Thursday, January 29, 2015

Friday, January 23, 2015

Shelved Watercolor Portrait

Finished this one yesterday. It's a quickie Payne's Grey (Winsor Newton) portrait study on an 11 by 14 inch sheet of Strathmore acid-free, "Windpower" watercolor paper. Not a very expensive paper, but it works for me. It sits on one of my studio wall display shelves.

Friday, January 16, 2015

The ship left the dock without me!!!


Today I applied for a very cushy job for the state of California.  Job title - State Art Czar. Annual salary - $325 K per year with killer retirement and health benefits. A four week, all-expense-paid vacation to Finland thrown in to sweeten the deal. All I needed to do was pass the watercolor- monochromatic-portraiture-painting test. When I finished this piece, I figured I had the job bagged. I hadn't notice the added color! The subconscious mind is not something to be ignored.

Monday, January 12, 2015

No More Mr. Nice Guy!!!




I just had to paint this self portrait, but is it to sophomoric?

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Quickie portrait exercise


About a 45 minute rendering from pencil sketch to watercoloring. I'm playing again with this cheapo, antique watercolor paper. Funny how my painting turned out looking vintage! It could pass for a watercolor painting done anywhere between 1947 (my birth date!) and 1960.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Artist In Training






Play the theme song from the movie "Rocky",  cus I'm in training. Not for a fight of course and not for any sort of competition. I will be one of three prominent watercolor artists who will be doing a one day portrait painting (from a live model) exhibition in Santa Rosa, Calif. this February 6. I need to be in shape, so I am doing a lot of practice studies like the one and in my two previous posts. By the way, the other two artists are Myrna Wacknov and Christopher Schink. Chris is co-owner and editor of Palette Magazine. We three have very different styles, so this should be fun. Check out the "cheap crap" paper I am painting on. One of my workshop students gave me this pad awhile back. I was intrigued with the paper's texture and thought I'd try painting on it. I like it!  Sidebar - when I paint these studies, my goal is a watercolor portrait with energy, color, sketch lines and lots of white paper. If I get somewhat close to a likeness, that's good enough.