Day 210 (Sat July 29) Dogs are difficult!!!

This is my second attempt at my neighbor’s dog… she made me the beautiful pencil holder, remember? And I’m painting her dog in exchange. It is much better than my first attempt, but still looks very little like her, and certainly captures none of her personality. I AM learning things each time, though, so while it frustrates me not to be able to paint what I feel and see, I do see progress with each attempt, and at this point that is more important anyway.

I think it is a decent dog. But a sad Reilly.

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I purchased a big sheet of quality 300 pound paper to try for this project, and am using Daniel Smith and Qor paints. And two sable brushes (So my supplies ARE NOT the problem, not even a little) In spite of my disappointment in this attempt, and the exhaustion I feel now, the tools are all a pleasure to work with! And they make me want to try again. Plus, attempt two is so much improved over attempt one, maybe tomorrow I’ll love my result!

My eyeballs are blurring inside my brain, I feel like one may have come lose is swimming around in there, so I’ll come back to this. 🙂

Day 25: more blue studies

For this submission, I followed a youtube video by Alphonso Dunn, here, studying how to create shape and depth with a single color in watercolor, and ending with a quick daisy done all in blue. I definitely learned some things, including start with the darkest shadowed areas, but with vague broad strokes in an extremely light wash. Add pigment with each layer, finishing with darkest details… also that with watercolor you can suggest shadowed areas, don’t need to finish them accurately like you do with pencil. I then painted my own monochromatic flower, trying to employ all of the things the video taught me. I’m very happy with my poppy. It’s better than I could have done last week, and I like it better even than the daisy I did following the tutorial. I can see things in it that could be executed more professionally, and it took me longer than I anticipated… I’d like to be able to sketch more quickly in watercolor. (since that is one of the strengths of the medium!!) But I am pleased that I can already see a lot of progress in just three and a half weeks.

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(Also developed some pretty little flowers using salt, and practiced a couple other watercolor bits in the extra space)

My poppy:

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