Female Figure on Collaged Paper

15x22 Fabriano 140 lb hot press paper that has 4 large phone book yellow pages collaged on then peeled off as you can see in the top image.  When dry I drew charcoal line drawing of a woman named Kaye who lives in Rum Cay, Bahamas (photo courtesy Li Newton).  This is one of 16 images featured in this weekend drawing event on WetCanvas!  Gouache used as the painting medium and total time was 15 minutes to draw and 1.5 hours to paint.    I had to paint Kaye since we have the same name Look closely and you can see a black and white dog in one of the phone pages that is on her left cheek or eye area.  I will be teaching this method next Saturday, 7 April, in a class at my studio in Big Spring, TX.  The title of this painting is "Rum Cay Kaye".

Blue Jeanz Girl

22x15 watercolor over ink contour line drawing on Arches 140 lb cold press paper.  Last April or March I drew the figure with Micron .01 pen then did the design, but felt it had something lacking.  For one thing I should not have stamped into her face with bubble wrap so decided this week to cover most of that with Liquitex acrylics.  I also added eye shadow, fingernail polish, and one earring...what girl is complete without these most vital beauty supplies!  Background value was deepened with phthalocyanine blue green acrylic.  This was intended to resemble a self portrait as I'm always in jeans with a purse slung over my shoulder and in a hurry to get to painting!

Shabby Chic Roses

15x22 watercolor on 140 lb hot press paper, inspired by antique milk glass collection, lace, and fresh roses in this romantic vignette.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

15x11 watercolor of a cockatoo on his branch, surveying his world.  This bird was one of my submissions to North Light Books for their Painter's Quick Reference series on Birds & Butterflies.

Red Velvet tulips

22x30 watercolor of close view or macro red tulips; some had light yellow green variegated petals.  This is painted on 140 lb cold press paper wet in wet using 2" wide brush and lots of Daniel Smith reds.

Orchard Fresh Tomatoes

11x15 Caran D'Ache watersoluble crayons on Fabriano hot press 140 lb paper, drawn today and painted with about half of my strokes blended with water.  It has been awhile since doing stick watermedia and I love the vivid hues of the crayons.

Spring Flowers with Watercan

The title of this new one done this weekend is "Spring has Sprung", an imaginary floral garden watercolor complete with old metal watering can sprinkling an array of daffodils, poppies, bluebonnets, larkspur, daisies, etc.  Its size is 15x22 and painted on Arches 140 lb cold press paper using Daniel Smith paints in a wet on dry manner.

Calla Lily Colors

 

15x11 watercolor on Saunders Waterford 140 lb cold press paper, an imaginary array of colorful callas.  For this work, I did a lot of negative painting.

Watercan Flowers in Pastel

11x15 Rembrandt pastels on Canson pastel paper of a small watercan I bought then stuck flowers in.  I really liked the seed packet logo on its side and am getting anxious to plant some spring blooms.

Bad Boy kitty

11.25x11 watercolor of an imaginary black cat jumping up onto a kitchen sink, obviously a bad boy indeed.  I used Saunders 140 lb cold press paper and Daniel Smith paints.

Cracked Egg - baby chicken hatched

6.5x5 watercolor, an imaginary baby chick who has cracked the shell and is emerging for Spring,  WELCOME Spring!!! This little guy is painted on Strathmore 140 lb cold press paper with Daniel Smith paints.

Verbena floral

22x15 watercolor of a dark red verbena with a little exaggeration on my part in this macro view.  I added a few roses and distant verbena blossoms within the picture plane for variety.  I used Italia Acquerello 140 lb cold press paper and Daniel Smith paints with Coastal Fog by American Journey.

Scarlet Macaw

11x15 watercolor, another bird in the series I did, demo illustration for North Light Books.  This parrot was not used and I was kind of sad because he looks so happy and perky.  This is on Saunders 140 lb cold press paper with Daniel Smith paints.

Western Bluebird

15x11 watercolor of a Western Bluebird on Saunders 140 lb cold press paper and Daniel Smith paints.  This was one of five watercolor bird illustrations done for North Light Books a few years back that I've never shown.  They selected two, a penguin and house sparrow, for their publication Painters Quick Reference Birds & Butterflies.  I'll be posting the other birds as well except for the penguin that already appears in my sidebar on the blog home page.  This is based on one I found down a stairwell at work, in the corner, shivering as he was cold.  I didn't realize we had them in Texas.

Mission Gate

11x15 watercolor on Kilimanjaro 140 lb cold press paper, another daily painting, simple and imaginary scene of the southwest.  We just need a couple of donkeys to make it complete.

Cockatoo Karma

15x11 watercolor of white cockatoo named Karma that I painted today from black & white photo ref of my friend Valri in Florida. The bird was in a kitchen setting  so I took artistic license and changed that to a tropical scene and jazzed her up at the same time.  Paper is Canson 140 lb cold press, Daniel Smith paints, done wet on dry.

Bike Bouquet

11x15 watercolor, a daily painting, of my old secondhand bicycle and an imaginary basket of assorted flowers in a bouquet just waiting for a ride.  Orange poppies dot the garden landscape on the composition's left.

Ancient Doorway in Stone Building

12x9 watercolor featuring a painted blue very old door set into its stone surroundings.  This was painted on Canson paper 140 lb cold press a few years back.

Pussywillows - Time to Think Spring!

5x7.5 watercolor on cold press paper 140 lb, a miniature done with thoughts of warmer days and budding plants and trees.  You can't think of pussywillows without Spring!

Pigs Collage demo "Hamming it Up!"

Final work done this afternoon in about an hour, adding dollar store gift wrap roses, pearls, and lace to the foreground and to their bodies at random.  I like the pearls before swine idea.  I used Derwent Matisse Background in pale beige (a misnomer because it is pale yellow) gesso to smooth that area then brushed some in front.  Oil pastel accents were added as well in this mixed watermedia piece.

Demo Pigs on collaged paper step 3

Last night I painted the pigs using Turner's gouache and got this far around midnight.  You can see the phone book pages through the paint. The guy on the far left now has some interesting ears! Love the mud on the far right rascal's snout.  I'm having way too much fun now to stop.  But did put in part of the foreground lower right.

Demo Pigs on Prepared Paper

This is a half sheet Arches 140 lb hot press paper with 4 phone book pages adhered to its surface with half matte medium and half water mix, apply several strips 1" masking tape firmly, wait 10 minutes then pull off.  Now this is ready when dry for a charcoal drawing.  I've done figures on this prepared paper but this time will do pigs.

 From my smaller ink sketch done Friday I've freehanded drawn 3 piglets.  I really love the character on the far right.  I'll use gouache to paint them with a 1" brush.

Songbird

22x30 acrylics on Strathmore Gemini 140 lb cold press paper, a reworked image from a week ago, and I hope this image experiment is better than the pastel blah that it was.  After using the cut-out filter in PhotoShop I printed it, but my printer was low on ink because it sure didn't resemble the monitor much.  So I used my iPhone monitor and the print to totally repaint the bird.  I did let the leaves remain as I enjoy those stamped ones.  This is a different look and way of painting for me, so please let me know if you like it or don't.  Now to post it on Art Colony blog for the pros to comment.

Sketch: The Three Little Pigs

My daily sketch this afternoon measures 8.5x11 on white drawing paper using Tombow black and grey brush pens.  Little pigs had been playing in the mud and enjoying their looking for mischief.  Tomorrow will paint a larger work from this quick draw.

Teapot with Lemons still life

16x20 watercolor on handmade cold press 140 lb paper of an antique china teapot, cup of tea, lemons, a bouquet, all on lacy tablecloth. I made the cloth by using doily stencils over the paper and fairly heavy paint brushed within the holes.

Pears, Apples and Poppies still life

15x22 watercolor on matboard that was gessoed first, then drawn and painted.  This is remarkably like working on Yupo synthetic paper with its ability to allow paint to sit on the surface.

BEFORE version of Songbird

Here is the BEFORE version which is actually the second time I altered the original bird.  With that attempt you can see leaf stamping done in matte medium all around the 22x30 composition, and a darker green was added to the background.  But the colors were too pastel hued for me and the painting just lacked something.  It was too middle value really then with all the saved white just did not work.
I'm almost done with its final reincarnation so please stay tuned.

Songbird

22x30 acrylic on watercolor paper, drawn from a tiny salt shaker.  I am doing an experiment so stay tuned, and I will show the BEFORE version later.

Changing Seasons trees

12x9 watercolor on Langton 140 lb cold press paper, Daniel Smith paints, an imaginary scene drawn yesterday and painted today.  I had decided it would be a winter scene then today changed the season to autumn as it has more colors.

Bizzy Body kitty

22x15 watercolor pet portrait from an old photograph of a friend's cat named Bizzy Body who seems to be minding everyone else's business but his own.  Daniel Smith paints, Arches 140 lb cold press paper.

Zebras and Gnus

15x22 watercolor on Arches 140 lb cold press paper of a zebra pair surrounded by gnus.  Originally I titled this "Gnus Flash" but now will change that for search engine reasons.