Green Horse Statue

More watercolor practice. Experimenting with watercolors *without* laying down black ink lines. It feels so strange.

I painted just the shadows in purple and was going to leave it at that. Then I got the bright idea to wash it over with patina green. It looked too cold, so then I washed it over with Raw Sienna. Thought it looked pretty good. Well maybe it looks OK. Finally darkened up the deepest shadows a bit to make them pop.

Meh, the jury's still out.

Hubby says it looks like a braying donkey.

Sigh.

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Photo credits:
Charmaine Swart, photographer
Morguefile.com

Plein Air

Firecracker 4th!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday!

TV Faces

Up late at night sketching faces from a TV show on Secret Societies for practice. Each face appeared for 10 seconds at a time so I could only capture an eyebrow, then the curve of the cheek, then the contour of the hair. It took the whole hour to get them completed.

Thoughts:

#1 - Did NOT look like Michael Jackson, but did have two little ball structures on the tip of his nose.

#2 - Beside the obvious problems around the eyes I think this guy may be recognizable.

#3 - Captured him fairly well. Loved his wild eyebrows and the explosion of hair on the right side.

#4 - This looks nothing like the dude. This was the guy with the politician's smile that kept saying, "Of course there are no secret societies, that's just silly."

Damascus Blade

EDM #218 - Draw a Knife or a Blade

A Damascus blade is made by folding the metal over on itself multiple times, then grinding and polishing it to expose the layers giving the metal a visible grain pattern.

Making a Damascus blade is extremely labor intensive and considered to be a fine art among metalsmiths. My brother-in-law is a really sweet (and talented) guy.

Pink Hydrangea

(click on drawings to embiggen)

Riverboat - Tight vs. Loose - Two Sketches

First sketch - Tight - Fail


Worked on this first sketch for about 45 minutes and wasn't pleased with it. The proportions were wonky (drawing lead-free) and there was too much dead space on the top deck. The only thing I liked was the contour line of the trees. I did however enjoy the zen of all that crosshatching.

What drew me to this scene was the bright red smokestacks. That's all I really wanted to capture, but two red sticks and nothing else would look funny.

Found a quote by Andrew Wyeth

"If you clean it up, get analytical, all the subtle joy and emotion you felt in the first place goes flying out the window."

Exactly! I had analyzed all the joy out of this.

Started over just trying to capture the smokestacks and the essence of the rest. The second sketch took 2-3 minutes, tops. The proportions are still wonky, but they are joyfully wonky.

Second sketch - Loose - Joy! LOL!


I can see an improvement in my watercolor sky and clouds. I didn't fight with it so much this time. Practice, practice, practice! I like the way the distant riverbank came out gray and hazy. That's just lucky happenstance.

Watercolor Practice

Painting with abandon, smearing paint around to see how it mixes, flows and dries.




The little bird below started life as a pear. I showed the freshly painted pear to Hubby and he guessed it was a parakeet. I'll admit it looked more like a bird than a fruit, so I just went with it. Painted in some feetsies and a branch and Viola! a bird!