You Talkin' To Me?

  

Bulldog puppy portrait done in

watercolor on quarter sheet watercolor paper. sold

Boy and his Dog

A boy and his dog.

Watercolor sold

Starting a New Pastel Portrait

Just started this one. I am thankful to be busy this year.

Also thankful to have subject matter that I like.

Pastel on Canson paper

  

Finished

 sold

Fun Day at the Beach, Pastel Portrait

  

I just finished this portrait of a day at the beach. 

Looks like they are having fun!

Pastel on mounted Wallis paper 16 x 20 inches. sold

Watercolor Poinssettia

We usually paint a poinsettia in December during the adult watercolor class.

This year we are doing two small paintings. The students will cut and glue them to see what kind of abstract patterns they can come up with.  They did some wonderful work and I feel a little bad that we will be cutting them up, but I also know that the end result will be full of another kind of fun discovery.

My demo is 6 x 8 inches 

Pastel in Progress

I guess this is far enough along to post. 

This is a captured moment that truly expresses the personalities of these boys.

I plan to keep the bottom portion of the painting loose to keep the focus on the faces.

But how loose remains to be scene. Stay tuned.

pastel on 16 x 20 inch Wallis paper

Santa Watercolor Portrait Demonstration

Ok, so last week I started a Santa demonstration and ended up painting the inspiration image of a man with a red beard. This week I followed my lesson plan and modified the image to be more Santa-like. 

Everyone in class was in the best mood.... I think Santa makes us happy.

Quick demonstration in watercolor on quarter sheet cold press paper

How to finish... watercolor portrait

  

Quick 20 minute demonstration for my adult class. 

We started out doing Santa portraits using this bearded man as inspiration. 

But I just had to paint him with the red beard. 

I will do another Santa demo for the class later. 

So now I have to rethink the hat and story. 

Maybe a lumberjack.... Any ideas?

watercolor on a quarter sheet

Why I Blog...

Blogging has been a wonderful way for me to "get out of town."  I have seen many new viewpoints, shared some of my own and made some wonderful artist, designer and collector connections. Scrolling through my blogger friends is like paging through a magazine. It is good to share some of the successes and struggles that we all go through. So for my fellow bloggers, a huge thanks for taking the time to share!

PS and here is a shameless plug for two more newer bloggers...
http://nickleysens.blogspot.com/
http://gregleysens.blogspot.com/

And finally, this is a watercolor demonstration that I did with examples of different watercolor techniques (salt, wet on wet, softening edges, splatter...)

Pastel Portrait Finishing Tips/Process

Looks like all it needed was an adjustment of the light 

on the nose, shoulder, arm and a signature.

I took a break for a few days and coming back with fresh eyes made all the difference.

Also turning it upside down and taking photos to compare to the reference photo...

Whatever it takes to fine tune... I use "em all.

I will still come back to this at least one more time and will post any changes.

Pastel on Wallis Paper sold