Caroline's View

The rare landscape painting done in portrait mode.  I felt the height of the sky was the most important design element and so I flipped the paper thusly.  A friend sent me the view from her backyard and I felt inspired to paint it.  The sky in the photo had more pinks than purples, but purple was where my mind was at.  I also omitted the palm trees on the side of the painting.  I thought about going all Bob Ross and doing a dark tree up the left side, but I just could not.  I think it would have distracted from the sky.

                                           Watercolor on 200lbs paper 14x10 

Where My Mind Is

I think I need a vacation. . .someplace with sunsets like this.

                                          Watercolor on 200lbs paper 12x16

This is the largest watercolor I have ever done.  I stood while painting and was very loose and free with the strokes.  I think I futz too much with the sky but otherwise, I am rather happy with results. 

And historically speaking. . .this marks my 22nd post of the year and the 200th over all.  2013 has now tied my third most product year since I started this blog in 2006.  I doubt that I will ever match the first year (101), where I was posting pictures from a 10-20 year period.

Friday Interlude: Serene Mountain Vista

I bought a bunch of small travel art journals awhile back but have yet to use them. I have taken them on several business trips but never had the time or the right mindset to use them.  I wanted to paint today but did not feel like doing anything large or ambitious.  This little landscape book hit the spot.

                                      Watercolor and ink on paper 5.5x8.25

This took about 15 minutes to draw and paint. . .and was fun too. I look forward to filling up this book and its smaller cousins.

And here is the rough drawing in ink.

Wolverine in watercolor and ink (Hugh Jackman)

I must admit, after the first Wolverine movie, I did not have high hopes for the current sequel.  After seeing the first two full length trailers. . .I am starting to getting (guardedly) optimistic.  Since it is partly based-on the immensely popular Chris Claremont/Frank Miller limited series, fans are going to have high standards for this movie.  But Wolverine. . .fighting ninjas. . .how bad can it be?

                                       Watercolor and ink on 140lbs paper 9x12

This watercolor and ink is based on the cover of the current Entertainment Weekly.  My goal for this was to do something Barry Winsor-Smith-esque.  I love his inks and watercolors.  This was not bad, but I still have a long way to go to making the washes more subtle.  Aside from his face (which is too dark), I am happy with this piece.

I used my new Faber-Castell TK 4600 mechanical pencil and Faber-Castell pitt pens instead of my usual Sakura pigma micron pens.  They are very nice.  I think I might like them better ::gasp:: than the micron pens. 

                                                                  Rough Pencils

                                                           Loose inks.

The goopy stuff on his claws is liquid masque.  I wanted to make sure his claws were shiny.