Innocence - Day Thirty of the 30/30 Challenge

Innocence, 

Watercolor on Saunders Waterford #140 Cold Press Paper, 15"h x 11"w, 2015 #32

Master Study, Not for Sale

Day Thirty of the challenge -- I've made it this time! Yay!!!

This last painting I've completed for the challenge this month is also not done in a day's time, but on and off at every chance that a day's painting has not taken the entire time of that day. It is also a master study of Jan Kunz, as I have set a goal for myself to learn the basic of portrait and figure painting in watercolor in the coming year. I have learned a lot from doing this one -- from how to mix believable skin tones to the procedure of rendering the features of the face, as well as how to apply a background that does not detract from the figure. It's also done on a surface that is hard-sized, but for some reason dries much faster than Arches, so the window of time left to manipulate wet washes on it is not ideal. But it forces me to simplify and work fast, and in the end, I think I've learned to apply multiple light glazes to fix soft half-tone shapes that don't quite have the right value, color or edge quality. I would like to do some figure paintings of children in a simple, one-light-source setting like this one next. If you have a good photo of a child that I could use, please email it to me. Thanks in advance!

Curiosity - Day Twenty-Three of the 30/30 Challenge

Curiosity, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2015 #25

Bid in My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $95)

Day Twenty-Three of the challenge -- I don't paint animals often, especially those with feather and fur, not because I am not drawn to these cute little critters, but due to the fact that I am really not feeling very competent with creating realistic texture of feather and fur with watercolor. Taking the opportunity of this challenge though, I decide that I should not shy away from these subject if I ever want to get better at painting them. Instead I need to tackle them head-on! So here it is, my very first attempt at a furry critter, it's big cute eyes just melts my heart... The fur patterns has taken my many wet-in-wet glazes and careful lifting with small stiff brushes to do, and I still cannot say that I have fully mastered how to do it for all future instances, but it's a start! I have also discovered in the process that Yellow Ocher has very interesting granulating qualities that is different from it's warmer, more transparent sister, Raw Sienna. I would like to explore it a bit more...