Sketchy stuff….

 Working on this sketch to figure out values and proportions etc. …otherwise spending my time teaching 2 month old Claire to laugh!

cat and two trees

This is a bigger version,9x12, of Daisy Katt, in her pink cat bed. 

Well this is another one of those dit, dit, dit, texture heavy, sort of a tree.  Not yet done, just an exercise at this point, but I may be able to stitch it together. 9x12

 Here's another, more treelike, on 5x7

Georgia On My Mind

 From a 1918 photo by Alfred Stieglitz.  Proud of this because I actually DREW it.  However, I did not draw it directly onto watercolor paper which is supposed to be my goal  

Ignore other pics….don’t have a discard icon anymore  

1918 

Alan Spring 6

 Still can’t paint sitting down and I don’t like painting standing (but artists have been doing that for hundreds of years) so I did these two sketches sitting back in my recliner and drawing and painting that way. Greeta got me some watercolor pens for my birthday so I put in the color with those and used the wash brush to blend the colors. I just wish they labeled the colors with real labels. Like house paints they invent names like golf green instead of perylene green and even crazier names. 

Here’s a bowl of oranges, grapefruit and bananas that was on our kitchen table. Sketched in graphite. About 6 X 8 on 140# coldpress. 

And this is one of those Trader Joe’s orchids done with ink and watercolor on 5 X 7 140# coldpress. Had a difficult time blending watercolor pen colors on the page. 

  

I think I can draw a larger pic of something even though the backer board is cumbersome. I’ll try that next. Then, when I can sit down like a normal human being again, I’ll have something to paint. 

Not much

This is starting out as a tree, but it could end up as anything.  I need to flow untrammeled on something bigger than 3x4 

Thought I was done here, but I see I am going to have to straighten out her head.

I should probably just toss this and start again.
 

One More Go With Edith

 

This is large and a lesson in going back and forth with changes to just about everything. I’ve managed to paint a different woman in each of my versions. Where the highlights were lost, a damp paper towel brought them back. 

Spring colors…

 

In class I started the “good” portrait.  I’m Working on hot press, not sure if it’s going to be my friend…

I started this little quick sketch in class and finished it at home. It doesn’t quite have the drama of the previous window sketch —see last post—but overall it’s a more interesting painting imo, however the darks need to be darker to make it pop. I’m going to do another version of this —cause I think I have a frame this size…!

May 3, 2025 — Elaine O.

I've finished and waxed this little portrait on Aquaboard and I'm happy with it. For some reason, I'm especially fond of the shirt. It's a particular favorite of the subject and I think I've done it justice.

6" x 6"

Because I haven't been able to find decent transfer paper lately, I've had to resort to actually drawing. Imagine! I did a direct watercolor and a pencil sketch of an old B&W snapshot. I love the photo—there's something quintessential about her stance and the way she holds her pocketbook. Now to figure out the background and do some color studies.

A4 sketchbook spread

SS Sisters Dance 5.3.25

 One of the bonding moments of us, 3 sisters, is to dance together as a trio, in any social affair, formal or informal in the greater Chicago community. My youngest sister is disabled and was born with Cerebral Palsy & her greatest joy in her physical limitations is to sing and dance, which is quite ironic, but we addressed in our family as just Life! So every time, a familiar tune is played by the music deejay in every get together, the 3 of us, would dance as a group, amidst the dancing couples and the line dancing crowd, with gusto and appreciation. My Watercolor painting done during the last class of the spring term showed us with eyes looking at each other, moving with the music and being grateful that we could create happy memories together at any moment physically and free!

Painting like Van Gogh….

 Well, I didn’t cut off my ear, but I can’t hear out of my right ear b/c of an ear infection— same difference!

This girlie is done, I think, altho I wonder if the colors are strong enough. Sometimes I put a painting behind glass and the colors seem to fade. FYI she’s not behind glass yet…

This is a pre-painting of my next project. I’m trying to work out colors, shapes, values before I do the real thing. I cut down the volume of her dress….Her dress will be a lighter blue and all her party hat will show. I like the top background but the rest I’m not sure of. So much for working out all the details…

These are sketches I worked on while waiting for paint to dry.i like the color saturation on the top one, although i was really trying to think about composition…the second one I was trying to capture my lovely dogwood tree in bloom, although i really over worked it. The interior part of the sketch is nice tho…