Trilliums~Fast and Loose

Last year I took several photos of trilliums for reference but never did a thing with them. Instead I went off on another tangent and the images were forgotten. In 2009 Spring came about 6 weeks late and stayed all summer so trilliums were scarce. This year Spring has arrived very early in N. Michigan. The trilliums aren't blooming yet, though. The poor things probably don't know what's going on!

This is more of a study than a finished painting. I wanted to try Kemp's paper prep technique with HP Fabriano w/c paper. Hotpress paper contains a lot more sizing than coldpress so I was able to achieve more detail and definition but it tended to dry out much faster which presented it's own problems. Lesson learned? HP paper needs to be soaked to maintain the same moisture levels as CP. Just brushing water on both sides of HP won't work. The good news...it all depends on the end result you want which paper will work best using Linda Kemp's prep method.

Bassett Hound

SOLD

Here's my bassett hound. The reference photo I used is from the WC RIL, courtesy of Bigs. I'm not sure I'm happy with the background yet. It may require further tweaking. I may change the crop, too. Not sure yet. He's certainly colorful, isn't he? This is also painted on Arches 140# HP w/c paper. The dimensions are still to be determined.

Pomeranian~My First Dog in Watercolor

I used a gorgeous reference image of a pomeranian for this one that I found in the WC RIL, submitted by fancycat. I chose a pomeranian for my first w/c dog because I have a good friend that used to breed them and they're beautiful dogs. Very energetic and smart. I had never seen pups born before and was called to help out when one of my friend's females had her first litter. It was an amazing experience! Judging by the coloring in the photo, I'd say this one would be called a Wolf Sable in the pom world and by the looks of his high brushed 'mane' I'm thinking this must be a show dog.

IMO, dogs are much more difficult to paint than cats. Their noses are more complicated structurally and I found the eyes trickier to get right. I think I should practice just painting canine eyes for awhile before attempting another dog. I used a palette mainly of FUB and burnt sienna. The eyes were another story. They didn't show up well in the reference photo so I had to improvise. I made use of a tutorial on WC to help me make them believable. Getting the color correct was hard. There's even some magenta in them although you'd never know it.

Catnapping I~Digby Takes a Catnap

15" x 11" on 140# Arches HP w/c paper

Having gotten a little tired of painting frogs, I found myself wondering what to paint next. I was going through some of my older photos and found one I had taken of Digby, one of my own cats, taking a power nap on the sofa. I love it when cats feel safe enough around me to sleep belly up. It's a cat's way of demonstrating true trust.


After I decided to use this photo as a reference I was stuck for a palette. I had never painted a white cat before and had no idea what colors to use. Except for the nose, I wound up with mostly cobalt blue deep and DS Moonglow, an old favorite of mine. Actually a white cat could be approached colorwise just like any other white subject because white tends to be very 'colorful' if you really take the time to observe it.


I also tried out my new masque pen and wasn't impressed at all. It tended to blob and even blew bubbles at me out of the tip a few times. Very hard to control the application, too. Maybe there's a knack to it I don't know about.


I do plan to paint this again...maybe several times. I was inspired by Jean Haines's cats(see link to her website on my blog list)and her wet and loose approach complete with blooms and drips.


Note: I have a nice new bottle of acrylic gesso(!)so I'll be playing with that again soon.