Shy Thai Girl

8.5x5.75 gouache, ink, Caran D'Ache on Color Sketch paper done yesterday as part of a weekend drawing event on WetCanvas.com.  Host Joel Loren provided 16 photo references to use and we had only 2 hours to select, draw and paint our choice then post it on the All Media Art Events forum there.  Joel is from the Phillipines and took many photos from a trip to Thailand.  This little girl was trying to hide behind ribbon streamers during a church event.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.

David's Head - completion

Today I spent more time rearranging his eyes, mouth, ear, and nose.  The plan was to use Derivan Matisse background acrylic but none of the colors I had seemed suitable, so I opted for India ink and used fairly heavily upper right then more dilute to finish the background.  You can certainly see where the pages are showing although most are covered by gouache.  For now am done with the series on Michelangelo's David.

House of David

15x11 gouache on Saunders 300 lb paper, another version of Michelangelo's sculpture of David he created 1501-1504.  I cut a failed painting in half and applied gouache over the background as well as the figure first.  I'll show the beginning ink sketch below.  A few years ago I bought Susan Boyle's Christmas CD that she'd recorded Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, the story of King David's temptation with Bathsheba.  So the lyrics were dancing in my head throughout this work, hence the significance of the upside down modern day houses.

 In this image, only the figure has been painted using Turner's gouache.  I'd like to keep the house windows and may paint over the rest.

Initial ink sketch using black India ink dropper only over the upside down old dog watercolor.  Total time:  2 hours.

Mister Mystery male figure

22x15 gouache watermedia over charcoal drawing of a mysterious tall, dark, and handsome man on Arches 140 lb hot press paper.  I collaged 4 large phone book yellow pages onto the watercolor paper with half matte medium, half water, then applied 3 strips lengthwise of 1" masking tape, waited 10 minutes then pulled off various parts of the pages that would remove (use a wide palette knife to make sure the tape sticks).  After drying, I began drawing over the collage then applied gouache (watercolor with white added).  The phone book pages collage was taught to us by instructor Liz Hill of Houston last October.  Thank you Liz! Check out her blog Irreverent Art.

Cay Island Woman Kaye - finished

15x22 gouache and charcoal over hot press watercolor paper (Fabriano) with a few finishing touches sorted for the final version from yesterday's post.  I smoothed out the dog image that appeared on her cheek under her left eye by adding a gouache mix of white, orange, and fuchsia.  Hopefully it reads better now.