Drippy Daffodils

6 x 6 in. watercolor on Aquabord

Daffodils are one of my favorite flowers and dozens of little clusters have been appearing in my yard since early March. This is a little painting that I tried to be loose and drippy with. The surface is Ampersand's Aquabord which has a wonderful texture and makes all those puddles and drips look really wonderful....as long as I leave them alone.

I just added this as an auction on Dailypaintworks which will start on Monday, April 3.

Police Car for Kids Rooms

Just finished this police car watercolor which is a new addition to the many truck and car prints I've offered for little boys' rooms on Etsy.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/508464762/police-car-boys-room-print-car-nursery?ref=shop_home_active_1

Bandit

Bandit is an active 5 month old black lab who loves people, chewing and bread left in the yard for birds. He gave me some love and then was off sniffing the ground while I gladly watched his eager puppy explorations.

This is my second painting of Bandit in watercolor on Ampersand Aquabord and it is available on dailypaintworks.com as an auction or buy it now.

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/666251

Little Green Dress available on Dailypaintworks

I've added this little painting that I posted earlier to my Dailypaintworks gallery as an auction. It's an original watercolor on Ampersand Aquabord and it's sealed with a gloss varnish. Ready to display in a small easel as is or can be framed (no mat or glass needed). All of the originals available on Dailypaintworks will be posted on this blog so feel free to follow.

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/665528

Now listing original artwork on Dailypaintworks

I'm now offering my original watercolors on the Dailypaintworks.com site.

My first listing is Apple of Her Eye which is an auction.
6 x 6 in. watercolor on Aquabord, sealed with gloss varnish
It can be displayed on a small easel or framed (without glass).

Apple of Her Eye Watercolor Portrait

Apple of Her Eye
6 x 6 Aquabord

My cousin's daughter is adorable. For this little painting I decided to not rely on my usual burnt sienna for skin tones. Instead I used Winsor & Newton raw umber warmed up with a little scarlet lake. Raw Umber is a wonderful neutral. She was wearing a very colorful top so I pulled a lot of the reflected color into her face as well as using these colors on the apple (manganese blue, scarlet lake and new gamboge). I've never used raw umber for caucasian skin tones preferring it for hair but this worked so I'm going to give it another shot in the future.

In the end, getting the values correct is the main thing and then it doesn't matter what colors you use.

I posted a progress photo of this painting Instagram.  Come follow me!

Little Green Dress

I'm flexing my portrait and figure muscles again. It feels good. I've been going back and forth between working on illustrations and then "fine art" paintings. I'm also working on Aquabord which is a favorite surface. I love the way you can layer and layer and not muddy the colors and then you can lift back layers. The other big plus is not having to stretch or mat the final art. A little glossy varnish brightens the colors and then you can just put it in a frame like an oil or acrylic painting. The best of both worlds.

Back to Watercolor Portraiture

I've spent some time this last week finishing the above portrait of Dani to enter into the Missouri Watercolor Society's International Show and then in a sudden spur I painted 3 dog portraits in two days which I posted on Instagram. It's been a fun switch between working on sketches for another children's book. They're different forms of art requiring different parts of my brain.

I can't choose just one to focus on.

Oil Painting Kids on Tractor

Right now I'm wishing my Facebook was connected to my blog because I've been posting lots of art and news about a recent children's book that was published. I need to remember to post in both places.

Here's a little painting (8 x 10) that I finished today. My friends keep luring me over to oil painting and I confess I'm enjoying myself. These are my kids about 10 years ago when we took a trip to a farm that had a weekend open house showcasing vintage ways of farming. It was really a nice day.

RIP Prince... truly a sad loss

I grew up in the 80s and Prince was one of my favorites.

This is also my 4th day of the 100 Day Project. I'm posting art daily on Instagram with the tag #100daysofKathyJurek. Later today I will post a watercolor (as soon as I finish painting it. :)

Fox and Monarch Butterflies Watercolor

A gentle fox is number two in my new Woodland Animals series of watercolors.

Woodland Animal Illustration

Happy Easter! This is the first painting in a new Woodland Animals series.

Dave's Bunny

Watercolor Portrait - Cheryl

I have a beautiful friend named Cheryl who posed for me a couple of weeks ago and here she is in watercolor. :)

Watercolor Class this Saturday March 12, in Malvern, IA

NEWS: Children's Book published on Amazon

A children's book that I worked on last year, The Tale of Josephine Rose: A Horse’s Magical Neigh, by Kristen Halverson was published this week and is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. 

Josephine Rose is a noble Clydesdale horse that moves from Canada to the rolling hills of Iowa. When she meets the other horses, they realize how different she is. Although she wants to make new friends, some of the other horses push her away and won’t let her play.

Watercolor Coneflowers

I started teaching watercolor again this past weekend at Fine Arts on Fifth in Malvern, IA. It was cold but we had a nice class who were all ready for spring and eager to paint this pretty coneflower.

Painting a butterfly collection

I have a collection of boys truck wall art that is a best seller in my Etsy store and as I have watched the truck collection grow, I've realized how much I enjoy painting children's wall art. I also wanted to work on something for little girls and so began my butterfly collection last month. How can you not be happy painting butterflies?

Butterfly Print on Etsy

1. I drew my butterfly freehand onto watercolor paper. This is art for kids so the less perfect, the better.

2. I used an Ultramarine Derwent watercolor pencil to draw squiggles on the wings, hatch marks on the body, and I outlined the edges of the wings, too. Then I carefully painted clear water over each section. I like a little messiness so I paint water over the outer edges and let them blur. I also spray water on them and spatter more color into it. Then I use a hair dryer to speed things up.

3. The pinkish color is Winsor & Newton cobalt violet which is a pale sedimentary color which means the pigment will separate a little bit and leave a pretty texture. I also spattered more
cobalt violet into the wash to encourage this effect.

4. The quote was added in Photoshop. I love painting traditionally, but I also love what I can do with my art in Photoshop!

The Verdict is in!

Omaha was getting ready to shut down on Monday night but Snowmageddon didn't happen. I think we got about 6 inches total, but we did get 2 snow days = 2 nice long uninterrupted work days for me.

Football Player - Watercolor Portrait Work in Progress

Last month a friend of mine commissioned me to paint her grandson who is a star football player and he's only a sophomore in high school! He's a nice kid and very big. :)

Made a couple of changes here. The boy on the right needed to be African American with a mohawk and I flipped the kid on the lower left.

I painted AJ's face first thinking I'd tackle the hard stuff right away but that was actually the easiest part for me. The background was painted wet in wet and I used a spray bottle to get that cool orange streak.

AJ finished painting

Need Some Fresh Painting Inspiration?

I've been saving color swatches from Design Seeds on a color board I have on Pinterest for a while and today I decided to use one as inspiration for a new butterfly baby painting to add to a collection I'm working on.

I know designers make inspiration boards all the time and I've made a few when I have designed scrapbook paper collections, but I think this is a great exercise if you need some fresh painting inspiration.

As you can see, I went for really simple and I got lucky. My butterfly reference is very similar to my  inspiration palette, though I'm not convinced that this is a real butterfly species. I think someone may have tinkered with their butterfly photo. Anyway, if I hadn't found the right color, I would've just used my reference for the drawing and then painted it with my inspiration colors.

This was a very satisfying little experiment and I hope this gives you a little encouragement if you're ever stuck on what to paint. Just go to Pinterest or Design Seeds and find some inspiring color palettes and reference photos. You might want to set a timer though so you have time to paint. ;)

Pink & Yellow Butterfly Inspiration Board

The finished baby butterfly