Watercolor Statue Painting - Wicked Winds

This is a painting I have been working on for awhile between the seashells and a few paintings before that. I had to keep taking breaks from it as it was much more detail work than I realized but I am quite happy with it. The layers had to be built up slowly so I jumped around alot working in different areas for variety. I quite like the way the background turned out as well. I had to do several glazes to get a color and texture I was happy with & I think it looks pretty cool and offsets the face nicely :)

Watercolor Painting - Portrait of Girl Completed

I think this painting is complete but as always I need to live with it for a bit to be sure. The top left corner is not really that dark, just a glare from the shade as I was rushing a bit to take the photo.

So many things interfere with painting time, taking photos, getting ready for exhibits, eating, sleeping....I have serious issues!

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 Seashells

I spent the morning playing with some seashells and taking photos of them for a still life painting I am going to start soon. I have an awesome SLR camera that seems to be much smarter than me as I could not get it to focus on all 3 shells at once. I know there is a setting for this but where is it again... so rather than read the manual again I put two photos together.

I liked the angle a bit better of the back shell in the one photo where the focus was crisp on the back shell and softer on the first two shells. Then I grabbed the first two shells from another photo where the spiral was the focus point. I put them together and just loosely touched up the photo to make things a bit smoother.

I bought these shells last year when I was christmas shopping and have been trying to find the time to paint them, whew, just under a year! I was going to do a mix of different shell types but these ones just seemed to fall together so nicely, so maybe a mixture for next time.

Watercolor Column - Completed

Well I think this column is completed but I will have to live with it a bit to be sure. I have to clean up a few of the edges a bit but will wait until I am 100% sure I am done, or at least 99% sure.

It took me much longer than I expected but I am quite happy with the texture created by going it slow and building up the layers lightly to reach the darks.

I am quite happy with the sky color and how smoothly it turned out as I don't usually do large washes so was not sure if it was going to be a fiasco or not! I am still working on a title for this one as well...I will have to mull it over for a bit.

Watercolor Figure Painting - Thief of Hearts

This little cutie may need a few minor touch ups but I need to leave it for awhile to get a bit of distance. The hearts on her panties were crazy to paint as they were so small and wrinkled, I do not know how miniature artists do it! This painting is 11 x 14 so for my old eyes I think I should have gone 16 x 20...next time :)

Watercolor Painting - Pride Updated

I did a few touchups to this painting and I am much happier with it, mainly on the scarf but it really affected how the skin tones appeared to me. I darkened the shadow areas of the scarf more which helped to blend in the fine lines and I think made it look less busy.

The skin tones also appear more subtle due to the darks and I am much happier with it now so I think she is finally done!

Watercolor Painting - Ripples

This is the latest of my watercolor paintings for my exhibit, number 20 out of 38, yay more than half way there! Committing to an exhibit is a sure fire way to get motivated and get painting. It has been a really great way to push myself to also try new ways of looking at things both subject matter wise and technique wise.

This is my second painting with water and while I liked the way the water turned out in the first painting I wanted the water to look different in this one and it definitely does. I also really love her hair, it shines across the room even from the opposite end of my studio which is over 10 feet which is really cool :)