Year of the Tiger

Our daughter, Renee, always sends out New Year’s cards.  Now that she has a son, he is always prominently featured on the card.  The year of his birth was the Year of the Rat – little Ben was pictured in a photo (by me) with a stuffed animal mouse.  Ben was dressed in a little kimono – it was very cute.  His second year, 2009, was the Year of the Bull.  Renee took an amazing picture of Ben running toward the camera, with the Wall Street bull sculpture behind him, looking like the bull was chasing him.

This year, the Year of the Tiger, we tried, unsuccessfully, to get pictures of Ben at the zoo with a tiger in the background.  The tigers did not cooperate.  They were sleeping and completely oblivious to all the spectators who were waiting for them to awaken.  I thought perhaps I could do a watercolor of a tiger that Renee might be able to use.  I researched on-line images of tigers, and finally found one that I liked and could possibly copy.  This is the resulting image.

I use mostly M. Graham watercolors – I like the fact that they are made with honey, and they can be re-moistened even after a very long time of disuse (which is very good for someone like me!).  The colors are amazing.  I did this painting on a 5×7 watercolor pad.

Renee was very happy with the results, and she used it, along with one of my photos of Ben, to make this year’s card.  I had edited the photograph in Photoshop by taking Ben out of a picture and placing him on a plain blue background.  Again using Photoshop, I added the grass around his feet, and some around the tiger to tie them together.  This is the image that ended up on her final New Year’s card.

Happy New Year!

He’s a good egg!

I have had several months of doing other things, including an art fair where I sold some photographs (yay!), and over two months of illness in our house (we are still coughing!).  I hope to concentrate more on working with watercolors again.  This is something I did two weeks ago.

A very dear friend of mine has been in the hospital for a very long time, and was recently moved to a nursing home.  At one time in his life, he was an illustrator for egg cartons (I was a child at the time, but I believe that is what he did).  To honor him (and because we haven’t been able to visit him due to our horrible colds and flu), I did this painting of an egg on a watercolor card.  I attached a small mat board to the card (just in case anyone wanted to frame it!).  Inside I wrote – “You’re a good egg!  I’m sorry you have been feeling so rotten!”  He and his family were delighted with the card, as I hoped they would be.  Which made me feel good!

Flowers in Blue Vase

Do all beginning watercolorists like to paint flowers?

I do – I don’t know why – they aren’t particularly easy to paint, and I never seem to get the final image to be what I see in my mind.  But they do seem like the perfect subject to begin with — I guess because they just sit there, looking beautiful and colorful.  So I keep trying because, even though they aren’t perfect (and who wants perfect, anyway?), it’s fun and it makes me happy! And that’s the most important thing.

This particular watercolor is an attempt at painting negative space, to produce white flowers.  I love the ultramarine blue color – one of my favorites – and I especially love it with the orange-y background, which I made with a combination of gamboge and raw sienna.  (I think that’s the combination I used.  I don’t actually remember – middle age is hell, and I should write all these things down while I’m doing them!)

I liked my final effort.  I scanned the image and printed a greeting card for a (much younger) friend who is pregnant – she loved it!  That makes all the effort worthwhile – I love when someone loves what I’ve done!

I really wanted to take another watercolor class this summer, but I will be exhibiting (and, hopefully, selling) my photography in an art fair this September, which means I need to concentrate my efforts (and my finances) on that project before I can do anything else.  I’ll be offering prints on canvas, which is new for me.  I think that’s due to the frustrated painter in me!

Thanks for stopping by!

Oranges and Irises

So, where was I….a month ago…  (This will never be a daily, or even a weekly, blog!)

Last month, I mentioned that I love watercolors, and had decided to jump in and try it (two years ago).  Which I did by joining a watercolor class in Chicago, taught by Ed Hinkley of Ed Hinkley Studio.  He is a wonderfully talented artist, and a very patient teacher!  I learned a lot from that one 10-week session in the summer of 2007.  I also worked at home with a few how-to books, which allowed me to follow step-by-step and take my time doing it.  Here is a painting that I copied directly from a how-to book, “Watercolors, a step-by-step guide.”  

 [Note: This book is no longer being sold by Barnes & Noble (who also published the book), but one used copy can be found here.]  While I enjoyed painting these oranges, and I actually like it (it’s hanging in my kitchen), I really prefer the “loose” style of watercolor – which is what my teacher was trying to teach me.  That is much harder than I thought it would be!  One painting that I did in class was of irises – it isn’t great, but it isn’t terrible.  I love the heads of the flowers, but the leaves are pretty awful.  In fact, I won’t even show you the whole painting.  : )

I was seriously thinking about Photoshopping everything out of this painting except for the two large iris heads and their stems – I may still do that, and use it on a greeting card.  

I am definitely going to practice leaf painting.