Watercolor Wednesdays!

Ok, I know it’s Saturday. I know it’s been weeks since this was “due.” I’m fully willing to admit that I suck a little bit without Julie here in Boston to keep me in line, I’m just painting and scanning willy-nilly. Let’s actually get this going next Wednesday with a new challenge, shall we? And maybe this time let’s get our new friend Michael roped into this? 

In other news, I’m actually pretty pleased with this one. This is the first watercolor I’ve done without any preliminary sketches or outlines whatsoever, so it’s much more “organic” looking than the others. I kind of like that, though!  

Not the best photo, but here she is!  The textures on this one were really quite a challenge, so strong work Joa.  It came out a little more vibrant than the original, but I think the brighter colors helped me figure out the textures a bit.  Maybe I’ll try again sometime for a slightly more drab version.  Sorry this took a million years because of tour, but I think it came out ok.

Indeedy, I am posting from Milwaukee, Wisconsin!  It’s the first week of tour, and I’m pretty tired but ready to paint my heart out.

The picture I chose is from a long weekend I spent in Utah.  This particular picture is of some of the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon.  I was struck by the beauty and mysteriousness of the hoodoos, and their sheer size when you were standing at the bottom of the canyon looking up at them, like this picture.  

This is my challenge for Julie! It’s from my collection of 300-something pictures that I took in Italy. I know that the size isn’t great, but for some reason my mom’s camera is set to upload in 320x240 pixels (or something ridiculous like that), so this may just have to work for the time being. Our theme this week is “on the road,” since Julie’s en route to Milwaukee. Italy is the last place I really felt “on the road,” so I decided that this pic was appropriate. 

Ok so I know that this is exactly one week late, but I was in ITALY making paintings!! If that’s not a good excuse, I don’t know what is! As for Julie’s manatee, I have nothing but pure adoration. I think that he is SO CUTE and so successful as a painting. The textures are absolutely perfect. 

As for this guy above, I have to admit that I cheated a little. I used some acrylic titanium white to dry-brush in parts of the waterfall. But only a little! The rest is pure watercolor. White watercolor paint was not kind to me. 

Hey friends!

Sorry my post is late.  But Joa forgot to queue hers up before she left for Italy to laze around a gorgeous villa and paint the day away, so I feel a little less guilty about posting a day late.  :-)

So when Joa posted this picture for me, I was really nervous about the textures involved, but I think I learned a lot about different ways to make textures, and how to layer color to help texture a surface.  In retrospect, I don’t think he looks fat enough, and something weird happened with his nose, but overall I’m pretty happy with the way he came out.  

Also, while I was painting it I sang this a lot.  Thanks Dan!

I can’t wait to see Joa’s painting when she gets back from Italy (I am the MOST jealous), and add more people soon!  Our new friend will get the honor of picking a theme for our next round.

Here’s Julie’s challenge! I’m SUPER excited to start mine. Those rocks are going to be really fun. The waterfall makes me a little bit nervous, though. But I happily accept, and I hope Julie is equally excited about this lil’ guy. 

After a long hiatus due to moving (it’s hard to paint when your watercolors are packed!)  we’re back and ready to get painting!  We have a couple more people that are interested in joining, and that makes us super excited (and more likely to do this regularly).

Anyway, here’s Joa’s photo for this week.  It’s a waterfall in Pingvallir National Park in Iceland.