Three Faces of Sun

 Today, I painted 3 passages of my life at 3 different parts of my universe:

(first at left ) A 60 plus year old watercolor artist at an Art Exhibit at Chicago Cultural Center (center) A 17 year old accounting student in Manila (right) A 3 year old who enjoyed colorful bags & socks in my hometown! As background, I painted a night of starry night, a sky of blue & orange & a dawn of a new day to complement the ages of each figure.When my family commented " does not look like!", I felt relieved that I did not have to paint a realistic likeness. Since the inspiration is a yellow selfie of the artist Kupka or Kufka, I knew the 3 year old dress would be yellow! The original reference  photos of the 3 year old & teenager are in black & white!

Sara falls into Fall

 Before I forget, 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/01/arts/design/hockney-drawings-review-morgan-library.html?referringSource=articleShare

This is a link to a review of a David Hockney Portrait exhibition at the Morgan Library in NYC. The review has several Hockney images in it. I love the collage of him and also his line drawings. What he achieves with a few simple lines is amazing. Click on the Morgan link at the end to see a watercolor self portrait. You can also sign up for a zoom presentation of the exhibit for free — several dates are listed but the first few I tried are full. 

So I took everyone’s advice and worked on this one some, raising the vegetation line, strengthening the windows. It gave me hope, so I did a few more.

Th

I like all of these a lot better. Adding more context (furniture, drapes) helps. The middle one comes closest to my original intent, but the bottom one has a more abstract quality that I like. These are all 6x9 inches, except the last one is 9x12.

Here are my freehand drawing and watercolor Portraits for this week . These are 9x12. Both have proportion issues, but the watercolor has a better likeness. I like my drawing but it looks like a different friend...weird. Also what’s the secret to painting watercolor eyes that look at the viewer? 

Elaine O. — October 3, 2020

She's finished!  My original intent was to convey the moment between thought and motion; the sense that she's just on the verge of an action. I debated adding a darker strip of color at the very top to box her in more (and maybe make it feel like she's about to pounce), but I think I like it as it is. Plus, the paper won't take much more abuse, especially in the face area.

Ready for Action    12"x9"

And, as a bonus, here's a peek into my sketchbook with a food recommendation—cotton candy grapes. They are incredible and, yes, they do taste like cotton candy. 

Cotton Candy Grapes    5"x5" (approx.)

More fishies

It's kind of peculiar I know, but it's been siting around and I have become rather fond of it.

And this is the beginning of another mosaic fish.
 

Sara’s experiments

 Here’s a couple of tree out the window studies. Not thrilled with either, altho the second one is closer to my original idea. But to me it looks like the tree is underwater.  The first one kind of hurts my eyes to look at it. So much going on.... I don’t know why I’m so enamored of the window frame - not sure it adds anything to the composition.

So I went back to something more familiar- portraits! I did both freehand from a photo & like the watercolor better than the drawing. Who ever thought I’d feel more comfortable drawing faces than trees — not me! Oh but hands are another challenge...

I don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but lately I find great comfort in drawing and painting. It’s like I see everyThing as a learning experience instead of a finished piece. It’s like a little getaway from the craziness of the news and the unanswered questions about the future. Just go put some color or marks on a piece of paper...see what happens...

Elaine O.—September 26, 2020

 I'm still working on the portrait. It's 9x12 and I've been slowly working around the subject. Seems I'm back to my usual MO, avoiding the face until the very end. I'll get there, though!

Not much else happening. I've been working on our front door. New paint... new hardware... and now I'm waiting for supplies for the address numbers. I've been sketching and photoshopping styles and colors, and also wandering the neighborhood, just in case I get a better idea before the actual install. Also, I got a new pen...

... and used it to sketch a morning glory blooming in a tangle of weeds by the telephone pole in our alley. It's gorgeous! The color of the morning glory in the sunlight was what originally caught my eye, but as I sketched, I was really amazed by the variety of weed shapes and colors, not to mention the way it all naturally shaped like a floral spray.

Rockies Redux Hockney

 When I saw the Hockney inspiration painting this morning.  I felt I have done the same layers of foreground, middle ground & background plus the pine trees. Thanks Sara for noticing unintentional similarity! So here goes, I dug up the 2017 Rockies watercolor! Happy painting, fellow artists! Am still trying to have confidence in blog posting! 

Bream 3.1

One of the ideas I was fooling with in this painting was how to incorporate watercolor pencils into a painting,  It doesn't show up well in this photo but there are a lot of squiggly lines around and in the tiles that I like,  It's been a process of scribbling in the lines with a wet pencil, putting water over the lines, then coming back with a with a different colored pencil, letting it dry a little than adding some watercolor then more watercolor of a different color, blotting with a paper towel, and then maybe doing the whole process again.  With the eye and those dark tiles around it, I was doing a completely different idea and now it sticks out like a sore eye, but maybe I can yet integrate it. 

Kitchen QuartetTest

 Hello this is Susan trying to enter blog with pencil sketch of Kitchen Quartet of 4 women preparing vegetables for lunch! Just followed Ken's advice on drawing  photos copied from black & white photocopies. Will draw tone & texture later. Also trying to enter blog on my own. Fingers crossed!

Susan S.—September 19, 2020

 Two from Susan today:

Title: Phangnga island, Thailand. The original sketch was done plein air on Valentine's day, 2 years ago. This is the James Bond Island which I painted before with bikini beauties. This time, I painted over the sketch lines of my travel book & tried to recapture the tropical heat & the blue sky & the green ocean! Upside down, it looks like a mini volcano ready for lift-off! 

 

Title#2: GOOD MORNING FEET! My husband Tony was diagnosed with elevated hypertension in May. Among his medical protocols is the reduction of sodium or fluid to regulate heartbeats plus vigilant checkups for swollen feet. So our nurse cousin told us to greet our lower extremities every morning & check for "dimples"! This is my attempt to start a value drawing. I am just a starter! I do not know how to differentiate the black color of  my leggings with Tony's red shorts. And the shadings of the legs are inadequate! It is easier to paint in watercolor. Thanks for any advice!