An Afternoon Well Spent

Another painting from my references at the nursing home. I wish I could remember this lady's name but I do remember that she was one of our favorites. She always played with us when we visited and the kids always wanted to work with her.

7 x 5

In the Spirit of Painting Quickly

Jumping off from yesterday, I decided to do another quick 5 x 7 painting (especially since I spent most of my afternoon with my nose in a book.) This took me an hour.

A few years ago I was part of a project with my daughter's 4/5 grade Montessori class. The teacher had won a grant to spend time doing art once a week with the nursing home residents who lived behind the school. I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time and got to be the one who facilitated the art. At the end of the school year, we had a show where we displayed all of the art projects we had done. We had cookies and the students brought books over to read to some of the residents that we worked with.

Painting Quickly vs. Painting Slowly

I've got two watercolors to share today. The first one is from a reference of my son when he was 3 or 4. It measures 8.5 x 11. I've labored over this one for a while. Next time I will do some more pre-planning, like a value study first instead of trying to figure things out as I go.

From drawing to finished painting, the second one took me all of 70 minutes this afternoon. It was from a Wetcanvas weekend paint session in the All Media Events forum. I like this one better. I always like these better. I don't feel any pressure when I tackle these portraits and there is a suggested 2 hour time limit which forces one to work quickly. These are always so much more satisfying to me than the paintings I spend hours on. Sowhy do I continue to labor over so many paintings???

Illustration Friday "Undone"

I'm sneaking this in before the next IF topic comes out tomorrow. Couldn't help but work Christmas into this illustration. It looks like he didn't do too much damage though.

I'm hunkering down for the Christmas weekend. We're supposed to be snowed in and I don't expect to get out for a couple of days. I've got a new computer and lots of paint and paper so we'll see what I come up with to post in the next few days.
Merry Christmas Everyone!

Poodles Portrait

Just finished watercolor commission!

11 x 14

Little Girl Portrait

This is a portrait commission I just finished. I saw a more recent picture of her. She's all grown up and she's gorgeous.

11 x 14