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!

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.

Spring Blossoms

I spent around 5 hours this weekend cleaning up my garden. There is still lots to do but I have to wait for the trash to be picked up because I filled all of my trash cans. It finally feels like spring here and it was perfect weather to garden about 60 degrees. Tonight, my husband asked me why I had a red line on my back above the waistband of my pants. Apparently that part of me was in the sun long enough to get burned while I was bending over my plants. LOL

We have an enormous flowering pear tree in our front yard that is gorgeous for about 2 weeks every spring. This is a close up of the blossoms that I painted on a 6 x 6 piece of Aquaboard. A fun surface to work with and it just needs to be sprayed and framed.

A Month of Pumpkins Day 25

Happy Monday!

This is a little watercolor from a still life I set up. It is painted on Aquaboard and measures 6 x 6. I really enjoy painting on Aquaboard and since I bought a 4 pk, you'll probably be seeing another similar painting very soon. I'm at Day 25 and I can see the end of my project coming closer to the end and I admit I'm a little sad. Six more paintings/illustrations to go......

This one is listed on Ebay here if you are interested in owning it. (FYI, the bumpy look on the background is my scanner picking up the texture of the board like when I scanned the 300 lb watercolor paper. It's not so obvious in real life and it looks "normal" if there is such a thing.)

A Month of Pumpkins Day 24

I decided to do something different today, something I've been wanting to do for a long time - collage. But, I've been wanting to make my own paper on something that is thin like tracing paper but sturdy enough to take paint and not buckle.  I just hadn't figured out yet what would be the right surface. While I was in my favorite art supply store yesterday, I decided to check out the papers they keep in those flat files, and voila, Rice Paper seemed like a place to start.

Here are the results of my morning efforts. I tried watercolor, watercolor crayon and acrylic. Acrylic worked best. I used a hair dryer to speed things up.

Then I just needed a reference photo. I used one I took at my friend's house.

And what to put my collage on? I had a 5 x 7 piece of aquaboard and I hadn't been happy with the painting so I gessoed over it and loosely sketched my design on with watercolor crayon. Then I tore up pieces of collage paper and glued them down with PVA glue which is a ph neutral glue used for bookbinding and paper projects, something archival. I tore pieces of the rice paper and glued them down and then I went back over with paint in a few places. Tomorrow I will seal it with acrylic varnish. It was fun. I've worked on this pretty much all day though and my back aches, but I'm finished a lot earlier than yesterday so I have time to fold laundry, go grocery shopping and cook dinner. Yay!

Snapshot - Watercolor Portrait

My daughter was trying to take her own picture before going out to a party. She was all dressed up and she looked so cute. I painted this on Aqua Board which I really like. The paint doesn't absorb into it because it's not paper. It's similar to painting on gesso which I also like. This is a way to get some really interesting texture without trying and if you're a realistic painter wanting a looser look, this might work for you, but if you're a watercolor painter who has to use multiple layers of paint, then you might not like this. You can go over with new paint but you have to be really careful because your previous layer will lift if you're not careful. So on the plus side, it's really easy to fix mistakes. This surface doesn't need to be framed under glass. It only requires a spray fixative so that is a plus in that you don't have the hassle of matting. That was my unsolicited opinion!

This is 11 x 14 but was slightly cropped by my scanner.