I am not happy with it so will add more layers to get it darker. So far I have used cobalt blue, french ultramarine and burnt sienna. I like the texture though and the variations in color that is starting to occur. I used masking fluid around the shells & spattered some in the background so I did not need to worry about working around the edges quickly.