April 28, 2018

As you know, we love to experiment—and we have a cool new tool to show you. As you've seen, we often begin with a sketch and we love a nice line and wash painting. Tony's been doing a lot of drawing lately, concentrating on portraits. Look at the self-portrait below. He's been using a water-soluble marker to draw with. But when he adds water, the ink separates into incredible shades of blue, green, red and purple. And the effect works as well when he uses a sepia wash (the shirt) as when he uses water (the face). Isn't this great?

We're also showing you some of Tony's earlier work with this tool. Here, he's used the pen more heavily and added a blue wash. See how much more color separates from the ink?

 And here's an even stronger reliance on the line. We're also including a shot of the pen Tony uses. We love the colors in the black ink.

Here's a shot of the pen—in case you are interested in playing along with us. It's a double-ended calligraphy marker, made by Itoya.

Madeleine is also known for line and wash work, but this delightful family painting doesn't include any line at all. Instead, she relies on amazing composition, subtle color and touches of watercolor pencil. We really like this painting, especially the character she's managed to capture in each of the three subjects—not an easy task!

Madeleine has also made progress on the second of her Washington family portraits. Again, the composition is notable. Her grandson looks like a superhero in front of the Washington monument.

 

Sara is also boldly working on a dual portrait. Yes, that's baby Nora with her proud uncle. The preliminary sketches make this seem effortless, but the actual painting is stunning. The colors glow, the subjects' likenesses are dead on, and the hands in the foreground tell the story. This is going to be a family heirloom.

Steve may not be painting relatives, but his merman looks like he could be. Here's another fine example of composition as the subject is framed beautifully and the complementary colors draw the eye. The water and sun look real and make us want to be there.

With results like that, it's no wonder Steve is continuing with his merman series. Below, he sketching his next subject. 

Bill's also painting people, but these are strangers in a courtyard in Bruges. The architecture frames the people, who also lead the eye to the true subject.... the buildings and the tower in the distance.

Bill also painted this allegoric seascape. We're intrigued by the composition and the unique viewpoint he chooses. 

Elaine is painting a place, too. This is just the beginning, but we can already feel the sun on the garden.

Susan has gone back to add a few touches to her garden scene. We approve! The people pop even more against the lush garden background.

Yes, it's the season! Our thoughts are turning to gardens and plants. Like Susan and Elaine, Yi's brush is turning to nature. She's making tremendous progress on her morning glory. The intricately patterned leaves are both strong statements on their own, and a delicate frame for the lovely blue flower.

And what says warm weather more than red, ripe tomatoes? Ken is adding a mosaic background to his tomato plants and it reflects the season. The colors are soft and convey a sense of fun.

It's time for the giant fruit exercise and Tal has done an incredible job with his eggplant. This is a perfect image of the gradated, striped model he brought in. And we wanted to go home with Tal when we heard how he was planning to cook up the eggplant later that day. It sounded as delicious as the painting.

Tal did two versions of one of our favorite homework exercises.... the egg!  This one looked great to us, but he got a comment that it looked like a jellyfish.

...so he tried a different version. This one looks like it's carved out of ceramic, doesn't it? Tal captured the shiny highlight perfectly.

Dates, exhibitions and classes you should know about

The Ten Cat Group Watercolor Show.  We are still at Ten Cat! The paintings are on display in the windows for another week and you can still stroll by and see them. Details on the postcard below.

      Where:
      Ten Cat Tavern

      3931 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL

     When:
     Exhibition: February 18–April 30, 2018
    

Celebrating Diversity Exhibition
Susan Silvano is exhibiting at the Walker Library, celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Stop by if you can.

When:  May 1–May 31, 2018
            
Where: Walker Library
             11071 S. Hoyne Avenue, Chicago, IL 60643
             312-747-1920

Next Class
Want to join our merry band? The summer session of Watercolor begins on June 9 and goes through July 21. Save the date and, if you're at all interested, register! You'll be glad you did.