Thursday 31 January 2013

Watercolor Iris Demo #2

I am not very far on this as the last 3 days have required me to be gone but I have done a little and wanted to post that as it helps me to stay on track knowing you are waiting for an update! Seems life can get in the way sometimes but the important part is doing a little when you can as it still is then moving forward.
I have spent time with the drawing in some of these areas to know how the pattern actually goes and think I have alot of that figured out now. I have just gently added some of the front veining to just see if I like the way it is looking...I can now do some washes over them and then decide how dark they should go. Hopefully tomorrow and through theh weekend I can get more done. It is hard taking the picture because we are -30 with windchill so let me tell you...I run out the door and take this shot pretty fast! ha!!! Hopefully next time it will be a more intersting looking flower developing.

Sunday 27 January 2013

Iris Watercolor Demo #1

Well I have begun a new painting and thought I would try to document it more carefully than my previous ones...I have it nearly all drawn and have begun to lay in some of the colors that are light in the upper parts. The fall that comes forward is much darker and I will not start it until I have alot of this background area solved. I am not sure of how much time I have to work on it but I thought if I put it out there and you were watching it would force me to find more time and keep painting! ha! Thanks for proding me on!

Friday 25 January 2013

Laughing Girls Watercolor

I have been working on this off and on for some time. I hesitated to show it because it has not worked and it was alot of time and effort but perhaps by showing you I can help you. I have been thinking of this painting for more than 3 years. I had seen some of these mannequins and just wanted to paint them into a painting. I always tell my students to know and have references for what you are going to paint but in this case I did not have that. I attempted to make up much of this and because of that I discovered it did not work like I had hoped. It feels like a wasted month or more but I learned my lesson. ha! Maybe someday the solution will come to me but in the meantime it is going into storage. I should get a close up of the bike reflection for you as it is not easy to spot so will do that and post that as well.

White Daylily #2

I decided to do a similar daylily on stretcher bars but not go as dark for the background and see if I liked it better...I am not spending alot of time on these but still are taking alot of time I guess. ha! But at least with these I allow myself to stop and not over work them. I am going to leave both of these now until the weather warms up before I spray them with fixative and then varnish them. That will really bring out the colors and perhaps they will be similar enough to be companion pieces.
Now I am going to spend a little time getting the studio back in shape and get ready to start something new!

Friday 18 January 2013

White Day Lily Watercolor

I am finishing up some things that I just did not bring to completion this fall. I have one more that is drawn and will try to do it similar to this one so they can be a pair. This is 8x8x1 wrapped arches on stretcher bars. This still has not been varnished and once that is done the colors will be much more vivid. These are sort of fun to work on and just something different for a change.
I am sorry the first one is not very straight and then from the side I do not know how to use a program to block out the background to make it solid...guess that is the next thing I need to learn!