Pink Rose

A Pink rose watercolor.  Maybe I could have used a few white highlights? What do you think?

Attempting a Rose

Not sure I got it quite right.  I get a little lost in as I go toward the center.  It's just the first one I've done.  A start that I hope I will be able to improve upon quickly.

10 Minute Rose

This is a rose I painted in 10 minutes at lunch.  I used to do a lot of painting on my lunch hour, but since I changed offices, and got a bit busier, I don't seem to have quite as much time to do it.  I had a few extra minutes today, and so, here is one.  No, its not perfect, but its not too bacd.  I need to blent my colors in a little better, but what are you gonna do, I only had 10 minutes.  Well, anyway, hope you enjoy.

A Rose is A Rose is A Rose

A nice loose rose for the weekend.  I had a little spare time and I decided to paint a few things.  You can see a painting so close to this that I couldn't crop it out.

I don't know if I like painting flowers or if I think I am good at painting flowers, but.... since I think I do them better than most other things I paint, I just keep bringing them.

Not sure I totally got the top of this, where the petals open up.  But  I'm not sure it really distracts from the overall painting too much.   There is just enough going on to make you a little distracted.

Actually, I bet you look right at the middle of the painting more than anywhere else.  I put in just a bit of yellow to warm up the painting in the very center.  It really does make your eyes kind of hang out there.

Anyone else notice this?

Rose Madder

It's been a little while since I made a post and I don't want it to go too long without putting one up.  I've been somewhat tired, and somewhat working on different projects (damn life getting in the way of my painting).  I did manage to get up a little gumption tonight and paint a few flowers for you all.

I'm constantly told that I do a really good job painting my flowers.  I think it is because I really enjoy painting them.  Flowers don't have a right or wrong.  They are roundish and if you give an indication of petals, people believe they are flowers.  It is true that some look more realistic, and some less, but everyone agrees that they look like what I paint.  In this case its a few roses.  Maybe they look like other flowers too, but because you've read that these are roses, they will always look like roses to you.

Well, anyway, enjoy the roses, and thanks for taking a minute to read this blog.

More Practice

Just a little bit of sketching from last night.  I really do think that I am mastering the roses.  Now I just need to master the leaves.  And a few more poppies.

Hope you like them.

Bouquets of Roses

Another bunch of roses.  I'm still trying to get them right, whatever right is.  I definitely think I'm on the right track.  With the single rose, I tried putting in a loose stem and leaf.   On one of the groups of three I tried to let the undercoat show through to represent some leaves, and on the other group of three just some dark shading under the bottom of the petals.

I am thinking that I can make these a little better if I let the darker color reach all the way to the outside of the petals in at lease a couple of areas.  I might try that tonight.  I guess that's why they call it practice.    

I'm not sold on having a full green background around the roses.  It really does make the flowers pop off the paper, but it seems to take away from the rose a bit.  It's like its just floating in a sea of green.  With no definition.  I think I'm kinda on the track with allowing a base layer to show through in leave.  If I overlay several leaves it might provide enough interest that I'll like it a lot.  More practice and trials are called for.  

These are all painted on the back side of old paintings.  I've kept all my painting for the past 5 years (the entire time I've been painting).  I've got a huge stack of old paintings that aren't really good, that nobody but me would like.  So on the sheets that can be used on both sides, I'm using the back.  If I decide to sell a few of these, whomever gets them is gonna get two pieces of art for the price of one.  

Also, I'm toying with the idea of putting together a video or two to show people how I paint.  I like this new style so much, I want to pass it along.  Any ideas on how I should go about it?  I'm accepting ideas.  

Thanks for the view and the advice.   Hope you enjoyed this post.  

I've got so many flowers I ought to be a florist

Some more quick loose flowers.  Still trying to get coneflowers right (don't ask me why).  And working on roses.  I like the way my roses turn out.  From a distance they look really good, and as I keep at this method, they should continue to get better.   The coneflower is interesting.  I keep adding layers, and it keeps looking better.  I start with the outside petals, and then the inside and finally the ones in the back.  seems like it works, but I still have a little way to to to get it right (whatever that is).

At any rate, I'm having fun painting the flowers.  Hope yo enjoy looking at them.

A rose by any other name

Having gone through a poppy phase over the last two weeks, I might be going into a rose phase.  Here are a few I sketched out.  Some good, some bad.  Hope you like them.

Sketchadoodling

Just a few quick sketches I did.  I'm trying to recycle and reuse pieces of paper that I have laying around that have a bit of whitespace on them.  I've got more paper on the way, but in the meantime, I've got these bits to use and since they paintings aren't  great and were just sitting around anyway.....   So you might be forced to view through a few more before I've exhausted all my scraps.  Enjoy.

Morning Glories and Roses

Building on yesterdays lesson, I decided to spread out just a bit.  Today, it was morning glories.  These are some of my favorite.  You plant them and they keep replanting themselves and seem to grow whether you care for them or not.  

I think I rushed these, and the subsequent roses, just a bit.  I didn't give my paper time enough to dry and as a result, they didn't turn out quite like I wanted.  That's not to say they turned out badly, just not quite what I wanted.  You can see there is one hiding in the middle of the painting.  I guess it looks like its behind the others.  I wanted to paint 5, but in my rush, that one got a little covered up.  Oh well.  Live and learn.

The red that is on the left hand side is the poppy painting from yesterday.




So, in addition to the Morning Glories, I painted two roses.  I rather like this first one, though I think I left a bit too much white on the inside.  The second one....eh.  I tried to paint it a bit from the side and missed my mark, thought I think I know what the real problem with this is:  The outside petal is too shallow.  Had it been deeper, it would look less saucer-ish, and more flower-ish.  Something to remember for next time.

Well, I hope you really enjoy these.  They truly were fun to paint.

Senorita

This painting for sale.  Watercolor 9x12.  $30

Ok, even after a little hiatus, I think I might still be stuck on portraits.  I saw this picture and knew I had to try to paint it.  I think it turned out pretty good, considering.  Considering, I'm still trying to figure out hair, and eyes give me fits.  Oh, and mouths, an noses aren't easy.  Heck, lets just throw the whole head in there as not being easy.  Then, I suppose we could talk a bout clothes, and flowers.... but wait a second.  Im Looking at this painting along side some others that I have done, and I think I am miles ahead of where I was even a few months ago.

I'm proud of this painting, and it is gonna hang in my office for a while.  I've taken down all my previous paintings, and made room for everything I am going to paint over the summer.  This is a great start to the wall.  I'll probably do some more portraits, at least until I feel I've mastered eyes, and lips and hair.  I'm working on more pictures of Ellie, and I want to start a series of everyday things.  Be sure to watch out for them

Hope you enjoy the painting.  I enjoyed painting it.  Thank you.