Acrylics, Watercolors and a Commission

Today's post has a hodgepodge of my art, all of them animals but some are rendered in acrylics and two of them in watercolor, which is a fairly new medium for me.

The next two are the watercolor paintings, which are similar to my acrylics and at the same time much more delicate.

And this last painting is a commission that I painted for my client's sister of her four pets. I sure had fun with this one!

I still have a charcoal drawing to show you and also some of my latest abstract art. Sometimes I feel the need to just experiment with colors, shapes and different mediums.

In the meantime, I hope you are having a wonderful Thursday!

❧ Silke

Video Post and New Art

I hope you enjoyed my short little video. In full disclosure, this was the second taping. I did the first one and then realized that I hadn't turned on the microphone...

I've included all of the paintings below that I showed you on the video plus the two commissioned pieces that I have mailed off already.

Tiny - acrylics on 6 x 6 inch gessobord

Take me Home - acrylics on 6 x 6 inch gessobord

Max - acrylics on 6 x 6 inch gessobord
(commissioned painting)

Nell - acrylics on 6 x 6 inch gessobord
(commissioned painting)

Standing Strong - transparent watercolor on 6 x 6 inch cold press watercolor paper

Looking Forward - transparent watercolor on 6 x 6 inch cold press watercolor paper

True Colors - acrylics on 6 x 6 inch cold press watercolor paper (NFS)

Sketch for watercolor painting 

New Horizons - acrylics on 10 x 30 inch wrapped canvas

Apple? - acrylics on 12 x 16 inch wrapped canvas

I'm linking to the always colorful and inspiring Paint Party Friday! Head on over to see more beautiful art.

In the meantime, I wish you happiness, peace and joy in 2017! I'm glad we get to be part of each other's journeys! Thank you for visiting today!!

❧ Silke

Color Studies

I was so happy to be on a roll again with blogging and then Hurrican Matthew happened. Days of watching where it was going and how strong it was getting. Days of wondering if we were going to have to evacuate or if we could stay.

Days of making our house storm ready, preparing for long stretches without power and possible evacuation. Making hotel reservations inland, thinking about everything we needed for us, four cats and Winslow for a few days, and making sure we had all important papers with us. The rest of our "stuff" suddenly didn't seem all that important anymore. We did what we could to make sure it would be safe.

First there the probability we'd have to evacuate, then a polite urging from city officials, (which is when we left) and finally mandatory evacuation. We were safe in a hotel room with all of our critters. They all got along great. Everyone was calm and content. Even when we lost power at our hotel (this was a large storm), we were all still quite happy. And also a little nervous about what we might come home to.

We listened to the local news on our weather radio and it sounded like the storm had been very strong with a lot of destruction. When the evacuation order was lifted, we came home to our house and property perfectly intact. No damage! We were so grateful! It's sad to see how many hundreds of old trees fell in this storm. And it's beautiful to see how everyone came together to help each other out.

We finally got power back and then (much later) our internet and for us life is back to normal, which is certainly not the case for so many others. Again, I'm so grateful!

One thing I did notice though - my art has changed. I started painting in watercolor with a very limited palette (three colors only) and I love it! It's a new challenge and a completely different process for me.

And that's the thing I love about life: nothing ever stays the same!

Linking to the ever fabulous and inspiring Paint Party Friday.

❧ Silke

Watercolor Play

Before Daniel left on his travels, I asked him if I could use his watercolors just to play a little bit. They've intrigued me, yet aside from my little Pelikan gauche set in elementary school I've not used them much.

Today, when I looked at Daniel's stash, I was simply overwhelmed by the different colors and manufacturers.

So I snagged a little traveling watercolor set he has and played with that a little. It was fun. And unpredictable the way they blend and flow. A little like life. The outcome wasn't what I had expected, but I like it. Also a little like life.

How are the first days of January treating you? Here it is COLD - at least for us here in the South it's cold. Luckily only at night. And tomorrow we are expecting it to get a little warmer again. Nice!

Wishing you cozy warmth wherever you are!!

❧ Silke

Watercolor Finished!

Well, at least it's close enough to being finished that I can show it to you here. And once again I realize I am not a patient person... Actually, that was totally evident throughout this watercolor project which requires that you let layers dry before you work on or near them again. I had to actually walk away so I'd leave it alone. 

I thought this would be my least favorite projects of them all, but it turns out it was the one I enjoyed the most aside from the first charcoal drawing. This was definitely the most difficult of all the projects because with watercolor I really had to plan ahead as it is a most unforgiving medium (as I know from years of watching Daniel master it!).

The paper we used for this painting was Richeson Premium 300lb. cold press watercolor paper, and I used Winsor & Newton Winslor Blue and Burnt Sienna watercolor paints.

Tonight I am going back in to work on my graphite drawing some more and then on Thursday we have our final critique and are done with the class. I can hardly believe it!! It was so totally worth it!

I have much more to share with you, but that'll have to wait for another post. I hope you are all doing well and that all of you dealing with the floods up north are safe and sound!

Watercolor - WIP

Today in class, I had to finally put the first watercolor washes on this drawing/painting. I say "had to" because I am so cautious when it comes to those things where I could really mess up. There are some students in my class who jump right in and were painting with watercolor last class already. I admire that! 

I did my outline drawing first and then today I couldn't put it off any longer - I had to apply watercolor, sink or swim. And you know what? So far so good! I put down about three layers and am starting to see some nice values. I can already tell that I'm going to have fun working on some of the more detailed areas. Plus, I am amazed how different it is to paint with watercolor on really good paper rather than in our sketchbooks.

In other news, it looks like hurricane Irene is going to miss us here in Savannah and I really hope it won't make landfall at all. Then this afternoon, I heard that there was a pretty big earthquake in Virginia - I hope all of you are all alright in that area.

That said, I wish you all a peaceful Tuesday!

Playing with Watercolor

Daniel has been working in transparent watercolor for the last 20+ years and I've always admired his beautiful paintings. You can click here if you want to take a look for yourself.

Now I have to do a watercolor drawing and I'm trying to get a handle on how to use this rather difficult medium.

Many years ago, I took a two-day watercolor workshop Daniel was teaching in Oaxaca, but by now I've forgotten most of it. So, here I am again mixing colors and learning about transparency and such.

For this project we are to use a blue and a brown - doesn't matter which blue or brown.

With those two colors, we mix a neutral to work up a four-value drawing/painting and then add some of the blue and brown for color.

Last night I raided Daniel's watercolor stash and played with many different blues and browns.

Some of those combinations are just gorgeous! At this point I'm leaning toward Winsor Blue and Burnt Sienna (on the left, second from the bottom in the photo below), both from Winsor & Newton. They mix to become a beautiful neutral grey.

And here's the still life I put together. I was going to paint that vacuum tube radio that I drew for my graphite project, but I think it might be too detailed for me for watercolor.

I think this is going to be fun! We'll see...

Wishing you a beautiful Friday!!

Homework

First of all, thank you, thank you, thank you for your great comments on my last drawing for class. I appreciate you all so much!! My current drawing is proving more difficult and just a tad frustrating. I'm going in again in a little while to draw on it some more. It has to be done on Tuesday, so you'll see the result soon. I sure hope it improves between now and then...

These two photos are of the homework we have to do, which are value studies in watercolor of still life paintings done by the old masters. It's actually quite relaxing to do, although I've only done very few of them. By the end of class we'll need to have 25 total! I might want to get busy...

We print out or copy the image in black and white and then trace it onto the paper. Then we figure out where our whitest whites are and leave those white while we work on everything else with many layers of thin watercolor washes.

Part of this exercises is to get us used to watercolor as a medium - our last two projects are going to be done in watercolor, which will be so different from charcoal and pencil!

Can I just say that I am loving this class! At first I was a little worried about having to go in every night to draw (I am so not a night owl!), but that has turned out to be so much fun! I love listening to the younger students talk - they are in such a great place in their lives with everything still in front of them.

And then I realize that I am in a better place in my life still - I can just totally relax and enjoy this experience. And that's exactly what I'm doing...

Wishing you an excellent weekend! I'm off to get my hands dirty with charcoal once again...

Daniel's Art

Ok, I have to brag about my talented husband for a bit... This week I packaged up and sent out these two of Daniel's watercolors to a collector in Atlanta. Both of them were done for Carus Publishing. For a long time I didn't even list the fairy painting for sale because I wanted to keep it, but I also love it when his art finds a good home.

Daniel has been painting all of his life and his watercolors are amazing! If you want to see more of his work, you can visit his website here, or if you want to see what else is for sale, you can do that here. We just got some art back from Carus for two other stories he illustrated and I'll be listing them soon as well as a few more prints.
I have to say that he's wanted me to start making my own art for the 25 years we've known each other and he's so happy I am FINALLY doing it. And I finally understand the joy he feels when he is painting and creating...