We’re still in Michigan at the cottage. I’m done with Gulf Coast stuff but Greeta might have more to do.

This is a regular watercolor of a crazy flower that was in our backyard. The owner had never seen it before but said it was on a ginger plant.   It cured me of wanting to paint flowers.

This is Greeta’s painting of the inner harbor at ocean springs. 

This watercolor is of the instructor of a watercolor class that we took. 

elaine t, May 30

I finished Mr. Clown, but didn't do more than contemplate what the next project should be. Maybe something from the show Killing Eve, which I love...

May 30, 2020 — Elaine O.

I'm calling this finished! I'm slightly dissatisfied with a few things, but I'm at the point where my paper can't take any more fine-tuning in those areas. So I'm taking that as a sign that I need to stop and move on. I may try this again sometime, but not right away.

Big Cat Six - the mane event

I really liked the photo but then as I began to paint it I realized that he was mostly all hair which is kind of formless, but I guess that means I can do whatever I want to do.

Sara’s stuff

Here’s the painting I started last week. It’s done. I like some things about it, but I really lost the family resemblance between us, so it’s a little flat.

This one has grown on me. I covered the background in oil pastels, so it kind of makes the figures pop.

Here are a couple of garden sketches from this week. This second one I was trying to simplify shapes into lights and darks, but it went kind of wacky.

May 23, 2020—Elaine O.

I haven't gotten a lot done this week at all. I'm still working on the portrait. Just when I thought I may have gone too dark on her face, I added the background and realized I needed even more color. There's a lot  to be said for working the entire painting all together.

elaine t, May 23

The first study is either my salvation, or my vice and eventual downfall: Godiva Dark Chocolate Liqueur. A big splash into my morning coffee is a good start to the day!

The second will be more detailed than a quick study. It's Mr. Clown, a favorite puppet when my boys were little. Mr. Clown is becoming a favorite in videochats with my grandson too!

Big Cat Five - Stephen

I'm not sure what to say about this Jaguar so I'll wait and see what the forum thinks.

Sara’s Continuing Saga

So I stopped worrying about getting a likeness and just painted the damn thing.

My sister actually looks more like her here than I do. I look vaguely familiar as someone else. (I keep thinking I look like Greeta, but I haven’t seen her in so long, I don’t really know! Where are they I wonder?) I realized my feature proportions are off. But this was a good experience. Since my reference photo was so tiny and blurry, I really had to study the shapes. It’s a little overworked but I like the way my sister is painted.

But I realized what I liked about that photo was the composition —the way we’re pressed together in the corner of the frame. (Sort of like my sister is trying to push me out of the frame!) So I sketched it out again, not really worrying about likeness.

And quickly transferred it to watercolor paper and started painting it today, really just concentrating on how I’m painting it & not so much about likeness.

I’ll just call it Two Sisters (no relation to Chekhov’s Three Sisters...)

May 16, 2020 — Elaine O.

I liked the reference photo from last week's sketch so much, I decided to do an actual painting. Here's the start; the likeness is closer on this one than on the direct watercolor sketch.

Because it's a portrait I am invested in and want to get right, I spent some warm-up time during the week sketching and painting portraits of people I don't know. Before I recycle magazines, I flip through and sketch the people. Here are a few, first an ink and wash sketch, and then direct watercolor.



Interestingly enough, I think I get a better likeness with the direct watercolor than drawing with a pen. I've also noticed a tendency to see people as slanting left to right and thinner than they actually are. Maybe this is my next 30-day project....



Other than that, I've been setting up and playing with my new tablet—very carefully, until the case and screen saver arrive! So far, I'm most excited to have a working e-reader again. Here's my new friend (cuter in real life, I promise).

Big Cat Five

He or she is jaguar.  I'm going to have to see how the background looks before I return to the spotted cat.  That's a little backwards isn't it?  Those vertical lines are supposed to be like reeds or tall fat grass.  They'll be a lot darker by the time I'm done.  Then a hill, then some spindly trees, and a starry sky, for the forest of the night, even though this is not a tiger.

elaine t. May 16

I'm finally shaking off the malaise of the past few weeks, thank heavens. I think I'll be more productive in the coming days!

Here's a better version of the facehugger I tried to portray in the little illustration from last week. 

Sara’s struggles

So I have this little photo of me and my sister taken about 15 or 20 years ago.

Yes, it’s a 3 by 5 snapshot, but I like it and decide to sketch it, maybe for a color pencil or watercolor portrait .

First quick freehand sketch. Not too bad, my sister looks a little caricature-ish but I look great, maybe a little too young and fresh...
So I start another sketch on tracing paper so I can transfer it to watercolor paper.

I work on this a long time. Doesn’t really look like either of us, but again I don’t look too bad, so I concentrate on my sister.

Same sketch, after another couple of hours. Still doesn’t look like her. ( the great thing about tracing paper is you can erase many many times...)

Same sketch, many hours later and it still doesn’t look like her! I’ve probably worked on this six or eight hours! I’ve sketched it upside down, I’ve looked in the mirror, I’ve measured. The faces aren’t bad but they just don’t look like her...I think the first caricature one looks more like her than any of the others....It’s just weird how I keep missing by a mile...oh well, maybe I’ll just paint it & see what happens...

Here’s this one. Not sure if it’s finished. Not sure the dark mat works. Maybe I’ll spray paint it white.

May 9, 2020 — Elaine O.

Happy Mothers Day! To celebrate, I did a direct watercolor sketch of a mother... mine, to be precise! It's not perfect, but it's not too far off.

I did one more "out my window" sketch. I never realized how messy the cables in the alley are. Good thing I'm not a neat freak (and afraid of heights) or  I'd be out there organizing those wires.

Here's the inside of my new refrigerator, fully packed.

Then I spent some time with my dutch oven, making bread and soup...

...rediscovered jigsaw puzzles...

 
and watched my African violet start to bloom.

 

Have a happy mother's day!

elaine t. May 9

Sorry I missed last week--having a rough time.

I finished my "Covid Eyes" commentary. Apologies for the muffed facehugger at the bottom--I didn't mean it to look like a dogpile. :-P I also did a quick study of a patch of grape hycynths in front of my building. I love those flowers--they are cuties!

Liddia is done

Smoothed her face out a little bit.  Didn't get the background to pop the way I wanted to.  The grass is okay, but I wanted to do something more jiggy with the sky.  I put in a lot of different shades of blue and thought something would happen but not much did.

The real Liddia

I was going to name that cheetah, Clint, because of the squinty stare thing, even though if you saw the photo before it was cropped she has two little kittens.  But then early last week I learned that one of my Champaign friends, Liddia Stevens. had died of covid.  I didn't know her that well but she was a fantastic artist and I just thought  I'd give you a look at her work

https://www.zhibit.org/liddiastevens

Sara’s stuff

Here are the daffodils painted on 300lb Waterford cold press. The paper is very substantial but it doesn’t soak up the paint the way some of the other 300lb sheets did.  But  stuff dried a little too quickly for my pace, so I guess it is pretty thirsty. I’m  not really sure this is done. I left the sunlit table sections unpainted, because I think adding color there makes the table too busy.not really happy with the way the windows are painted- they’re a little too blotchy. Also pencil lines show up on the flowers. Overall it was challenging to paint and it borders on being too fussy.

Also worked on this one. It’s a weird size because I’m painting to an existing mat size. The paper is 18 by 24, so it’s abt 14 by 20. I still have to put in the trees. I think I’m channeling Edward Hopper....

This is my one measly sketch. I love these bright yellow green new leaves against the blu sky. And doesn’t a fence, trellis, and chicken coop just scream lockdown urban  living...?!

May 2, 2020 - Elaine O.

I finished the birthday girl's portrait... although she looks about 5 years older than she actually is.

 

Didn't get much done on my sketchbook at all. The lockdown must be getting to me. I tried another portrait, starting with a direct watercolor wash and adding ink later.

And then, I went all loose and crazy and started this buddha head—only three light, candy colors; very wet and slanted about 45 degrees, so not much control. It won't be great, but it's been fun.

For anyone wondering about the mudras, they were part of a commissioned series featuring small paintings (6x6") of a Tibetan goddess, Tara. The Green Tara is based on traditional Tibetan paintings; the White Tara on a sculpture. In both, one hand gesture symbolizes strength and protection, the other healing and loving kindness. Here they are, all together: