Clown Fish Watercolor

I thought I'd continue with the aquarium theme that I started with sea horses. This painting was actually more fun and I think maybe it's because I liked the close crop and definitely the happy orange color. It's 8 x 8 on Aquabord. Original available in my Etsy store here. (Prints and digital download also available in my Etsy store.)

Seahorses & Clownfish Watercolor on Aquabord

I said I'd be part of a project on Facebook that is 101 days of painting and on about Day 4 I realized it was messing with my head and the perfectionist in me started to rebel. Then I was bummed out and at a standstill. I was working on a client project so that made me rethink my focus which is really more about getting actual illustration jobs and licensing rather than pleasing my few fans on Facebook. Around the same time, I came across two articles which gave me reassurance that not checking into FB every day, hour, minute is OK. I'm so glad because being the introvert that I am, I'd rather not worry about all that social stuff on a daily basis. I loved not being on it actually. So I took a look at my calendar and planned my week. Then I picked this painting back up and really focused. It's been a good day.

New Illustration - Kids Climbing Trees

I have been thinking about doing this illustration ever since I snapped some pictures of my niece and nephew while on vacation. It brought back memories of climbing trees and I was just really interested in playing with the composition and colors. Like most things I had a vague idea in my head but wasn't sure what the final painting would look like. I was pleasantly surprised to end up with something pretty close to what I was thinking. Below are two progress shots and the final. It measures 12 x 18 inches.

More ideas started popping into my head as I finished this painting. I don't want it to be a stand alone so I'm thinking of doing a series. Last night I started sketching and my next version which will definitely include a treehouse!

Illustration Friday and New Daily Project

This week's theme for Illustration Friday is "Temptation". It was much easier to come up with something vs. last week's broader topic - Universe. In my pursuit of drawing realistic looking children in an illustrative way, I feel like I'm starting to make progress. I have decided that using reference to get started with the face helps the kids look more human and less cartoony rather than trying to invent something out of my head. I can still do that, but I like the way they look better when I have some kind of reference to start with.

My question to whoever feels like commenting is, do you think the floor looks realistic? The illustration needed something else in the background and I thought this would look nice, not too distracting and add some perspective. My husband thinks it looks like a giant floor and maybe the tiles are a little too big but I did want to emphasize the small child. The cobalt blue table top got lost in my scan so I painted one in with Photoshop.

OTHER NEWS! A NEW DAILY PROJECT

I have done two monthly projects where I painted daily for one month. In October 2010 I did a daily pumpkin painting/illustration and last August 2013 I did a month of portraits. I've made a bigger commitment this time having joined a group on Facebook who are doing 101 Days of Painting. I know some of them are just doing weekly paintings but the point is doing a project along with a group for support. I'm not going to post every daily painting here on my blog because I will probably forget and honestly I hate bothering people with daily email. If you would like to see them all, I will be posting them on my Facebook page.

I did share this one on Facebook today - Day 1. 

One more thing...I'm going to be sending out my June newsletter this week. If you would like to receive it, please sign up at www.kathyjurek.com.