Saturday, June 27, 2020

Sara’s summer so far

Here’s a nice little summer sketch of my son’s hops. I like the blue & green. By now  they have engulfed the entire side of his porch....maybe I’ll do a follow up.

I wasn’t too happy with this painting, so I totally wiped out the tree (using mr. clean magic eraser) and redid It mainly using watercolor pencils. I like it a lot more. I darkened the houses on the left too. Not sure it’s frame worthy but it is more interesting. Also I spray painted the mat white. It was a dark gray (unapproved mat color...)
And this is a watercolor sketch of my daughter-in-law, which I drew and painted this morning. I like how the face turned out, but not too crazy about the dress. Went a little too heavy with the pink...but it’s the first I’ve painted her & actually captured the expression I saw.

5 comments:

  1. -- et --June 27, 2020 at 12:51 PM

    Will the hops follow-up be a stein of homemade beer?

    I like the streetscape, but I think it might benefit from deeper colors in the sky to balance the vibrancy of the bottom of the image. Maybe deeper blues in the top, fading down to the current color as it nears the tree?

    The portrait really captures her personality! I agree, the dress is a bit distracting, maybe tone down the pink just a bit? I love the green/pink background split!

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  2. ekoJune 27, 2020 at 3:16 PM

    The hops sketch is exquisite. Just the right amount of wash and the right colors to complement the sinuous line.

    About time you got around to that portrait! She's got a great expression and you can feel the personality. Maybe too pink, but you should be able to tone the dress down a bit with a glaze so it doesn't pull focus from her face.

    When you painted over the magic eraser bit, did you have any issues with paper pilling or color shifting?

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    Replies
    1. sjdJune 27, 2020 at 6:05 PM

      The magic eraser worked pretty well. I went pretty wet with it, so the paper wasn’t too bad. This is big yellow pad Strathmore, 140 lb. it pilled a bit, but I didn’t really care since I mostly was using watercolor pencils on branches and wanted a bit of texture.

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  3. paoJune 29, 2020 at 9:06 AM

    A lovely sketch of porch, vine and sky. Even the spiral of the sketchbook works with it! The narrow street scene really seems to depict Chicago. Perhaps some more definition in the sky/clouds would bring your eye upwards to balance out the composition. I like the freshness of the portrait and its expressiveness. Yeah, you do need to lighten up on the hot pinkness as it overwhelms all else. I would even go so far as to suggest cutting it off a bit below the curl of her hair!!

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  4. Uncle KenJune 30, 2020 at 10:04 AM

    I like the lines on the hops, actually i think I like the lines of the porch better. Hops cam go however they want but the porch has a rigid geometry that the lines dance across. Nice shading on the porch too, looks casual like you just dropped it in, which is the way watercolors always should look but they are always so much more work.

    Normally I like the interplay of again the rigid geometry of the houses and sidewalk and the looseness of something like a tree, but I just don't see the looseness in the tree. It looks like it is on its best behavior and a little stiff.

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