Cows Coming Home

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Cows Coming Home 10x20. This watercolor was started in my weekly drawing class. It started with a photo of a man leading cows across a meadow. He had chains attached to the cows' necks. My teacher suggested I change him for a boy carrying a stick and perhaps having the cows coming up and over a hill. Of course, I listened. It took quite a while to draw everything. Luckily I was using a good quality watercolor paper as I erased a lot. When finished, I took my drawing to my watercolor class (same teacher). She made suggestions, but I did all the painting, except for some finishing touches in the background and boy. I'm pleased.

Waiting

Waiting 11x15 2010. This watercolor was done in my weekly watercolor class. The assignment: Find a reference photo that has plenty of value stressing darks and lights. Make sure it has a good composition. Then, without any drawing, start to paint with juicy washes. This turned out much better than I had anticipated. And, it was lots of fun.

White Horse

White Horse 12x16 2010

I usually have a good idea of where I want to go with a watercolor and what I want to say. In this particular painting, it was the white horse that spoke to me. I knew I wanted to dramatize him running and I wanted a painting, not a copy of the reference photo. I often start out with the bones of a good painting only to get lost in the middle and end, especially the background and foreground. To this end, I decided to paint this in my weekly watercolor class where my instructor could suggest ways to improve. I'll list a few of her suggestions. (1) To make the white horse stand out, you must make the background darker. The horse and background behind the white one must be dark. (2) Don't make the other horses too important by adding too much detail - in them or their surroundings. (3) In reverse, make the white horse very important. (4) Before you call it done, wait a day or two, then really scrutinize the painting. If something bothers you, it needs fixing. Don't be afraid to "scrub" out, redraw, fix. I'm pleased with the results.

Little Girl

Little Girl 9x9 2010

This portrait was done during the weekly portrait class. I'm including the steps I took in completing this painting.

Reference photo

Little Boy

Little Boy 9x9 2010.

This portrait was done in my portrait class. Except for the background, it is all my drawing and painting. One of these days I will know what to do for a background as each one is different. In the reference, the boy was looking into a fish tank with his reflection showing in the water. He looked as if he was deep in thought wondering how the fish lived and breathed. It was a fun painting to do.

Meal Bonding

"Meal Bonding" 14x20 2010 Arches 140 lb cold press.


This was a fun painting to do -kind of painted itself! I got the reference from WetCanvas image library and modified it some. The hardest part was to keep the stripes separate.

Proud

Proud 12x16 2010.

I found the reference for this watercolor in our local city's website this past Memorial Day. In the photo the girl was missing most of her teeth. I thought about painting her that way, but figured it would draw too much attention to her mouth. The hands were troublesome as the fingers twist around each other while holding the flag. This was a good practice painting. Not only in the subject, but also in the background.

Cutting Out the Dog

Cutting Out the Dog 11x15 2010 Arches Cold Press.

This portrait was done in my portrait class. The painting is entirely my own with the exception of the hands, which my instructor redid. The hardest part of doing a portrait like this is the drawing. I don't trace and since I'm still learning, my instructor did correct the drawing mistakes. Each one I do does gets better. The original portrait had the girl cutting out a piece of black fabric. I thought of paper dolls and my instructor thought of repeating the dog that was on her shirt.

A Big Wave

A Big Wave 7x10 hot press.

For the past month, I've been involved with the WDE (Weekend Drawing Events) on the Wet Canvas site. The object is to create a painting from one of the many photos shown each Friday. Two hours are given to create and results are posted whether the painting is done or not. This week I decided to do the little boy standing in the water. I worked on hot-press paper and was thrilled with the results. It took less than an hour including the drawing.

Narcissus 11x15 2010. When I walked into my watercolor class on Monday, there was this beautiful arrangement of white narcissus arranged in an interesting dark blue container that was resting on a lacy cloth. My teacher told us not to draw and to have fun. We were given a suggestion to paint the dark reddish orange rim of the narcissus centers and immediately put in some New Gamboge. Then came the flowers by painting the negative background. This is a fun way to paint, especially when the flowers are the main interest.

Savannah

Savannah, Watercolor 11x15 2010. This was a quick little painting to do. It was taken from a photo sent by my daughter who lives in Savannah. I liked the way the ships looked in the fog. Every painting seems to be a challenge. I want very much to get more people into my watercolors. I always look for the hardest subjects and this one progressed quickly.

Water Wheel

Water Wheel 11x15 Lana Cold Press 2010. This watercolor was done in my watercolor class from a loose pencil sketch provided by my instructor. The original building drawing was weird as it was not a normal building in perspective. The side and front was all front with the roof shown as is. There was a shed projecting out of the right hand side. I could not get the concept, so I treated the building as a regular style building. The bottom portion of the painting is entirely made up as there was nothing drawn on the sketch. Don't look to closely at the building angles as they are off. Such an error is hard to correct without damaging the rest. But, I liked the bottom portion well enough to keep and show the painting.

New York Memories

New York Memories 11x15 Lana cold-press 2010
I currently take a creative drawing class. In last weeks class we had to create a better composition from a reference photo. I chose the reference landscape shown below. Although I liked the scene, I didn't like its long width. In class, I tried different layouts until I found the one used in the watercolor. This was a fast painting to work on. I tried to keep my palette small using four colors: Winsor Blue, Brown Madder, Sap Green, and Permanent Rose.

Reference photo








Reference photo




New York Memories 11x15 Lana cold-press 2010