Snowman Holiday Card

Here is one of the cards I am sending out for the holidays this year.  A Snowman!!!  I really think he looks great.

Last year I did Christmas tree bulbs and I thought they turned out pretty good.  This years card I think is so much better.   I make a conscious effort not to try to make him look "perfect".  What I wanted was that layering that you can only get  with watercolors.

I started with one layer of cobalt tea to se the background color of the snowman.  A second layer darkened him up just a bit.  The third layer is Pthalo Blue, and then the 4th is Pthalo also.   added this many layer, painting just a bit less with each successive layer, in order to add texture and shadow to the snowman.

Finally, a bit of turquoise for the background and a mix of ultramarine and cerulean for the base.  All in all, I think it looks fantastic.

The real test, I suppose will be in the comments I get from the people who receive one of these cards.  Thats really all I have for this update.  Thanks for the quick read.

As always, or usual, if you would like to see how I painted this, check out the video below.  Thank you.

Delicious Watermelon slices

Who doesn't like watermelon?  I don't think there is anyone who doesn't.  Probably no other food encapsulates summer as much as a watermelon.

Hers is my take on the simple watermelon.  Delicious slices.  I've painted these two pieces of watermelon with just a little bit of a shadow underneath.  I wanted to give some dimension to these slices, not just make them pink slabs with a green end and some black dots.

What I did was to make the hard edge of the slice the lightest part of the painting.  normally, I like the foreground to be the darkest part of my paintings, but here I had to make an exception.  The white on the corners is supposed to, along with the drawing, make this really look three dimensional.  I think I've accomplished that somewhat.  Tell me what you think.

Hope you enjoy this little painting I did.  If you would like to see a video of it, check it out below.  Thanks for the quick read.  Stop back again for the next update.