Recent Developments

I have just been notified that I have passed the first round of a three round judging process for the World Watercolor Competition under the auspices of the French magazine "The World of Watercolour". I am keeping my fingers crossed on this one. Meanwhile, here are three small 11X14 inch watercolor studies that I have just completed. They were all painted on Arches 140lb. cold press paper. The female subject is my fifth study . . . just can't get enough practice! Oh, and one more thing dear readers . . . HAVE A ROLLICKING GOOD AND PROSPEROUS 2014!

WOW!!!! It has been awhile since I posted!

Not only have I been very busy with my California art workshops but also with my teaching at Sacramento City College. I'm teaching an art history class this semester, and that just eats ups tons of my time. Next semester, I will be back to only art studio classes . . . way better! Meanwhile I have just finished an interview via email and Dropbox with an editor of "Pratique des Art", a French art magazine. I am very honored and excited about this. Both of these portraits plus some more, I hope, will be in the magazine's January, 2014 issue devoted to portrait painting. Pratique des Art discovered my work through my relatively new website. Check my site by clicking here.

Building Armando

I have always liked "unfinished" paintings like the top image. This top image is the start of "Amando". In the second image, I continued to paint in color and eat into my initial "unfinished" look. The third image is now totally painted in and of course no longer has an unfinished look. My final stage will include some jazzy colored conte crayon line work. I shall post the finished watercolor soon. Dear reader - what is your opinion on this painting? Would love to hear from you.

Remembrance

Just completed watercolor of a retired ballerina. Painted on a funky sheet of Strathmore 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper, but it worked!!

Putting on the Face

One of my A+ art students at City College who is not at all embarrassed about putting on some faces. She is one of my fav. models for that attitude! This was watercolored on a half sheet, 140lb., cold press watercolor paper and painted with a verve to match her pose.

Doing Obama

This is my first portrait on a 5 inch by 7 inch dinky winky canvas board. I spent as much time on this as I would have on a 24 by 28 inch canvas! I need more acrylic practice!! Mostly painted with flat brushes with a limited palette of colors.

Watercoloring the king of the African savannah in watercolor

A typical watercolor where you go from light to dark, paying very close attention to keeping your darks and lights in proper balance. In the first photo, you can see how my background was painted in wet-on-wet with no fussy detail. The king is the star of this show and the background is a supporting actor. Yes, I painted in some dark areas in the tree trunk and the lion's rear, but I knew these were areas where I did not have to slowly build up various areas of light, middle, and dark values. The first close up of the head is where I had to build various values from light to dark. In the fifth photo, you can see how I started working on the foreground grass wet-on-dry. The foreground is usually where you want some texture, so . . . background is wet-on-wet and soft looking and the foreground is dry-on-dry, textural, and in sharp focus (along with the lion). In the seventh photo, I painted in my final dark values into the lion's head. Notice how the log in my finished watercolor got lighter. I pulled off paint to lighten it. The log was overwhelming the lion and was not playing a supporting role. In the end, this was a challenging watercolor!

King of the African Savannah in Acrylic

Next weekend I teach a two day acrylic and watercolor workshop on how to go about painting this pussycat. This is the start and roaring end of said pussy cat in acrylic. NEVER EVER take out a small brush and diddle around with fussy details to start any kind of painting. Lay down the big color/value shapes to build the proper foundation. Once that is done, you can begin refining, working on ever more smaller value, color shapes. It is only as you see the light at the end of the tunnel that you may have to use a smaller brush for the final details like the eyes and whiskers on this big boy. At least 90% of this acrylic painting was done with flat brushes ranging from 1/4 inch across to 1 inch across. Be patient with the building progress, and have faith that after the initial big value/color shapes are laid down for a good foundation, the rest of the painting process (refining) will yield a successful painting! I will be posting my watercolor of this guy towards the end of the week.

Play that funky music, white girl.

An eleven inch by twenty two inch watercolor on 140lb. Arches cold press rough paper. One of my ex-talented students at Sacramento City College. This is now part of my "California-Vibe Portraits" series. Next year, I have several "California-Vibe Watercolor Portraiture" workshops scheduled across the country, and am in the process of scheduling one or two more. It's going to be a wild pedal-to-the-metal, brush-to-the-paper workshop! I have already taught one this year for the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society in San Jose, California.

Finished?

This is a further progression of the watercolor portrait of my previous post. The trouble, or should I say the challenge, of water color painting is determining when said painting is finished. Work on it beyond the finish line and you end up with a steaming pile of you-know-what! Unlike opaque mediums, there is no fixing, so . . . I shall let this sit for awhile before I determine if it is indeed finished. What do you think, dear reader? I'm all ears.

Another "California-Vibe" portrait

I'm in the process of painting one of my "California-Vibe" watercolor portraits (go to my website to see more). These portraits are super colorful with exciting and playful brush work. This painting captures the vibrant, any thing goes culture that my home state is known for. This rather imposing gentleman, who was in one of my studio art classes that I teach at Sacramento City College, is quite the artistic talent and a very approachable, intelligent, four-square family man. When I asked if I could snap a photo of him for a potential watercolor study, he struck his tough guy pose that reflects upon what I will politely describe as his misspent youth. I started with the drawing using a soft pencil with variable pencil pressure and lots of contour line character. After that came the fun part . . . lots of color variation washes with wild and spontaneous, almost sumi-e brush work. On top of this layer, I careful rendered facial feature but still with variable and expressionistic colors. This painting is not yet completed, and it will sit for awhile until I am ready to pick up my brushes again to finish it with a bit more "California-Vibe".

Some views of my Santa Clara, California workshop last week

This was a five day watercolor portrait workshop that I taught for the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society. I had a full workshop with 20 very energetic, talented, and delightful painters. The first photo shows them waiting for my first demonstration. The second view is our classroom. The next is the start of a demo painting I did to show value control. The following photo is the finished watercolor with an overlay of color. The fifth shot is a watercolor study that was painted by one of my students. It is her mother and a very compelling piece! The sixth image is one of my students snapping a photo of one of my many demo paintings that I did over the course of the five day workshop. The seventh photo shows my workshop crew holding one of their portraits. We worked both in Payne's Gray and full color. The final shot shows my work table with Mr. Head.

Another watercolor painting progression from a reference photo of one of my college students

Draw the outside shape of the head, paint a few light and dark values, deepen some of the mid values, paint the last darkest values, and finish with a background.

Portrait by eyeball

You are not drawing a face, you are not drawing a face, you are not drawing a face. That's my mantra with anything I draw or paint. I draw and paint shapes, contours, and values. That is what any artist needs to concentrate on. That is pure right brain muscle power. The shapes need to be angled, proportioned, and positioned as accurately as possible, the contours also need to be as accurate as possible, and you need to see and control value relationships. Do that, practice that, and you too can eyeball it.