The Word 11

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.


Matthew 11:28

Just Black & White 14 - John & Wendy

Today, unfortunately, I will be adding another unfinished work for your viewing.  Prior to starting with watercolors, while I was still working with graphite drawings, I decided to start what I had planned on being a series of portrait drawings.  This series was the engagement pictures of the three oldest children.  I started with John and Wendy since John was the first son although they were actually the last to get married.  Here is their engagement picture that I worked from.


John & Wendy - Engagement Photo

First I needed to start making the cartoon that I would work from.  I used the grid system for this and drew each detail square by square.  For this process see June entry Just Black & White 11 .

Once the cartoon was finished I transferred it to the drawing paper.  I used Arches hot press watercolor paper because it has a very smooth surface to work on with a more professional finished look.  Here is the cartoon.

John & Wendy - Cartoon

I spent many months on the portion I completed with the most time being spent on getting Johns hair just right.  I should have waited until he had a buzz it would have been easier.  Anyway I did complete the most important and difficult areas and the rest of it should be a piece of cake in comparison.  I'm not sure at what point I will get back to it since I am finally feeling like I'm making good progress with watercolor and don't want to interrupt that process.  I do plan on completing it and also plan on doing the other two children as well.  I just hope I live so long.  Here is my unfinished drawing.

John & Wendy - Unfinished Drawing

I believe it was from this drawing that I received the comment from Louise that I was a photo realist.  I guess I'm inclined to agree.

In Living Color 11 - Fruit & Vegie's

I wasn't quite done working with fruits and vegetables and in the process of doing a few more I had several new challenges.  Let's start with Cantaloupe.  

Cantaloupe - Still Life

Can you imagine trying to paint all those veins on the skin.  I couldn't but Louise had a great way to do it.  First I put a wash over the entire skin area of the cantaloupe with the color I wanted the veins to be.  Now the fun part.  I took a white candle and drew all the vein lines onto the area just painted once it was dry. To complete this area I put the final washes over it and only the unwaxed portion picks up the final colors. In the waxed area you get a mottled look due to the texture of the paper causing the wax to rest only on the raised area where it repels the paint.

Cantaloupe - Watercolor

Next in line was Eggplant and Green Beans.  Gary and I don't eat egg plant but I loved the color and thought it would make a nice contrast and compliment to the green beans.  

Eggplant & Green Beans - Still Life

I didn't really learn any new techniques with this one but found it a challenge to get the reflection of light on the eggplant and also put on enough layers of paint to achieve the deep color without removing the previous layer .

Eggplant & Green Beans - Watercolor

Last but not least was the Strawberries and Eggs.  Okay I know that eggs are not a fruit or a vegetable but it was what Louise wanted us to try.  The purpose for this painting was to show the reflection of the strawberries on the white of the eggs.

Strawberries & Eggs - Still Life

Now the challenge of this one was not in painting it but in being able to draw the picture and start painting it in a three hour class.  Knowing that I wouldn't accomplish that I decided to draw the still life the night before at home so I could start the painting when I arrived at class.  I would still need to have the still life set up in the classroom so I set it up for the drawing and when I finished I taped the eggs in place and put them back into the refrigerator.  The next day I just had to take the dish with eggs in place and add the strawberries when I arrived.  As you can see in the picture above the eggs were sweating due to going from cold area to a warm room.

Strawberries & Eggs - Watercolor

Louise gave me a wonderful complement by asking if she could use copies of my completed eggplant, strawberry and fox fur pictures to show her students in another class she was teaching  how it helps to learn the skills of drawing prior to painting.

Again, unfortunately, all the above watercolor pictures were framed prior to taking pictures so the picture quality is not the best.

Pen & Ink 5 - Limpkin

After doing several small pen & ink birds I thought it was time to get serious and try something larger (11X14) with more detail.  I looked through my collection of bird books and found a picture of a Limpkin that would be appropriate and began the enlargement process this time by freehand drawing versus the grid method.  


Pen & Ink Reference Photo of Limpkin

It is amazing how much time you can spend making dots, lines and the like on a project of this size but found it to be worth the effort in the end.  The photo of my finished piece was taken post framing so there was a slight reflection from the glass but I learned a good lesson regarding taking pictures prior to framing.

Pen & Ink Drawing - Limpkin

My Favorites - Light Show

A couple of months ago Gary and I took a trip to Washington DC to see and experience all the good things about our government.  At the end of our tour through the Smithsonian Museum of Art we experience one last piece of art in the form of a light show as we took a slow stroll on the moving sidewalk.  It was amazing to watch and although this picture doesn't do it justice it does add a touch of beauty just as it is.


My Favorites - Light Show