Work with Soon

Well, I wrote all of this just a bit ago and somehow lost the whole thing!  Yikes!  So here we go again,

I have been attending watercolor classes with Soon Warren the past two Thursdays.  I want to bring you up to date of the things I am working on in those classes.  Below is the reference photo of a sunflower in a crystal bowl, which is the group project, and my WIP on this project.

I started with Arches 300# cold press, which works best for Soon's techniques.  After transferring the drawing, I did a TON of masking to save the whites in the crystal.  Next I wet the entire sheet and did pale washes of a mix of aureolin and cad yellow on the upper parts of the paper and permanent rose on the lower part where the cloth is and lower areas of the bowl.  When all of that was dry, I did the next wash on the flower which is a stronger mix of cad yellow and aureolin.  That is the extent of the progress at this point.

Next is a painting of a young girl in Africa, the reference of which is a photo by Babasteve.  Steve generously gave his permission for me to use this image.  This work is on Arches 140# stretched cold pressed paper.  After transferring the drawing, I used making fluid to saves whites in her eyes, on her hair, a few places on her face and the zipper on her jacket.  Then I began the washes.  First a thin wash of cerulean blue on the wood on your left against which she is leaning.  Then washes of a mixture of aureolin and cad yellow over the rest of the painting.  Once that was dry, I began to add stronger mixtures of those colors along with quin gold, burnt sienna and permanent rose, developing shadow areas and hair patterns.  This is a totally different technique and look than what I learned with Ted.  I'm thrilled to have two techniques that I love and can use depending on the subject and feeling I want to convey.

This morning I started on this painting of a railroad worker.  It is on Arches 300# cold pressed paper.  After transferring the  drawing, I masked the whites of his eyes, a couple places on his ears and the fringes of white hair on his arm.  Once that was dry I proceeded with washes of aureolin and cad yellow on his skin, adding darker mixtures that included quin gold, burnt sienna and permanent rose in shadow areas.  I also did a mixture of cobalt, mineral violet and burnt sienna for the shadow areas of his cap.  I'm pleased with this so far.

Cooler weather!!!!

I can't tell you how much I appreciate this weather after the summer we've had!  This morning I took my daily walk in 52 degree temps.  What a relief!

I have been painting but have not gotten things posted here.  I also started my watercolor classes with Soon Warren last Thursday.  She teaches weekly at the Hobby Lobby in Fort Worth and rarely does she ever have an opening.  However, I'm thrilled that she was able to find a spot for me in the afternoon class so now I will be trying to learn every little tidbit I can from her.  If you are familiar with her work, you know how exciting this is for me.

I'll try to get some new things posted this week so that you'll know I really have been painting!  LOL!!!

Enjoy the beginning of fall no matter where you are.  Thanks for reading!

more work on David

I'm at the point of just looking at this and evaluating what needs to be done next.  I have done a light wash of Mineral Violet on the background and added more shading on the shirt and face.  More work to do, once I decide what!  LOL!!

Gift for Freddie

The painting that I posted on July 9 of Chandler became a gift for my son for his 43rd birthday, which is today.  43!!!  How did that happen?  Aren't I only 43 or so?

I have found time to paint this past week and will be posting some of that maybe tomorrow.  I worked on the portrait of Ted a bit more and made alot of progress on a painting of our grandson, Lucah.  These grandchildren that you see paintings of are now 14, 13 and 11 (Chandler, Gavin and Lucah respectively). I just love some of these little snapshots of when they were younger.

I'm also planning to do a painting of my husband Jim, that includes our first yorkie, Zoe.  Before I tackle the painting, I have been doing small practice paintings of Zoe but not with much luck.  I am having trouble doing a dog.  I can do them in pencil but watercolor is another story.  Geez!!!

Ted

In March of this year, I attended a five day workshop with Ted Nuttall.  I have mentioned several times in this blog how much I learned from Ted during that week.  I feel that my painting took a big leap forward under his instruction and my subsequent almost daily practice.  Here is the snapshot that I took of him during one of his lectures and the painting I am doing of that picture.  The first shows some of the early washes and a bit of detail emerging.  The next is how the painting stands now.  I still have work to do.  Ted paints entirely on Arches 300 pound hot press paper.  He encourages his workshop students to use that paper during the workshop and I have been using it almost exclusively since then.  However, I wanted to try this portrait on 300 pound cold press and I am pleased at how it is handling.  Different, to be sure but actually quite a pleasure to work on.  I think I will be using it more and more along with the hot press.  And I can't say enough how much I LOVE the 300 pound paper!  No warping, no stretching!  A bit more money?  Yes, but I work mostly on quarter sheets and usually use both sides, since I am in the practice stage and not the masterpiece stage!  LOL!!!  So that makes it a bit more affordable.  From my days of sewing, I learned that nothing replaces quality materials.  If I am going to spend my time doing something, I don't want to be trying to accomplish good work with inferior or bargain materials.  Thanks for reading!

Gavin in her Dallas Cowboy fan gear, WIP

I'm not totally happy with how this is turning out but I'm determined to try some things I normally don't succeed with, like using more colors on the face.  When I go back and review Ted's work, I see that I am far too concerned with local color and not so comfortable in adding other colors.  I also seem to soften edges much more than he does.  I need lots more practice!!!!

Chandler, another WIP

Another from a cute little snapshot when Chandler was maybe 18 months old.  Watering flowers with a spray bottle.  My usual paper for my portrait work is Arches 300 pound hot pressed and I've grown really fond on that paper.  This is on Arches 300 pound cold pressed and it is really different!  Need lots more water in my brush or it behaves like a dry brush.  I'm also not accustomed to doing flowers or foliage in the background so this is quite an experiment for me.  I'll post more stages as I go along.  I have to keep telling myself that I am learning and there will be bummers along the way.  I'm pretty much Type A when it comes to wanting things correct from the beginning.  Wrong attitude for a water colorist, huh?

I think this may be finished

I have added a loose background to this.  I started with just a light wash of cerulean blue.  Considered leaving it at that but it appeared unfinished to me.  So I added touches of cobalt, mineral violet and cad orange.  I think the cad orange picks up the color of her hair and pulls the background together with the figure.  What do you think?

I intend to work on some new things this week and REALLY try to add more colors and a looser look.  Wish me luck on that! 

The temps here remain in the triple digits with no relief in sight.  Come on Fall!!!

Chandler, WIP

I just love the  expression on Chandler's face here.  It is a snapshot taken when she was about 18 months old, or so.  I worked on it this week and think I have the figure about where I want it.  Now the dilemma is the background!  It seems that I am often unhappy with the background and therefore, ruin some of my paintings.  Poo!!!! A perfect example is the painting in an earlier post titled "Farmer Gavin".  I was pretty happy with the figure and then could not get a background that I liked.  Hence, I will probably not post the finished version of that and will try again from that same photo of her. 

We are attending a family and friends reunion party today.  I hope you all have a marvelous Fourth!  Stay cool and enjoy!  Thanks for reading!

Another of sweet little Gavin

Here is another I did recently of Gavin.  I think she was maybe four years old here.  I had a lot of trouble with her hair and finally resorted to scrubbing most of it out and trying the technique that Jan Kunz uses.  My wonderful husband is great at googling and finding stuff for me.  That was the case when I was ruining her hair!  Anyway, I'm mostly pleased with this one but I do plan to do another painting of this same pose.  Mostly this is the method that I learned in Ted Nuttall's workshop in March.  http://www.tednuttall.com/  That is the method I generally use but I am beginning to experiment with other techniques and combine some of them to see what the outcome is.  Practice, practice!!

Some great instructors!

I have had the great good fortune to study with some great artists.  The two I want to bring to your attention today are Soon Warren and Linda Lucas Hardy.  I studied watercolor with Soon back in 2002 and 2003.  Her watercolor work is really breathtaking.  The scull painting is a piece that I did in her class as a gift for my son.  (I must appologize for the photo quality.  This painting is professionally framed and I had to take the photo through the glass.  That is why there is a shadow of me snapping the pic.)  It was the first of several pieces I have done for him.  Later, I studied colored pencil with Linda.  If you ever see any of her colored pencil work, you will not believe it could be colored pencil.  Amazing!!!  The boots are in colored pencil and completed as a gift for my son again.  The boots are his first childhood boots.  I'm surprised that they still have soles!  He almost never took them off his little feet!

A couple of cowboy WIP's

Back in May I had the opportunity to visit the Fort Worth Stockyard area and snap some photos of some folks in character at an old fort exhibit.  There were some great subjects and they were all so willing to pose for me.  The first is "Maverick".  The second is "Brazos".  As I say, neither of these are finished.  They are posted on the bulletin board in my studio for further evaluation.  Takes me a while sometimes to see what else needs to be done.