Finished a new commission

Finished and in the mail. Only a few more weeks until summer and then I can focus on my art more, can't wait!!!

New Commission

Finally had time today to work on commissions!

New Watercolor Paintings

I've been doing a lot of things other than painting unfortunately - more and more private practice counseling work, and some travel. I've missed working on my art, but hopefully I'll have more time soon, especially since summer is right around the corner.

Here are a couple commissions I finished this week...

For this painting, I filmed the WHOLE thing as a tutorial.  You can subscribe to my "Learn Watercolor" blog where I share TONS of tips on painting from the very beginning to the very end of the process.  Just email me at r1achel at yahoo dot com to get the details on subscribing.  That's a one after the r ; )

I was so pleased to sell this painting last week...

Finished a commission...

It's been hard to find time to paint lately - I work a day job as a school social worker and also counsel clients in the evenings for private practice, which is a new thing for me.  But I had alllllllll day today just to focus on art and it was SO nice!  Here are the fruits of my labors, a commission completed : )

Christmas Commissions...

Here is what I've been working on for Christmas commissions, and why you haven't heard much from me! Between painting, keeping up with my teaching blog, and my other life as a social worker, there's a reason I haven't posted in a while.

Here's a little snippet of video about painting this sparrow.  I used this painting in my latest online "learn watercolor" blog to demonstrate my techniques.  I videoed myself painting the ENTIRE thing, along with explanations as I painted.  If you'd like to sign up for my blog, send me a message to learn how!

Unfortunately, I forgot to do a final scan of this one, but it's at the stage right before I put in the final details.  The eyes are pretty much done here though.

This little Collie puppy painting became a necklace.  Again, I forgot to take a picture of the final piece.  Drrrrrrrr, too much going on for one artist to handle!!!

Original Watercolor Painting of an Owl

What is it with me and owls lately?  This is the second one in the past month!  I think they're so mysterious and gorgeous.  I had one follow me for several blocks when I went out walking at dusk a while ago.  It's a haunting feeling to have a bird of prey track you.  Maybe I looked tasty?  Maybe my totem was choosing me. Hmmmmm.

Click Here to go to eBay Auction

As a thank you to my patrons, I'm going to offer this one as an auction for a lower price than I would normally start with.  I hope you all enjoy!

Watercolor Lesson, Tutorial, and Work in Progress

In conjunction with a private, separate blog I am developing to teach watercolor lessons and tutorials online, I'm offering some free work-in-progress demonstrations on this blog.  If you are interested in taking watercolor lessons with me online, please email me to learn how to do so!  I'll be offering many new videos of me demonstrating watercolor techniques, explaining my supply list in more depth, and sharing some of my favorite online resources that I have accumulated over the years.  I'll cover basics about how to use watercolor paint, how to compose a painting, how to fix mistakes, and everything else related to painting watercolors!

This is the very beginning stage of the painting.  I like to make a sort of map, especially on complex paintings, because I tend to get lost as I get engrossed in the process of painting.  As you can see here, I've used paint to delineate where highlights are, along with whites, darks, and everything in between. This is especially important when you're painting animals or people, because you need to get the anatomy in all the right places.  If you don't start out with a "map" at the very beginning, it's easy to get things wrong later.  You do most of the hard work before you even start a painting, composing and planning the painting.  That process will be discussed in much more depth in my teaching blog.

Here, I've put quite a bit of detail in the eye.  When I'm painting animals, it's helpful for me to add the eye because it brings the painting alive.  For some reason, that keeps me more committed to and excited about the painting.  It is perfectly acceptable to put in SOME details even in this early stage if they're in areas that won't need to be re-worked.  Also, it is common teaching that you should put in darks last.  But if there are very dark parts to your painting, you can put them in at the very beginning to help establish your 'map'.

Here I've refined some of the complex musculature of the horse's face.  This is where some knowledge of anatomy can come very in handy.

Here, I've added a lot of details and the mid tones that give this painting more life.  I also added the background.  Initially, I made the background very dark, almost black.  It was done wet in wet, where I wet the whole background and dropped in lots of different dark colors.  Later, I decided that it was too flat black, and scrubbed some out and added some greens to give it more life.  Also, green is a great contrast to the reddish color of the horse, and I thought that would help the horse glow more.  This is a good example of the importance of thoroughly thinking through your painting BEFORE you paint.  I could have saved myself some time if I would have thought more about the background before I started.

Here, I've added some white highlights to really enhance the appearance of the horse being bathed in beautiful light.  This is always a fun stage of the painting, when everything starts to come together and you re-discover what made you paint this image in the first place (It can get scary there in the middle stages, when all the tones are similar and it looks like this your painting might be headed to the trash can, right?)

Done!  Here's the finished painting.  I put in last details, changed the background to add more color, and did a few washes of blue over the foreground (the haunches and withers of the horse) to help tie the horse to the background and pull the whole image together.  This is a painting I did for a show in Camden, SC at the Arts Centre, all of November 2011.  

New Siamese Kittens Artwork...

It's getting chilly here in South Carolina! Time for a cuddle...

See in my Etsy shop...

This would make a great Christmas gift for a Siamese cat lover!