Cowboy

I painted this picture for a friend.  It's her dad, and she wanted to give it to her mom for Christmas.  It's a mix of transparent watercolor and gouache.  I think the man and his horse turned out okay, but I really struggled with the background.  I wanted to edit what was in the picture and make it more simple, but in the end I think it became a little too simple.  And working with gouache is more difficult than I thought it would be.

Experimenting Again

This is another mixed media painting.  I used watercolor and charcoal again.  It didn't end up quite how I wanted it to, but my point was to paint kind of freely.  I do like painting with lots of splatters and quick strokes.

Here is a closer detail of some of the charcoal and splattering.

I keep wanting to experiment with different styles and methods of watercolor painting.  For this painting I decided to try using the paint in a cleaner and more vibrant way.  I like the mix of warm and cool colors.

More experiments

I wanted to keep experimenting with different techniques and textures.  In this painting I wanted to try spattering masking liquid on with a toothbrush and seeing what it could do.  I started by painting the foreground yellow, then I spattered the masking fluid, then I glazed blue over the yellow to create the green field.

A closeup of the spattered flowers.

I wanted to practice working with wet on wet more than I normally do.  I did everything wet on wet until the end I put in the fence, the tree trunk and branches, and some of the background in with direct method.

Texture Experiment

The focus of this painting was just to experiment with texture.  The subject matter was more secondary.  I just found some face I could do a quick sketch of just as a vehicle.  I wasn't really going for accuracy and I didn't use the reference while I was painting.

I painted this on a piece of heavy bristol paper.  So the surface was a very smooth texture.  I started by drawing the picture on with heavey charcoal.

I used a little pit of red pastel and white charcoal.

I started with a layer of loose watercolor and then built up the texture around it.  I wanted to make sure that the highest point of contrast was the focal point.

I used a lot of spattering and smudging in order to add texture.

The Philippines

This is a painting I did from a photo that my sister took in one of her areas in the Philippines.  There are always neat cloud formations during the monsoon season, and that's why I liked this picture.  I wanted to try and keep it clean and "wet" looking.  I also wanted to try and capture the lighting of a monsoon day.

Pear Still Life

I painted this picture on a whole sheet that was trimmed to create a longer format.  This painting was so frustrating!  The problem was I was trying to do a large picture with very dark darks using colors that were more opaque.  (burnt sienna, yellow ochre, indian red).  Every time I went in to correct something or make something darker, the paint lifted.  After trying over and over again I finally gave up and called it a learning experience.