Watchful Drake Revisited

Those of you who follow this blog and the Watercolor Workshop online will recognize this subject from when I tried to paint it last year. Despite all the wonderful advice I received to make it better, I never felt I resolved the problems enough so scrapped it. I am going to give it another try, only this time paying more attention to the composition and try an underpainting first.

I'll post progress I make as I make it, hopefully will work on this sometime this week.

Self Portrait by an Artist

Just got a call from my granddaughter, Aubrey. She told me she had painted a painting for me of herself. She said she had used one of the brushes I sent her for her birthday to paint this painting.

Our son told me he wasn't even allowed to look at the painting until she was done with it and they were sending it to me. Please note the board with her other artwork on it at her side. She really does enjoy painting and is becoming quite the prolific artist!

Grandma is lovin' this!

Rose Succulent

I finished this painting this morning. Once it was finished, THEN I noticed a few hard edges in the shadows that I don't like but they were done in acrylic ink so there you go...soften the edges in the underpainting before adding the color glazes Susan!

I do like the moonlit glow of the darker colors of this, though. I wonder if I will ever learn enough about this stuff to completely like a painting I have done and not see the oops areas? I guess most artists are still on a learning/evolving path no matter how good they are, that's my story and I'm stickin' with it.

Succulent Rose Grisaille

This grisaille underpainting is from a reference photo provided by the Watercolor Workshop as one of our monthly projects. I told the group when I submitted last month's project painting (the rose in blue vase below) that I had used a purple grisaille-type underpainting to set my values and they expressed interest in that process. So, I remembered to take a photo of the finished underpainting before I started adding the color.

I am glazing on blue-green colors and will post when I have finished. I have three glazes on so far and will probably only add a few more to see what shades of blue green I end up with. As I have added the glazes, some of the hard edges seen here have softened quite a bit, and when I am finished I hope to have something that looks more like the soft-edged succulent rose than a typical thin-edged rose as this appears here in the underpainting.

In the next few days I hope to finish this and post the resulting painting. then, on to the second project for this month!

Vicki's Roses

This is my submission for the Watercolor Workshop project for February where we all paint from one photo. The photo was provided by Vicki Greene and the roses are from her garden. I just loved the vase as it reminded me of the paint color, Prussian Blue, which is a fav of mine. I used my evolving process of doing an underpainting first, using the grisaille method of painting with gray to set the mid tone and darkest shadows first, only I used purple acrylic ink for this as it doesn't lift when glazing over it with watercolor.

I didn't use any masking in this, but set the doily hole edges with the ink first to mark where the holes were and painted them later with the table color. I hope this was not a heritage piece crocheted by one of Vicki's ancestors as I fear I changed the pattern a bit in my rendition!

This was a fun one to do and I so enjoyed getting to paint two paintings this month. This wheelchair and walker business is becoming a real drag, but I am half-way through it all and will continue to take care so as not to re-injure myself and make it take longer to heal. I am also trying to be patient with it all since I feel so small and unworthy in complaining about my situation when I know there is a date I can get up out of this chair...so many others will not be able to do that and I am very empathetic for their struggles.

Davi's Mama - WIP 3

I have this painting to this point, and, after seeing it on the computer monitor I see a few things I need to address. It is always so much more clear to see problems on the PC than in person, holding the painting! I need to reshape her eyes, especially her right eye, with the lower lid scrunching up over the right side of the eyeball more. I also need to add a few more darks to the hair sections.

I will submit this for critique to the WcW group, consider any suggestions here, and take care of what I see myself. Then, this should be done. For once I managed to get the mouth right and she does look like a toothless woman, which was one of the reasons I wanted to paint her photo. My other goal was to get the facial contours to suggest all the wrinkles, instead of just having the darker lines to suggest them. I am pleased so far with that, and with just a little further tweaking I will be finished with that. Another thing I like about this was I managed to show the kindness in this lady's eyes, and I don't want to do anything to detract from that, but I do need to fix that right eye and work on the left one a bit more, too, to make them correct.

Anyone see anything other than what was mentioned above that I need to do with this?

Update

Just a short note here to let you all know I have not limped off into infinity...yet! I did see the orthopedist, who assured me my fracture was a simple one which means it was not displaced and should heal 100 percent...this was good news! He placed my leg in a long-leg immobilizer, which means I can take it off for showers and bedtime if I am careful. After wearing this for a week, I can tell it is working since my leg doesn't feel very good without it, kinda scary even.I am using a walker to do the prescribed partial weightbearing and that is going well.

Tom helped get me and my stuff into the art club Thursday afternoon, which was so enjoyable after not painting for two weeks. I have finished (I think, will await critiques) Davi's Mama, but cannot submit for critiques or here until I can go outside and get a good photo of her to show. I can probably do that today, but we are having two days of dark clouds and rain showers here so I will have to wait for the first sunny days. Be assured I am not complaining about the clouds and rain; living on the desert we always welcome the rain since we get so little of it.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend....

Now I've gone and dunnit!

I'm not sure how much blogging, painting or jewelry-making I will be doing anytime soon as I fell at home Thursday night and cracked the upper part of my lower leg bone where it joins under the knee cap. So, I am wheelchair-bound and awaiting a visit (hopefully early next week) to the orthopedist to see what he wants to do with me. I am in a temporary full leg cast, non-weightbearing and will hope he gives me a brace instead of a cast, but we will see.

What a revolting development! Thankfully, my Tom is far enough along in his recovery that he can become my caregiver and I will become the patient. WE ARE TEAM!

I am hoping to devise a way, once this pain eases a bit, to do some more painting on Davi's Mama but will wait to see what the orthopedist says about further immobilization. Good grief!

Davi's Mama - WIP 4

Here I have darkened some of the darkest values...still not there yet, but trying to go slowly so as not to muddy her up too much. As I work with her, I am reminded of the character Yoda from Star Wars and hope to not venture too far into that realm. But, with her squinting eyes, no teeth and wrinkles I am trying to make her less like him and more like the photo I have of herself.

I have one more photo of the WIP 5 but have to wait until after this weekend to show that and to try to work on her a bit more. This is such a busy week with appointments and art stuff for various organizations that she will have to sit and marinate for awhile before adding more life to her. Her hair needs to be darker in areas as well as her shirt folds more distinct, etc....But, so far I am sticking to my reasons for wanting to paint her interesting visage, and am pleased with her so far.

Davi's Mama - WIP 3

I took this photo of the painting while working on it at the Art Club this afternoon with a different camera and it looks to be in black and white. No...I have not changed my mind, this is being done strictly in sepia watercolor paint. Here I have started defining some of the shadows better as well as the beginnings of the features.

Davi's Mama - WIP 2

Believe it or not, I am not trying to freak you out with this, but this is where I have stopped for now. I see that some of the edges I thought I had softened are still pretty sharp so will have a go at that when I return to the painting. Lots more to do before I get detailed here, like I said earlier, most of her face is in shadow and she has very sharp features to I have to get the shadows right before I start defining the features that are in the shadows.

PS...Please note my handy hint above. Whenever you think you have finished a step just take a photo of it and post it on your blog for all the world to see, because then you will see what is wrong with it. I hate it when that happens!

Davi's Mama

My good buddy, Roch, has once again inspired me to paint from one of his wonderful photos. He and his family recently took a cruise on the Amazon! Rather than go with the ship-guided tours, he and his family chose to explore on their own and found many friendly villagers to guide them to see their ways of life.

When working on portraits, I like minimal lines since I don't like them to show through, but on this wonderfully wrinkled face I felt the need to establish some of the main wrinkles in the drawing. This was a difficult one to get on paper as so much of the face was in shadow so I had to suggest important elements in some places instead of having all the eyes, all the ears, etc. I found this to be more difficult than trying to get them portrayed accurately.  I normally will trace from the photo for portraits since it is so important to get the expression and features correct, but in this case the features did not show through the deep shadows well enough and I ended up drawing most of the facial features, just using tracing to do a few contour lines.


I know that this is difficult to see in this photo, but I will post WIP photos as I dive in and start defining the shadow areas.

This portrait will be done in sepia, monochromatically. I just love that face!

Analogous Oval

To go along with the Watercolor Workshop analogous projects this month, Kathy Nesseth graciously provided one of her paintings to use as a reference. I instantly loved the peacefulness of this scene and managed to paint it during the watercolor session this afternoon at the Art Club. It was fun to do with such a limited palette. I wish I had cut the oval mask a bit more evenly, but ovals are not my specialty!

Thanks to Kathy for providing this inspiring photo to paint from, it is not often that I manage to paint both of the monthly project paintings with this group, I feel like I accomplished something this month.

Latest works

 The January projects for the Watercolor Workshop are all about analogous paintings. Instead of choosing the normal blue as the primary and blue green and blue violet as being the only combination I could think of, I decided to go with warmer colors and do something different.

I checked out what Zoltan Szabo had so say about analogous colors and chose a demo project from one of his books for the mountain scene below, and a simple cherries painting for the other one. I think it is fun to challenge our thinking once in awhile and it

keeps our paintings from being stale by questioning our color choices. I brought two 5x7 boards with w/c paper attached to them and did both of these during the watercolor session at the art club last Thursday. It was fun do finish them in one sitting. I think I need to get back into painting more and doing small studies like these seems to be the way to go.

The social committee at the art club here have a "mini" show coming up where we all will paint little 3x3-inch canvases and have a show. I think I will venture into the world of acrylics for this one. Wish me luck!

Good news!

I think this is the perfect venue to submit this post, above the photo of Aubrey and I painting. Last night we received a call from our youngest son, Ms. Aubrey's father, informing us that we will be grandparents once again! So, I am officially starting the baby prayers again; this time asking for a redheaded little boy since God blessed me so favorably last time with the very redheaded little girl that I asked for!

Be very aware, this will mean a new input of non-watercolor photos once July gets here! Hooray.....

PS...Rhonda, I know you have vowed to stop using exclamation marks on your blog so much, but allow me this one time to jump for joy with those marks?!

Oops - Missed One!

In my earlier post, I stated that no photos were taken of Aubrey and I painting. Well, my son corrected that by sending one today that he had taken with his iPhone. Aubrey was deciding which of the colors to choose for her next strokes. She seems, at this point, to make decisions based on what she wants to paint rather than just playing with the paints. Some of her grandma's paintings look as if she should quit playing and make better decisions! LOL.

At any rate, we sure had fun....

Coyote!

I heard a noise yesterday outside our breakfast nook window and this coyote was searching for rabbit nests under this window. I ran to get my camera and he had moved out to the oleander bushes. He looked to be a very well-fed coyote! Right after I snapped this photo, two larger coyotes jumped out of the oleanders and each of them had one rabbit between the two of their mouths, clamped down. They moved to this guy's left and I couldn't get a shot of them as they left, hooked together by this one poor rabbit. I thought that was such an unusual site to see two coyotes walking, connected by a shared rabbit. I say poor rabbit, but if it had to be their breakfast I certainly hope it was the same rabbit who has been eating my flowers! As you can see by the frost-damaged flowers in the pot, I am not having great luck with plants at this time. I got one photo of my canna's first bloom and then it, too, got frost burned. Such is life in the desert, complete with coyotes feasting in one's back yard!

Mesa de me Padre WIP 4

Well, after sitting untouched for three weeks over the holidays I finally got back to work on this painting. Now that I have taken a photo of it I can see the goofs better. As usual, I had a bad case of ellipse-itis on the pots. I doubt I can do much about that now, at this point, but will ponder it. I really want to do this one well, so maybe I will start over and pay more attention to the drawing this time.

I hesitate over posting this, but as before, I am trying to run an honest blog here and feel I must show the goofs as well as the triumphs, so here it is. I do like some parts of it but when and if I redo it will try to control my pencil while doing the drawing. Grrrrr

Painting, Cookies and Special Memories

 Yesterday was the day! Our son, DIL and granddaughter, Aubrey, spent the day with us and had Aubrey's second of three Christmas celebrations. They will continue on, weather permitting, to New Mexico to be with Aubrey's other grandparents for her third Christmas of the season. It was a special time since, at the age of almost five years, Aubrey is able to fully participate in all of the activities that Grandma had planned, and carry on lively conversations all the while. Here we have Aubrey and her Daddy assembling the desk/easel that Grandpa Tom found for her artwork. It took awhile to put together, but Aubrey pronounced that she "loved it" upon completion, so that was a good thing!

 We baked chocolate chip cookies and we did a super job because they were delicious! I have to say, though, that the sugar rush that resulted (and lasted all day) just about wore poor Grandma out by the end of the day.

No photos were taken of Aubrey and I painting, but we did paint for quite awhile. Grandma's Frig Gallery now has some new pieces of artwork added to the collection. She brought her brushes I sent her with her and pulled them out immediately upon coming into our house and said "let's paint, Grandma"! Later, we did paint and she painted what she said she was going to paint for me....a car and some trees.

For my background-challenged artist buddies you will note that around the trees she actually carefully painted a light blue sky!

Today she wants to make a bracelet for herself and paint some more. What fun this is!

Happy Holidays!

I want to wish all of my blog followers and their loved ones a happy holiday season and the very best of new years. Since 2010 has been such a challenging time for so many of us, if you pray please pray for a healthier, happier and more prosperous new year.

I am thankful for all of my family's blessings, as well as my online friends (many of whom are like family to me) and send prayers for a special 2011 for them all.

May God bless us, one and all.....Susan

Well past my anniversary

I just went back to my very first post on this blog, it was  October 11, 2006. So I am past my fourth anniversary with this blog! Time certainly flies. I look back at my first timid attempts at blogging and am thankful I did not give up back then and stop trying to blog. Soon after starting this blog, we started construction of my art studio onto our house. That was fun revisiting that process, although I doubt I would want to go through that again. Needless to say, the room looked much bigger then than it does now with all of my files (better make that piles!) taking up every available space in here. Sigh. Thankfully, it has French doors leading into it so I can just close the doors and the blinds on the door and my disorganization goes away. That is better than, gasp, cleaning and organizing it or something!

Not much time left before Christmas friends! We are as close to being ready as we care to get for now and will just take things as they come. This is not the year for big celebrations for us; we are just thankful that we are all still here and reasonably healthy and able to enjoy our families and friends. God is good.

Neglected painting

Alas, an entire week has passed and I have done nothing with  this painting. I have had muscle spasms between my shoulder blades and have had a very uncomfortable week. I could not even think of lifting a paint brush so there it is...my painting is sitting with the temporary mat where I left it last Sunday. Maybe I should have tried to paint while under the influence of muscle relaxer meds...they might have loosened my painting style some? LOL

I will be keen to work with it when I can, although in this last few days before Christmas I am sure I will have other noteworthy excuses to offer of why I haven't been able to work on this. I still have plans and inspiration, though!

La mesa de mi padre WIP 3

I decided to digitally crop this to see what I thought; not sure, still. That's the beauty of digital imaging, you can completely destroy the photo but not the painting before you act! I do like the tighter focus of this, though, so the final crop (with the scissors!) will be something similar, I am sure. I have added two more glazes to the stucco here, but didn't wait for the last glaze to dry before shooting the photo, hence the wrinkles in the wet paper. I will add at least one more glaze to the stucco and then start detailing the pots and table. At that point, most of those hard edges will be softened and it will start to come together better. That is my plan, anyway...we all need to have plans!

Sunset

I am mulling it over to crop the la mesa de mi padre WIP before I continue with it so, in the meantime, thought I would share this sunset photo from two nights ago. This is looking toward the west (obviously, it is a sunset photo!) from our neighborhood. I especially love the sunrises at this time of the year here, but this sunset caught my attention as being worthy of a quick photo.

La mesa de mi padre

 This is the sketch and underpainting of my next project. I am using another of Roch's excellent photos for this painting. It is of a portion of his patio, and shows a table hand-made by his father when Roch was a young boy. His father has passed and he cherishes this table, crooked though it is. It sits among a colorful set of Mexican pots and, as his photos usually do, has great light-dark contrasts. I intend to maintain these contrasts as much as I can throughout the painting.

As I have been doing lately, I am working on starting paintings with a purple grisaille underpainting. I want to explore this technique more fully to see how it works for me. So far, so good.

This is the next WIP, which shows the first glaze of color over the masking fluid applied here and there. There will be many more glazes to show the stucco and flagstones as they need to be, as well as the very dark shadows enveloping the pots.

As very often happens I see, now that this is on the computer screen, that I have drawn and painted the table top incorrectly. So, thanks to my trusty Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (MCME) I will attempt to correct this so it reads better. What was I thinking? When it comes to drawing, who knows....it is just wrong!

For those whose Spanish is better than mine, please advise if I have incorrectly titled this...I am trying to say "The Table of my Father"

Top Watercolor Blogs Award!

I received word today that my watercolor blog had been recognized as being among the top watercolor blogs on the Internet! This was by an online graphic design school,  Online Graphic Design Degree. The announcement read as follows:

Dear Susan, 
 
Congratulations! Amanda here, and your blog, Watercolors by Susan Roper, is 
an essential part of our resources! 
 
As a website dedicated to help those consider a career in graphic design, 
we only provide the best information available.  Whether it's a resource 
that explores the art of sketching, or provides inspiration for your next 
painting, we provide them for those seeking to obtain this information. 
This is why we've featured your blog, as it is one of the best to teach our 
readers. 
 
You can see your blog and others at: 
www.onlinegraphicdesigndegree.com/features/painting-watercolor/  

How cool is this? My good friend, Rhonda, announced she had received a similar honor this morning for her great art blog from another online design school, now I see she is considered among the top watercolor blogs for this same online school as the school that recognized my blog. I see other familiar names, also, so I feel I am in exalted company!

Like I said, Cool!

Sunset Ruin - Final

I have taken the suggestions of the Watercolor Workshop group, gathered my courage and finished this on this Thanksgiving Eve. I pondered and pondered, and every time I looked at it I wanted a stronger sky. So, that is what I did. For better or worse, this is finished!

Today, I am smoking a turkey and making dinner rolls to take to my family dinner, so welcomed the chance to sit and paint for awhile.

I want to wish all of my US blogees a wonderful Thanksgiving  holiday, stay warm, safe and enjoy being with friends and family.

Sunset Ruin - WIP 4

Here is the second-to-the-last WIP for this painting. I have submitted it to the Watercolor Workshop for critique and will wait to see what, in addition to what I want to do, should be done to this to finish it. I want to strengthen the sunset mood of the sky, I think I quit too soon on that part, so will work on it. I can't believe I have gotten to paint quite a bit this week. It was so nice to do that!

Sunset Ruin - WIP 3

Just taking another break from this painting so I will show what I have done - not much, just darkening some of the inside of the building, lifting a few more highlights, adding a mountain along the horizon to define that better, etc. I am not getting the golden yellow color I want on the landscape surrounding the ruin so will glaze some color there. I do want to glaze on the reddish shadow side colors over the purple underpainting on the darkest side of the exterior building before I do much more though, that will determine how much more highlights I want up next to the finished outside. I hope that makes better sense than what I just typed!

I am so enjoying my painting time this afternoon. It is a great day, temps in the mid-70's, sunny, cool inside the house and just an overall great day to be painting. If I had the gumption, I would move my painting stuff out onto the patio; but that would seem to waste time I could be painting. So I will be satisfied to stay in my studio and have the doors open. Life is good!

Sunset Ruin - WIP 2

After looking at this photo on the computer screen I am thinking I have a lot of nerve posting something in this stage. However, I do have a plan and will remain true to my commitment to post everything I am working on, warts and all, to this blog.

While I have not been painting on this after last Thursday, I have been studying it and have figured out that I got confused about what was the glowing, crumbling stucco and adobe that we see inside the window and what was in the deep shadows outside, which made the left (our view) of the window look wonky. Okay, it still looks wonky, but it is a ruin, after all! I have not finished deepening the sky where it needs to be, nor defining the horizon line in the few places it is shown, and will finish that soon. I see lots of areas that are not what I want, but hopefully I can work my way out of this corner I have painted my way into.

I still love this reference photo and hope to achieve half of the glow that is photographed so well by Roch.

Sunset Ruin

I am getting a bit gun shy about posting WIPs on my blog since the last few times I have done that I have failed to complete the paintings to my satisfaction (my Iris on Yupo being the last failed painting) so I don't post the completed painting. I may or may not wash that one off and start over, I just never can re-create a painting and like the second version.

Anyway, here is my latest work in progress. The photo that inspired this is from my friend, Roch of NM Jeep Tours. He has access to such wonderful areas of New Mexico and is a great photographer. This ruin has no roof and the light was streaming in at sunset and created such a glow through the window opening that I will try to capture that. This will require more than the two glazes I have applied so far, also some lifting after the glazes are applied.

Additionally, I am trying again to lay in the darkest shadows, etc. first with acrylic ink. That seems to provide a good skeleton for me to start fleshing out a painting. So far, so good. I also will darken the sky as I go along.

Wow!

Twice in one week I feel like winner! My painting of the Giant Argentinean was chosen for the home page for this month of my beloved Watercolor Workshop group! It is such an honor! Forgive my exclamation marks, but I just discovered this after receiving messages of congratulations from the group, so I am truly excited.

Some Days You Lose, and -

- some days you WIN!!!!! A few weeks ago, I entered a blog give-away offered by a blogger I follow every day...Lisa Crone of A Bead a Day. I love her daily blogging because it always contains the latest news of beads and things that everyone is trying now. She was giving away one of her new books on beading and jewelry making, so I entered a comment on that day. As Fate would allow, I was the winner! So, I am now excitedly awaiting the shipment of my great new book. I'll post a review of this when I get it and read it. It is so exciting to have your name drawn above all the others who entered!

Iris on Yupo - WIP 1

This is where I remembered to take a photo so I could share another WIP series. This is a painting that was requested to be "just like" one that had sold at our Oktoberfest sale recently. Well, I hope this person will settle for something "kinda like" since I don't think it is humanly possible to paint an absolute replica of any painting. Maybe I am not disciplined enough, or can't remember what I did to get an effect in a prior painting, but I just know this will have to be similar to the first one.

The second WIP photo I took will not be submitted here since I will wash off what I did in that step. I think I was just enjoying the fellowship so much of our large group of watercolorists yesterday that I let my hand do the painting instead of listening to my head. Since it is Yupo I should be able to correct what I did and do not like. You'll just have to stay tuned to see how that turns out. I'm still lovin' the Yupo.

Nuthatch SWAP Painting

It's swap time again, and I received this charming, cute, sweet, masterfully painted nuthatch from my partner this time, Lenora from West Virginia. Isn't this just great? With my limited knowledge of ornithology, I at first thought it was a bird standing on a log, but Lenora corrected me by saying it was a nuthatch, which run up and down the trees looking for bugs. So, I rotated it to show correctly. This made it even cuter!

My painting arrived to my partner and I received mine, life is good!

Giant Argentinean - Final-ly

This is the same Giant Argentinean that I started last Spring, before Tom got sick. It has sat on my easel, waiting for me to finish it, since then. As often happens when I don't get back to a painting very soon I find that I have lost my enthusiasm for the project when feel guilty enough to try to finish it. That happened here, but I did do as much with it as I care to do and call it finished now.

It is on a full sheet of Yupo and will be framed under glass ASAP.

Maroon Bells - Final

I finished two paintings yesterday afternoon, but for some reason I am not photographing the second one very well so will wait until there is better light outside for that one.

This is from the Maroon Bells area of Colorado. I really played up the maroon colors in this, but another artist saw it yesterday and asked if it was of the Maroon Bells since he had been there and recognized it. That made me feel very good!

This is a combination of acrylic ink, transparent watercolor, gouache, and finally acrylic. It was an experiment so I am not sure I accomplished much after using so many different approaches. At any rate, it is finished!

I haven't worked on this as much as I thought I would but have gotten it this far in two more sessions. I have switched to acrylic paints for this and feel very far out of my comfort zone. I cannot remember doing the darks first and then the lights! Anyway, I will keep putting paint on this, trying to make something happen so I will like it better. It may end up weighing 50 pounds before I toss it but I want to keep trying. I will still push those mountains back more as well as add more pine trees on the mid right side.

Maroon Bells Experiment

Last week I took this whole-sheet painting to my art group and did this loosely organized underpainting of the Maroon Bells area of Colorado. The photo is from Freefoto.com and I loved the composition of it when I first saw it. My plan was to do a transparent watercolor underpainting and then do the detailing with gouache. As I attempted to do the gouache part I just didn't care for the appearance of the dull gouache so yesterday I took the painting outside and gave it a shower with the garden hose, let it dry, and have changed my plan of attack to using acrylics. I have lots of acrylic paint and will take my Stay-Wet palette to my art group this afternoon and see how this goes. If all else fails, I will try something else, I feel like I just HAVE to paint this scene since I like it so much.

Maybe,....gasp, an acrylic on canvas?

Canyon de Chelly

I forgot to stop and take WIP photos of this as I was working on it but here it is in the almost done stage. I will let it dry well before softening some of the edges, lifting a few more highlights and a few more calligraphic lines. Not too much more to be done on this one. What to paint next, I wonder?

Canyon de Chelly WIP 1

This is my underpainting, using acrylic ink to establish my shadows, for my SWAP partner for the upcoming painting swap. I am not revealing for whom this is being painted, I just hope that he/she will like paintings of the Southwest!

We'll see how this grisaille approach works on this one. Life is more fun when you take a few chances? Like I said, we'll see.

Reference photo provided by a Grand Canyon Tour Guide, Marvelous Marvin.

Charcoal Portrait!

Last night was the first Arizona Artists Guild meeting of the "season". As usual, I drove a van load of artists to the event and it was a fun ride. The program demo was by Bill Lundquist, who is a wonderful artist in all media and especially I love his watercolors (big surprise!). We were there early and he was looking for a live model for the demo. I was asked by a program committee member if I would like to sit for the demo. When told I could keep the portrait I said yes. What an honor! All I needed to do was to sit and hold a pose for 2 20-minute sessions during the demo. That turned out to be more uncomfortable than I thought but I am so glad I did this, I love the portrait. He said to choose a facial expression I could keep constant so I chose not to smile. I agree that my countenance does look a bit severe here, but I do think he captured my likeness well in the short time he worked on this.

Bill used a variety of charcoal....powdered, pencil and vine charcoals. In the beginning he wet a large brush, scooped up some powdered charcoal with it and blocked in areas of dark. He then used a hair dryer and used vine charcoal to establish the eyes. I couldn't see any of this process so my friend, Ann, used my camera to do step-by-step photos.



This is after the first 20-minute session, during which I had five minutes to stretch my legs, etc. Interesting!



This is the final portrait after about 45 minutes of work. I love it, even though I do look a bit dour here. But, it was an experience to have my portrait done by such a great artist as Bill.

Now I have to learn how to spray this and with what to preserve it so I can frame it. Cool!

Mittens

I finished (maybe???) this painting of Monument Valley this afternoon while with my art group. We were discussing the naming of paintings and we all felt bereft in this department. I thought, first, of Monument Valley 5since I have painted that many painting of this scene, or something else? I said that since this is of the "Mittens" area maybe it should be Monumental Mittens? Well, this was not accepted so I decided on just Mittens. I am trying to stay mostly loose and impressionistic and think I have done that, but am not sure I am finished. Any thoughts out there?

Monument Valley WIP 2

I spent just a little while laying in some colors to this, couldn't wait to do that! I still have lots of edges to blur and clean up in the background and middle ground, but I'm satisfied so far. I am mainly using quinacridone colors since I love their vibrancy and transparency. As the paint dries on that far left butte I can start to see some of the earlier acrylic shadows emerge through the colors.

Monument Valley WIP

I have been toying with the idea of using some of the acrylic inks to set the values and shadows in a painting before I glaze on color and, after seeing Vicki Green's lovely waterfall painting started in that way, I was convinced I needed to try that.

I used my shadow color ink to do the darkest darks and mid tones and will start adding color next.

PS...I neglected to say that when I arrived at the SCG art studio to start this painting yesterday I realized I had left my reference photo at home. No problem, I thought, as I have looked at so many photos I have taken of Monument Valley that I should be able to start this without the reference photo! Well, after unearthing the photo this morning, I see a few places that will need better modeling shadows so will work on that with the purple ink first and then post again with the second WIP.

Cool Study

By the title of this post I mean cool temperature colors, not cool as in I think it is a cool painting! It is a quick study for the Watercolor Workshop project this month to paint with cool colors. I did it as a quick study while painting with the watercolor group at the art club this past Thursday. I chose clayboard for the ground and seemed to have forgotten that the colors have to be a bit creamier for this ground as it soaks up the pigment more than watercolor paper. All-in-all, not one of my best but it served my purpose well, I did something for the project this month as well as got to paint with my buddies.

I also started an Alaska painting and will keep working on that to see if I can remember how to paint again...it's been too long!

Another One!

Yes, believe it or not, I finished another painting this week. I was in the mood for something that didn't require a lot of detail and was more impressionistic so chose this Yucca grouping for my focus. When I go away from realism I always feels as if it is undone, but I know if I keep futzing with it the result will not be impressionistic; but, rather, poor realism. So, finished I declare this!

I so enjoyed painting with my Thursday afternoon watercolor group today. It had been too long! I find the painting to be so therapeutic for whatever ails one! While I am so pleased with my husband's progress in his rehab after his many health issues this summer, I still find myself needing to have another focus for my own mental health. Painting and jewelry-making does this for me. I created a wrapped cabochon pendant yesterday and that was exhilarating, also. If you would like to see the pendant, click here. So, you see, I am gradually returning to the creative things so dear to me.

What will be next? I am sure the Watercolor Workshop elves are planning what will be our project for the month of September, so I will await that and see if I can't particiapte in the monthly challenges for once.

Complementary Iris

I am posting this finished painting mainly because I want to show I actually finished something during these past three months. While I am not particularly proud of this one, I am glad to have stuck with it and gotten it done during all the stops and starts I had to work on it. I think a few of my creative muses have started returning since I am planning my next painting now...a larger desert landscape.

Anvil Cloud

I've seen photos taken by others of anvil clouds, but could not remember ever seeing one for myself. Well, today was the day. While driving home from some necessary errands, I saw this anvil in the northeastern sky. I pulled into a parking lot and tried to get the best shot of it with no palm trees intruding in the shot. I was curious about what phenomena causes an anvil cloud to form and good ol' Google led me to this explanation:

Anvil clouds, which are mostly ice, form in the upper parts of thunderstorms. They get their anvil shape from the fact that the rising air in thunderstorms expands and spreads out as the air bumps up against the bottom of the stratosphere. You will often see streaks of snow falling out of the edges of anvils. This light snow usually evaporates as it falls through the relatively dry air surrounding the upper part of the thunderstorm.


Cool, huh?

Getting back to normal

As we are slowly emerging from our difficult past few months here, I am realizing how truly blessed I have been to have such a supportive group of online friends who care about our struggles. I received a message from Barb Sailor that contained this little message at the bottom and I thought it particularly pertinent to my thankfulness to my online buddies, so will share it with you.

Have a good Saturday, all!

Got my hubby back!

I am pleased to announce that my husband has returned home after far-too-many days and weeks in hospitals during these difficult past two months. There may not be too many free minutes for artwork for the near future, but at least I will have everything at hand to steal a few hours here and there painting, at home, instead of sitting around hospital rooms. It has been a difficult time, but we are both committed to Tom's making a good recovery and staying away from hospitals!

Complementary Iris - WIP 2

Due to hubby's health issues I have not been able to work on painting much lately, but I managed to paint with my art buddies again yesterday afternoon and made this much progress on this painting. I, obviously, will not make the July 31 deadline for this group project, but I like it well enough to finish it for its own sake (and mine!). Leaving it untouched for over a week does not make for a fast finish, but I enjoy working on it as I can.

Complementary Iris WIP

Due to my husband's two hospitalizations, I have neglected my artwork for quite awhile. I did paint with my buddies Thursday afternoon, though, and started this painting of an iris. This will be my entry into the project files for the Watercolor Workshop this month. We are to paint something using complementary colors, and this photo was one of the projects for last month that I did not participate in, so I thought I would combine both months and use yellow and purple for my two complementary colors.

The cactus painting I started so long ago is nearing completion, but I felt I needed to start something else and work on that while I consider what else needs to be done. I dislike letting paintings sit for so long because I lose my enthusiasm for the project, but it couldn't be helped this time. I will post it when I get it finished.

Why I have been AWOL

I have not been attending to my blogs or e-mail lately, I apologize for that but life keeps intervening. My husband is back in the hospital, and my focus has been on him. He is doing fairly well at this point, and we are hoping he can regain enough strength to come home and stay out of the hospital!

Yesterday, I decided I needed a "mental health" day and I spent two hours painting with my watercolor group at the art club. I truly love my art buddies! It did a world of good for me and I got started on an iris painting. I'll post the WIP when I get a photo of it, or the final if I don't get that done. The good news is that I am painting again!

Quick Note

Hi everyone...this is just a quick note to explain my absence from all Internet/Art related things for quite awhile. Twelve days ago my husband awoke me at an early morning hour having a seizure. While in the emergency room he was noted to be having some serious heart arrhythmia's which necessitated his being placed in the ICU, where he was told he needed a pacemaker. He was transferred to a hospital which performed those procedures and had that done. Complications followed, it was a rough course, but I finally brought him home Wednesday afternoon. This, after 10 days in the ICU.

All of my artwork has been placed on hold while I try to help him deal with all of this during his recuperation. We are handling things as they come and doing fairly well with the impatience of a slow recuperation. I promise to participate more fully ASAP.