Tutu and Tootsies

 

I don't know what possessed me to do a portrait when I haven't been painting for a while. I got some new pictures of my granddaughter and I couldn't resist. I wasn't sure what to do for the background; she was leaning up against a white louver closet door and sitting on brownish tile. I didn't want to get too detailed on the background, but not sure if this works.

Is there a method for painting a tutu? Should it be more detailed?

 



Seascape No.2



This is the try again seascape, but this time I made it lighter and used a slightly different arrangement. I used regular watercolors, but for some reason, it looks like I used watercolor pencils.

Try Again

I don't know what made me think a watercolor seascape would be an easy "get back into it" painting. Not my best work, but it's a start, again. It's a little fuzzy at the edges because the paper was larger than my scanner. I'm not happy with the waves--I used some old liquid frisket (masking fluid) and didn't mix it up as well as I should have. I couldn't remove it in some places because the coloring in it stained the paper. There were supposed to be white sea shells in the sand, but they came out pink. I might try this again.

December Update

I've gotten a little behind on my artwork and posting. I didn't get as much done this summer as I expected. I had a few setbacks. One being my other older cat got sick and died which I did not expect although she was 16 years old this summer. I also had two episodes of atrial fibrillation (spelling?). One at the end of June and another on November 1. It takes me about a month to get back to normal again. Fortunately I got out of the hospital in time to go to my older son's wedding that Saturday. I haven't even gotten around to doing a Christmas card this year. I hope to get back to painting again after Christmas providing everything stays "normal." It's a little disconcerting to realize that you can't always plan too far ahead when you get older.

As Far As I Got - Sketch

My sister had some beautiful maroon roses in her yard that looked like velvet and I thought one would be nice in a still life painting. But I was trying to get some spring cleaning done at the same time and this sketch is as far as I got on this "painting." It's a good thing I took a photo because the rose wilted before I could get to the painting part.

I've also been trying to get caught up on my outside work (weeding) since we had so much rain in May. All I seem to have gotten done when we had a brief dry spell was to get the grass cut. Then it got too hot for a few days to work outside--inside, too, until we got the air conditioners in the windows. (No central air here--yet.)

I would also like to enter the latest DailyPaintworks Challenge, which is to paint something that you see out of your window. Yesterday I tried to rearrange furniture on my porch and put some flowers in pots so I have something interesting to look at and paint. Still not done with the porch and it's already June. Too much to do during the summer.

Grandma's Vase with Tulip, Oil Pastel 7x9

I'm still playing around with oil pastel to see what I can get it to do. I'd really like to get it to look like regular oil paints. (I should probably give up and just use oils, but I don't like the smell.) It's painted on tinted watercolor paper with a coat of Art Spectrum Colourfix primer, clear. I think if I used a smoother paper it would look more like an oil painting, but I sort of like the effect of the texture of the paper that shows through in the background. I might enter this in the Color Challenge of Daily Paintworks if I can figure out if it qualifies for one of the color schemes. That was the original intent when I started, but where is brown on the color wheel?

Just for practice, "Path to the Beach"

Pastel - 8" x 11"

In the last couple of days I watched two pastel demonstration videos by Deborah Secor. One was on Artists Network TV and one was on Deborah Secor's blog. The one on her blog was a demonstration using PanPastels for a landscape which was mostly clouds. She made it look so easy that I thought, " I could do that!" Ha!  Not so easy. It probably would have been a little easier if I had used the PanPastels, but I just used what I had in the way of soft pastels. Also, I used a pastel paper which didn't have a lot of tooth. For my reference I used a photo I had taken when we were in Florida that included some beautiful clouds. I changed it a little; the ocean was actually the opposite direction. I used to do pastels a lot but I'm a little out of practice. Next time I think I'll use a pastel board or something with more tooth because I do too much layering.    

Older Painting

I wanted to post something more cheerful than the last post, so I dug around in some of my older paintings and found this watercolor from 2006. The flowers were from my yard at that time.This is painted on Bristol vellum. I really like working on this surface, but you can't get it too wet. It's good for watercolor pencils too. I'm not sure what I'm going to paint next or in what medium. I have so many photos that give me ideas that I don't know where to start. I might just view some of my Artist's Network videos for a while and then decide.

Abby

Abby didn't make it. She passed away yesterday. She was a good buddy and will be greatly missed.