Ann`s dogs continued

I`ll leave it on the easel for a while now, so that I can check for any mistakes, or alterations that I might need to do.

The size is 24 x 30".

To give you an idea of how big the painting is, here is a photo of me holding it.

Ann`s dogs.

 A friend of mine has asked me to paint a picture of her three beautiful dogs, so I`m posting step by step photo`s of how I did this, so she can watch the progress as the painting comes to life.

As usual the photo`s aren`t very good, but you get the idea of how I work.

The size is 24 x 30", painted in pastel on M Tientes pastel paper.

The background paper is actually a sandy colour, so that will give you some idea of how bad my photography skills are.......lol.

At this stage I am moving onto the next dog, at the end I will return to do any touch ups that might be needed.

I hope it looks good so far.

Tea break and a chocolate biscuit.

I started this at art group yesterday, then finished it at my friends house last night.( Once a month me and a few friends have painting evenings in each others houses)

The size is, as usual, 15x11".

M Grahams watercolours on Arches rough watercolour paper.

I enjoyed painting this picture, especially the chocolate on the biscuits. The chocolate was painted in about 5 or 6 different glazes.

I "invented" the table. Because I took the reference photo on a sheet of white paper, with a white background, it looked like the teapot etc were floating. I used masking tape to represent the edge of the table, then I painted the bluey-grey background, then when I removed the masking tape it left behind straight edges, to act as the edges of a table.

Flirty swans

Painted in watercolours, on Arches rough watercolour paper.

15 x 11 "

I composed this painting from two different refernce images.

I`m fairly pleased with the outcome, considering I pieced it together from two references. I ignored the actual colours in the references, and made up my own colour schemes, so that there is a unity in the painting, and hopefully the lights and reflections etc work well together.

The cold and lonely snowy beach

Painted in watermixable oils. I` ve only painted a handful of pictures using these paints, so I`m not used to  them yet, but I`m enjoying playing and "Finding out" what to do with them.

The size is 20x24", on stretched canvas.

I enjoyed painting this, I had an idea in my mind of how I wanted it to look, but I didn`t have the right colours to achieve the result I wanted, so I made it up as I went along.

I think I`ll have to invest in a few more colours, if I continue to use this medium.

I liked using these, because they are alot easier to clean up, than normal oils, they are less smelly, and they dry quicker than normal oils. 

I fancied some colour, so I painted a......... white flower!

Even though the flower is white, there are a miriad of different colours in the shadows, and in the reflected lights.

Next time the sun is out, just take a look at the variety of colours in white flowers, you`ll be amazed.

I painted this on Arches rough, watercolour paper and M Grahams watercolours.

14x11"

. Using sable brushes.

I`ve had a productive week, this week, the following paintings were done at the beginning of the week, both are the same size and same materials as the above painting.

Morpeth stepping stones.

My youngest daughter, Danielle

She was totally engrossed in the cartoons on TV at the time I took the reference photo for this painting, hence the strange look on her face.

St Mary`s lighthouse finished.

 

I really do need to sort out some form of lighting system, to photograph my paintings under, this photo really doesn`t do this painting justice.

Anyway, rant over.

I`ve added the safetly rails now and also added the downstairs windows in the reflection.

Now I`m off to clean my palette, painting those rocks, has made a real mess.

St Mary`s Lighthouse

 I love this lighthouse, I must have painted it at least 6 times by now. Every time I`m feeling un-inspired, this is the place that always gets my creative juices flowing again.

This is the first stage.

I started off by drawing a quite detailed sketch, in 2b pencil.

 A 2b pencil is dark enough to see without damaging your paper, and providing you sketch lightly, it is easy to erase too. Just remember not to press hard, you don`t need to.

After I`d done the initial sketch I covered the lighthouse, the white walls and the white house in masking fluid, then once that was completely dry, I wet the whole paper.

I let the water soak into the paper, while I mixed my colour for the background,( A watery wash of raw sienna) then I re-wet the paper again to make sure that it was throughly soaked..

If just the surface of the paper was wet, then the paint would just run off the surface, rather than soak into the fibres of the paper, and I would have problems with it drying out too quick before I had a chance to paint in my clouds.

I began painting in the whole background using diagonal strokes of raw sienna in a weak wash. The reason the I painted it all over the paper and not just the sky area, is because I want the sky reflected in the puddle at the bottom of the painting, that and the fact that by having the same colour running through the whole background gives the whole painting a harmonious feel.

 I used a thicker mix of ultramarine blue with burnt sienna, this made a light grey, which I used to paint in the darker area of the sky, and not forgetting the reflection at the bottom too

I used the same two colours in a slightly thicker mix again for my cloud shapes.

Then I left the paper to dry completely.

The whole background and sky needs to be painted with in 2-5 minutes, so that your colours blend together nicely, so you have soft wet in wet washes, that fuse together without any hard edges.

This is how my background and sky looked once it was dry.

Now remove your masking fluid.

The above photograph shows how the painting looked after I used the cloud colour to paint the shadow areas of the lighthouse and building.

To create the rounded shape of the lighthouse, I painted the shadow down the darkest side, then softened the edge with a damp brush. On the other side I painted raw sienna along the edge, then softened that colour and dragged it towards the centre. This gave the lighthouse shape, and the illusion of reflected light coming from the sky. Don`t forget to repeat this in your reflection in the foreground.( notice, I did forget).

Again using the ultramarine blue and burnt sienna, I painted in the windows on the building, and some texture on the wall.

Again using ultramarine blue and burnt sienna, but using more sienna than blue this time, I painted in the building on the right.

For the rocks.

I scrubbed on some candle wax. This acts as a resist to the watercolour, and so gives your rocks a textured appearence when you paint over the top.

I splodged on ultramarine blue, and burnt sienna ( surprised, surpise!!) with raw sienna all over the rock areas, I let all the colours bleed and blend together, sometimes using a wet brush to encourage the colours to mingle.

While these were still damp, I used the edge of a credit type card to scrape out some colour. It also gives the rocks some shape.

Almost at the final.

I used the same colours only darker, to deepen the colours on the rocks, and to paint in some shadows, to give the rocks shape. I used RAW sienna, with ultramarine blue to mix a green colour for the moss, and seaweed etc on some of the rocks.

Notice, I finally remembered to paint my reflection in the water, at last.

I used U.blue and B.sienna again, to paint in the muddy area, and the stones in the water.

I left the whole thing to thoroughly dry, then using a weak, watery wash of the cloud colour, I painted in the puddle in the foreground.

All that`s left to do now, is paint the railings at the top of the walls, and just check around for any touch ups that may be needed.

Notice, I used a limited palette of only 3 colours to paint this whole picture, you wouldn`t believe it, would you?

I`ll sort my railings, and try and get a decent photograph to post here.



My lovely daughters.

I`ve done two Portraits in the last couple of weeks.

The first one was of Stephanie. The reference photo that I used was one I`d taken last year, when she was all dressed up to go to a friends wedding.

At the time she was wearing braces on her teeth, but I used my artistic licence to remove them. ( She has since had them removed in real life too).

Stephanie, aged 14.

This is painted on 15x11" Arches rough watercolour paper. Using a mix of M. Grahams watercolours, and Daler and Rowney watercolours. 

I was quite pleased with how it turned out.This photo doesn`t do the painting justice,which I find quite alot of the time, especially in winter, when the lighting isn`t very good.

I really must improve my photography skills.

Anyway, moving on, the following photo is the portrait that I painted of Danielle, my youngest daughter.  She was about 7 or 8 years old at the time the photo reference was taken.

She was totally engrossed with something that was on the TV, hence the glazed over look on her face....lol.

I started painting this at art group last night, then finished it at home this afternoon.......and I had a real struggle with it.

I just seemed to be fighting the paint the whole time. Nothing I did seemed to go right. Since the photo was taken I`ve softened the jawline, which looks a bit better, again this photo could be alot better.

I think I`ll do another painting of Danielle, but next time I`ll use a different reference image, because I think she looks a little sad on this..

Here is how it looked after last nights session..

You can also see the reference that I worked from.

cock-a-doodle

I`ve had so much fun this week, playing with this cock (a doodle do)........lol

The first picture is done on A3 size cartridge paper, using charcoal sticks. It was a very quick sketch done with-in 5 minutes.

At the time I sketched it, I wasn`t very happy with it, but  I enjoyed the process of sketching it soooo much. I left it sitting at my drawing board, then left the room.

When I came back into the room, and it caught my eye, I was very surprised to find that I actually loved it.

It`s not the best, or most acurate drawing I`ve ever done, but I like the movement, and the look of anger and the feeling I get from looking at this picture.

I went on to paint the same cockeral again, this time in watercolour, in my new moleskin A4 sketch book, that my husband bought me for Christmas. Although I enjoyed painting it, I really struggled to get used to the moleskin paper.

I`m used to using Arches, rough watercolour paper.

 The moleskin was VERY smooth in comparison, and also the paint seemed to dry instantly on the moleskin, where-as it sits on the surface of the Arches long enough for me to be able to blend my colours, and washes and move the paint about. Therefore, I had a lot of trial and error painting the following picture.

(The colours are brighter on the actual painting, than they are in this photograph.)

In the future I will stick to my Arches Rough for studio work, and save my moleskin book, for outdoor work, were I need the quicker drying times.

Welcome

Hi, and welcome to my new blog for 2012.

This year my aim is to do more painting, and sketching, and up to now I`m pleased to say that I`m achieving my goal........so far. ( but, we ARE only in January)
I feel like my drawing, especially, needs alot of work, because I have lost quite a bit of confidence, because of my problems holding my pencils correctly.

Yesterday, after painting at Preston Grange art group, I went with my husband to St Peter`s Basin, were I sat all warm and snug in the car sketching while he went fishing on the River Tyne. 

It was a lovely sunny day, albeit a little chilly, but like I said I was snug in the car. ( I had a nice fluffy blanket with me, because I feel the cold more than most, because I can`t move around to keep warm).

I did several sketches and took some photo`s which still need downloading off the camera, but the above photo`s were taken there a little while ago.

Anyway, I hope you will return to this blog, to see more of my paintings. Hopefully I will eventually add video`s at a later date, too.