Just Sketching

I'm on the hunt for inspiration at the moment. Although we are getting some much needed rain, these grey days are taking the wind out of my sails. I did find the cutest photo of two cats snuggling together on Paint My Photo, posted by Kathleen and I decided to use it for a sketch. Lately I've been using tracing paper in place of drawing paper just in case I like the sketch enough to pursue it further and decide to transfer it to working paper. Tracing paper is cheaper than good drawing paper, it can be drawn on easily enough and holds up to erasing remarkably well plus there's no need to trace my drawing, then turn around and transfer it to my working paper. It saves a step.

The challenge here was to fix an area of the larger cat's face where it meets the head of the kitten. In the photo the eye closest to the viewer is kind of smooshed and distorted so it needed some tweaking. Once again, I'm posting this mostly for my own benefit to see if my changes 'read' correctly.

Lily-of-the-Valley Commission~watercolor on gesso

I've finally completed this commission and will send it on to it's new home soon. I spent most of my time battling the effects of humidity. I've found nothing behaves normally when the dewpoint is way up. The gesso fought me because it refused to get to the 'sticky' stage where all the neat textures appear and my paper buckled repeatedly. Nothing that couldn't be dealt with, tho. My customer is happy and that's what counts.

Syd 2

My work area is currently covered in work that has buckled because of the unusually high humidity we've been experiencing. Everything is weighted down under glass and books to keep it flat until this weather passes so I decided to add a background to my Sydney Revisited painting while I wait. Of course once my brush was wet I felt the need to tweak Syd, something I don't recommend when doing a loose style watercolor painting. I don't think I did too much damage but some of the spontaneity was lost. My mantra for loose style paintings: "get in, get out and don't go back unless you absolutely have to".

Art vs Oil Spill: Artful Products at Zazzle for Save the Gulf-Wild Life Rescue

Paul Jackson has offered artists a way to do something about the Gulf of Mexico. He has set up a Zazzle store where you can buy products with the proceeds going to the Wildlife rescue. Here's a link to the online store, there are 18 new products in just the first day, so please take a look. Zazzle store link

This online Zazzle store features a collection of artwork donated by artists around the world specifically to benefit wildlife rescue operations along the Gulf Coast in the wake of the BP oil spill disaster. Proceeds from your purchase will benefit an organization that is all volunteer and they will use the funds where they can do the most good. The name of the organization is Wildlife @Rehabilitation & Nature Preservation Society, Inc. or WRANPS. TIN is 64-0701440. They were formed in 1983 and are a 501(c)3. Their info can be verified on Guidestar, the official website that monitors US Non-Profits. They are also registered with the Secretary of State of MS as a Charity. Their address is P O Box 209; Long Beach, MS 39560. Please feel free to donate to them directly! Make checks payable to Wildlife Rehabilitation & Nature Preservation Society, Inc. or WRANPS. P O Box 209; Long Beach, MS 39560. (in the note/subject line of your check, please include "art vs oil spill") Attn: Jan Dubuisson Thank you for all that you can do to help!!

Lily-of-the-Valley~Revisited 1

I had planned to redo my painting, Lily-of-the-Valley and as luck would have it someone contacted me recently to do another version as a commission so I've been playing around with the theme. This is not the final but I liked the antique look well enough to post it. It reminds me of an old botanical. This is also on gessoed paper.

Sydney Revisited

I'm currently working on a commission on gessoed paper. The humidity level here has been unusually high lately and the gesso seems like it's taking forever to dry. It's like waiting for grass to grow.}:( In the meantime I felt the need to paint something so I used another of Kali's photos to paint Sydney, this time strickly watercolor...no pastel. This painting came together very fast and I found a new favorite color...DS Perylene Violet. So far I haven't met a Perylene I didn't like. It's possible to get a full range of values from them and they are great mixers as well.


p.s. I think Syd needs a background of some sort. Maybe just a few splatters.......

Sydney~Completed

As it happened, this turned into more of a pastel piece with a watercolor underpainting than a watercolor with a bit of pastel. I'm glad I was working on HP paper and was pleased it took the pastel so well. The background color was decided for me when my masking fluid decided to stain my paper. }:( I've never seen it do that before. Ummmm....anyway, I've sent an image to my niece for her approval. I'd love to paint Sydney again, this time with just watercolor and probably not in this particular pose.

Sydney~WIP 2

I've been working on this portrait for three solid days now. Unfortunately, my first attempt ended in failure. I was well into the painting when I realized my subject was too small for the size of the format. I've never pulled that stunt before and hope to never have it happen again. Thank God for my scanner and it's ability to enlarge drawings. What a time saver.

Yesterday I realized I wasn't happy with the fur. A Golden's fur tends to have lots of wispy waves and it just wasn't happening for me with the paint so I got out my pastels again. The nice thing about adding soft pastels to a watercolor...you can go back in over the pastel with the paint to bring back that vibrancy if things are begining to look a little dull. I'll probably have some colored pencil in this before it's over.

Establishing Color & Values with Pastel

Colorful, isn't she?

Here I've greyscaled my pastel to double check the values. Notice the arrow I've drawn to indicate my light source. Ummm...the center top of the head looks too dark. Needs tweaking.

I originally planned to print out a copy of my sketch onto cardstock and use pencil and charcoal to determine placement of the appropriate values for Sydney's portrait. Then I had the brilliant idea to get out my soft pastels and experiment with those instead. I had forgotten how messy soft pastels are and how fun they are to work with.:) Cardstock is not a good support for soft pastels and I struggled to not wipe them completely off the surface when I tried to blend them. I did the best I could but wound up digitally enhancing my results to get the color saturation I wanted.

Sydney the Golden Retriever~WIP

From looking at the other photos of Sydney I noticed her eyes were quite large so I increased the size here which also worked to lessen the distortion. I enlarged the width of the top of her head, too. I also fixed the flash bulb eyes. Now to sort out the light source.

My working reference photo

My niece Kali's Golden Retriever, Sydney recently passed away quite unexpectedly and she requested a portrait. She had some nice large file photos of Sydney for me to reference which will help greatly. She also hoped I could paint Sydney with her mouth open which apparently was her normal expression. We had a Golden when the kids were little and he always had his mouth open in a perpetual goofy grin so it must be a Golden 'thing'. Kali provided me with one shot of her dog with her mouth open but the camera distortion wasn't going to make a nice portrait IMO so I'm sorting that problem out first. The photo was taken fairly close to the dog's face making the nose look too large, the eyes and head too small. It was also taken indoors with a flash so I'd like to change the light source. I don't want to lose the angle of the shot completely, just lessen it a bit.

This is a very rough sketch and I'm posting it mainly for my own purposes. I can spot things on screen I often miss IRL.

Crabby Cat Birthday

Crabby Cat first appeared this past Christmas and I thought it would be fun to bring him back for another holiday, this time a more personal day. I adore cats with lots of 'catitude' so when I saw Mefisto, a Maine Coon owned by MaLu on Paint My Photo I was inspired to create a birthday card. I'd like to extend my apologies to Mefisto for turning him into a Persian and adding the party elements. Mefisto is a gorgeous black & white Maine Coon with loads of attitude and I just couldn't resist.

I used the same method to create C C Birthday as I did C C Xmas. I drew my outline onto tracing paper, transferred the image onto card stock, scanned it and then printed it directly onto 140# HP watercolor paper. I went over the outline with a 05 Micron pen, then added the color using a combination of Prismacolor CP's and watercolor and I will be turning this into notecards again. I did learn one lesson from C C Xmas...I drew in my own text this time because I was not happy with the way the text printed out that I added using my photo editor.

Life

Tulip 'New Design' macro shot.

I planted the New Design tulips below my pink weeping cherry tree because they bloom at the same time and match the blossoms and newly emerging pale green leaves of the tree. Clever of me...huh? ;)

My weeping cherry blossoms in their prime.

Just when I was at my lowest today look what I found...a morel! It was growing in one of my flower beds. This is a first and it was certainly a morale booster. (pun intended)

I've recently let life get in my way rather than go with the flow and my creativity has suffered partially because of my choices. For instance, this time of year I'm usually complaining about Spring cleaning the house but this year my gardens have gotten the better of me. The past few years I haven't been as diligent as I should've about clearing grass out of my flower beds. This year I'm reaping the rewards(?) of that oversight and frankly I'm feeling overwhelmed at the moment. Why does grass grow so well where it shouldn't and never where it should?! It also occurred to me today as I was tearing up clump after clump of grass how short a time it would take to undo all the blood, sweat and years I've spent creating these beds. Mother Nature could turn my usually well manicured flower gardens into a wild meadow without breaking a nail. On the bright side, I managed to get some nice photos to share.

Batik Tulips~Completed

Ta Da! It's finally done. Last night I removed all the tape and finished the centers of the tulips. Today I looked at it and thought I could've done a better job on the tulip in the lower left corner so I retaped a few areas and applied another light wash. I got some very nice bleeds on the tulip and the background and thoroughly enjoyed this process. I would definitely try this again. It's a bit tedious applying the tape but more fun than a chore. Kudos to Sandy Maudlin for creating this technique.

Batik Tulips~Update 2

Here I've applied my dark wash over everything. I used Indigo as a base color. I added some Phthalo green in a few areas, perm. yellow in others to get a mix of warm and cool.

Everything is now covered in masking tape. This process was actually fun! Kinda like putting a jigsaw puzzle together.

I masked off some leaves and one bud and here I've removed the tape from those areas so I can put even more tape on.

I had hopes of completing this today but it seems like it's taking forever to dry. The tape as well as the paper has absorbed a lot of moisture and it's a bit humid here today so I'll just have to wait...but it's hard. I'm dying to start tearing off tape to see what's underneath.

Batik Tulips~1st Update

I'd call this the ugly stage. Every painting seems to go through at least one. I've added color and now I'm beginning to add more tape. Then more color, more tape and so on. It's my understanding that before it's completed the entire piece of paper will be covered in masking tape. I will reiterate...I have no idea what I'm doing. I'll add that I also have no idea what my end result will be. I think it's going to be like opening a present on Xmas morning...a nice surprise or a big letdown. I'm still excited to what happens either way.

Batik Tulips~WIP

This is as far as I got before the big 'boom' and the flames. I used artist's tape to mask the areas I wish to keep white in hopes it will not allow any bleed as I add the next layers of color. I will be switching to a regular brand of masking tape to complete the painting. Bleeds will be desirable now. Just a note: I really have no idea what I'm doing yet. This should be interesting.

My working drawing.

Here I ramped up the contrast in my photo editor and greyscaled the image to get a better handle on the values.

This is a crop of a photo submitted by Lorenz on Paint My Photo. I cropped it quite a bit to create a macro.

I've been so impressed by Sandy Maudlin's masking tape batik watercolor paintings I decided to try my hand at it. See Sandy's batik poppy Here and the work of some of her students Here.

I chose to try tulips as my first subjects. Fairly simple shapes to contend with. For my reference I'm using a photo submitted by Lorenz on Paint My Photo, a site I found and joined through Facebook where photographers and artists share their work without worries of copyright violation. I haven't gotten very far yet as my hair dryer decided to burst into flames when I was drying the first wash so until I replace it, it'll be slow going.

Peaches Strikes A Pose

"Be sure to get my good side!" What a diva.

What a ham. *eyeroll*

She suddenly notices me!

Not ready for her head shot yet.

I recently visited a friend of mine that raises laying hens in her backyard. I was excited to hopefully get some photos of her chickens for a future painting, however most did not want to cooperate. One exception was Peaches, an Isa Brown. I went right into the pen and sat on the ground, camera in hand hoping for a few good shots. Once Peaches noticed I was focusing on her I swear she began posing for me. I'd bring the camera up for the shot, Peaches would position herself and freeze in place until I took the photo. Then she would go about her business until I brought the camera up again. As a model she was very professional.

Hollyhocks~Completed

Actually this was more of an experiment in color or lack thereof than a serious floral. I still can't decide if I like it or not so I'll be putting it away for awhile. Someday I'll get it back out and either love it or wonder what the heck I was thinking at the time. I did add a little Cad. yellow light to the centers of the flowers. That orange was much too jarring all by itself, IMO.

Review~Cirrus Floating Picture Frame~Update

Pond Life I
watercolor on matboard
11" x 14" frame

Pond Life II
watercolor on matboard
8" x 10" frame

Pond Life III
watercolor on matboard
8" x 10" frame

I've just completed framing three paintings using the Cirrus floating frame system. See my initial review here. I really like the glass for these smaller frames. The extra weight isn't an issue at this size and I'm always so nervous when working with Plexi for fear I will inadvertently scratch it. Glass also doesn't collect static as much (cat hair is a major problem at my house).

I see Framatic has corrected their instructions regarding the adhesive tabs. Unfortunately the adhesive provided was not strong enough to support even a small piece (7" x 9") of 3/16" matboard. I'm not quite sure if it was the weight or the paper on the back surface of the matboard that was the problem. Either way it's of concern so I chose to use another adhesive I had on hand. For larger pieces I wouldn't bother with the tabs at all and instead use acid free foamcore in the traditional way.

July 6, 2010~Update: Framatic no longer produces the bronze floating frames which I show in the above images. The only colors now available are silver and black.

Hollyhock~Update 2

This will be my final update until the painting is completed. As you can see, I've gotten the buds finished on the right stem and have started working on the last blooms and leaves on the left. I've also been adjusting values and will probably continue to do so as I go along. Still not sure if I like this or not but it's growing on me(no pun intended).