Grandkids picture (4th try)

I worked on several pictures of the grandkids these past few weeks to use as a gift. This is the one I finally finished and gave away. The picture was taken in a pretty dark place at night, so the color isn't as true. I do think it captures the kids character. (Hard to paint someone you know so well)

Kids in hats

These are my grandkids - It's one of four I worked on of them recently. I'm not sure I'm finished with it, but here it is for now. The kids were wearing oversized John Deere hats at a tractor event.

Fall still life

Dillsburg group - I loved the Fall colors in this.

Roses in a pot (I sure know how to glamorize titles :-))

Dillsburg group - I liked the colors in the pot and wanted to try the challenge of roses. I was happy with the casualness of the roses - I was concerned about overworking them.

Pears and glass jar

Another Dillsburg group - fun with glass and pears.

Quick sketches

This was a quick sketch in my Dillsburg group - I do like to paint cans.

This was done with my Brushetts friends this Friday. I used my little travel paint set and wasn't happy that there was no orange that I liked. I may go back to it using my regular patette.

Mechanicsburg Member's show

Since this blog is supposed to be about my watercolor "journey", I guess I should mention that I actually put a few pieces in the Mechanicsburg Art Center's Member's show last week and won first place for my one of The Tavern Keeper and third place for my picture of Dylan and Harley. Very nice to have the recognition.

Yep, That's me - feeling weird about the attention and having a worse than usual hair day.

Dillsburg Watercolor Group 10/28/13

Love that paint can. It's fun to see how the reflection works with different objects nearby.

 Another 5 min. quickie - radishes. I work a bit to "wet" for this type of sketchbook. I need to find one with heavier paper.

Girl from Mozambique

I'm creating some publicity materials for a project my church does to help girls go to secondary school in Mozambique. I painted this from one of the photos I was given of girls who've been involved in the project. Loved her skin color.

Something "architectural"

50 cents if you can figure out what this is...Didn't think so.  A group that I met with at Carlisle Arts and Learning Center a few weeks ago had given the assignment to create something "architectural". After a few lousy attempts at sketching an abandoned house I'd photographed on a recent trip, I zeroed in on a teeny little part of it. (upper left corner) Took some liberties with the color.

5 min sketches

Just some 5 min sketches in Jeannies' group

Dillsburg WC Session 2

I found this paint bucket at the hardware store when I was on my way to class. Couldn't resist.

Dillsburg Watercolor Group Session 1

Our watercolor group has moved to the basement of the Historic Monaghan Church. We're hoping to be part of an Arts Center in Dillsburg that will use the Church as it's space.

I only had about 45 min. to paint this session because I was helping to set up and organize things. I did work on the background later, though.

Robert Hagenbuch

I finally finished the picture of Mark's brother.

Last Jeanne class (for a while)

I got these flowers from a lady at church on Sunday and they were almost dead by Monday. It's amazing how the act of painting them can bring them to life :-)

Framed it and gave it away...

Linda Lemmon wanted this, so I matted and framed it simply - gave it to her as thanks for hosting Louise and me last week.

More "wildflowers"

Here's another of some roadside flowers.

Progress, but not done...

Some progress on this one...

Working on this

I've really had trouble getting motivated lately, so I figured if I post this portrait in progress - it might shame me into finishing it :-) I've had difficulty with parts of it and have had to lift out paint and repaint...frustrating.

Jeanne's class 7/1/13

This is a larger piece that I did in class this week. I stopped along the road on the way to the Art Center and picked some wild daylilies. My aim was to show the movement of the flowers as they normally grow - reaching toward the sun.

Sketchbook

Here a few paintings from a sketchbook I started. The first one was a quick sketch from a friend's photo. The second was from a scene in Jeanne's class. The third was from a weird angle (underneath) of a lavender drying rack (Jeanne's class). These are actually pretty small (9" x 6")

Framing makes a difference.

It was fun to see one of my watercolor sketches from class framed and on the wall at one of my new friend's house. (Margaret is always so supportive of my work in Jeanne's classes.) She did a great job of framing it. I haven't framed much of my work yet and am always amazed at how different it makes a piece feel.

Antique Slot Machines

A few weeks ago, Jeanne's class decided to meet at the house of one of our class members. Her house was in a beautiful country setting, with flowers, a pond, etc. - but I liked all the antiques she had in the basement (plus, it was air conditioned inside), so I painted two of her antique slot machine guys. It turned out to be a rather ambitious project for just a few hours - but it was a fun challenge.

Jeanne's Class 5/13

I haven't been painting lately, but these were from Jeanne's last class. I had a few minutes left after painting the lilac - so I painted the lemon picture (unfinished).

Peonies and Lilacs

Jeanne's Class May 6, '13

These were not real, but it looked like such a lush bouquet, I couldn't resist. I used a bit of watercolor pencil for definition on some of the objects.

Jeff, The Tavern Keeper

I rarely say this, but "I like this painting." I see things that I should fix and I probably will go in and deal with the background and some other areas, but overall, I'm happy with the way this turned out. I never asked this guy if I could take his photo, but I figure if you are dressed in costume - you are fair game. I didn't even realize I had a picture of him until I went home and downloaded from my camera.

Here was the reference photo. I had to lighten it in Photoshop to see him.

Wire Baskets

These baskets presented a challenge - I figured I would use a stick and ink to draw them in. It didn't turn out exactly as planned, but what ever does? I took liberties with the background cloth and just used bits of pattern and color that I wanted.

What a Grind...

It seemed like a good idea at the time - to paint something other than flowers in Jeanne's class....

(Coffee grinders courtesy of Sally Young) I'm ok with the way the coffee grinders turned out, but the composition bothers me. I think I would focus on fewer items next time. The squares in the background were not actually there - I just painted them in. Painting objects like this is unfamiliar to me - so I guess it was a good exercise to do.

Jeanne's Class 4/15/13

Poppies are my favorite flower, but these were fake - so a bit lacking. I used a bit of pattern from a cloth that was nearby for the background. 'Still experimenting with the Chinese ink.

Jeanne's Class 4/8/13

'Loved the colors in this pot. I used watercolor pencil scraped onto wet areas for texture in the pot and some Chinese ink for the black lines in the picture.

Casual frames

'Added a "casual" frame around these portraits to fill up the space a bit. I used watercolor pencils (grainy part is where I painted water on the paper and scraped the pencil with sandpaper).

Jeanne's Class 4/1/13

Jeanne brought some tulips in on Monday. I liked the curvy shapes that they made so I decided to do a closeup. One of the girls in the class gave me some Chinese Watercolor ink to use (applied with a stick) which I thought made a nice effect.

Shirley Trevena Wannabe

I almost forgot to post this (again, another dark photo because I normally photograph outside). This picture was created a few weeks ago when I got together with Linda Young to watch a video of Shirley Trevena explaining some of her processes for her watercolors. I really like Shirley Trevena's style and had just recently discovered her. Linda and I set out to create a picture "Trevena style". Only two of the objects in this picture were actually in front of me. The rest was made up or taken from pictures I found online. Part of this style involves treating the background as important as the objects in the picture. She also tapes off areas to paint in sections. It was harder than I thought to think this way, but fun to try.

Jeanne's Class

I've been away for a while so I haven't posted. Here's a picture from two weeks ago of a still life from Jeanne's class.

Sally's Grandkids

I told some of my friends that I would practice doing portraits using photos they gave me. One type of photo that I find particularly uninspiring is the typical "head shot" photo that you get from a photography place (like Sears). I tried to do something different with these "head shot" photos that my friend gave me by taping off an area of paper and just painting a closeup of part of the face. I think this is more interesting than the way I would have done the painting in the past, but I'm also thinking I should have put the boys closer together and maybe done something more with the frames around them. Here's my effort for now. This photo is rather dark, because it's too dismal to take a photo outside today.

Abstract - not finished

This is an abstract I started in Ron's class and then worked on at home. We wetted both sides of our paper, then put down coffee filters and paper - then painted around the edges. (Our own designs, colors, etc.) I used some bunched up plastic wrap to get some texture, too. Then I went in and defined some of the shapes and added some colors and shapes. I'm still not sure where to go with it from here, but I don't feel it's "done" yet. It was a really fun process - and I might actually try it again.

Large Hibiscus

Ron's last in class assignment was to do a large Hibiscus flower. I found a picture online and painted this based on it. I enjoyed it more than I expected to - It was fun to paint the flower in a very loose style.

Sterling Edwards derivative

Ron did a "synchronized painting" activity in class based on Sterling Edward's work. I was frustrated in class because I didn't know where we were going with it. Once I got home and took a look at his paintings - I did this one based on his style. It did give me experience with using a rigger brush, Although I don't think traditional landscapes will ever be "my thing".

Here are two more from Jeanne's class. The clocks were set up in a very traditional still life - in a line horizontally - Jeanne sort of challenged me to not see them that way. I want to try some other still life paintings not being bound by the way the objects "really are".   I wasn't very pleased with my composition or color in the truck and bear picture - I may try it later on at home.

Jeanne's Class

It's been quite a while since I posted anything and I have things that I've been working on that I'm not going to post right now. I'm trying to figure out how I want to paint portraits - so I'm working out bits and pieces of things. This is a picture of a still life from Jeanne's class. Figuring out how to do the basket was much harder than I thought it would be.

Old ladies revisited

Here's another attempt at those old ladies I like so much. This time I used regular watercolor paper. It was harder to get the "random" effects I wanted - Yupo was better for that. I don't think I'm done with this, but I'm not sure where to go (or if I want to go) from here.