Coneflower

I painted a few flowers on my lunch hour today.  They are just quick coneflower, not the most detailed, but for me, thats ok.  I want to give the essence of the flower, not an exact copy of it.  I think they look great and were a lot of fun to paint.  (yes, I realize I forgot the splatter on the first one.)

Hope you enjoy.  (oh, and you might see a video of a coneflower soon.)

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.

Chickens

Chicken-a-go-go.  I don't know why I like painting chickens, but I do.  They are so fun, and easy.  All you have to do is let the paint do its thing.   I could have painted these all night.  Just draw one after the other, and paint paint paint.  

If you haven't seen it, I've put a short video that will show you how I've done it.  

Here it is

Thanks for the view.  I hope you enjoyed it.

Delicious Green Pepper Watercolor Video

Here is the video to go with the pepper.  This is how I paint a green pepper.



Enjoy.

Fresh Green Peppers

Garden fresh, totally delicious green peppers.    Mmmmmm I love summer.  All the fresh local fruits and vegetables.  I offer to you, two versions of a pepper I painted.  They look so gook, I think I could just eat them off the page.

I painted one of these with my daughter, and one for a video.  You decide which is which, or just watch the video.

Thanks for the view.  I hope you enjoyed the picture.

Loose Red Flowers

This lovely little painting is the product of my video last night.  I sat down to just paint some random stuff and flowers popped out of the painting.   Ok, I knew I was going to paint flowers, I just didn't know what they were going to look like.

After dabbing some paint on the paper, and allowing it to dry a bit, this is what I got out.  Not too bad.  Looks like some flowers popping out of a little garden area.

Dabfly Arts Now Has A You Tube Channel

Finally, Dabfly Arts has a Youtube channel.  Check it out.  I'll be trying to post a different video every week.  You'll get a quick peek at how I get through my paintings. I'll let you know all my tips and techniques.  Together we'll have fun exploring watercolor painting.

More Bougainvillea

I know that I recently posted another bougainvillea, but they look so nice and add such a nice punch of color to my yard that I had to paint another.  There is a slight twist to this one.  I MADE A VIDEO ABOUT IT!!!

True story.  I have had several people ask me how I paint my flowers.  It seems that that is what people think I paint best.  So I finally did it,  I broke down and started filming.

Don't expect Scorsese quality filmography.  This is me were talking about after all. But I kinda had fun doing this, so I'll probably make a few more, and we'll see how it goes from there.

Hope you enjoy this flower,  I'll put up a post when the video is up and then the secret will be out.  LOL.  I'll keep you all informed

Bougainvillea

So you may have noticed that I took a little time off from painting.  Let me tell you why.  I hurt my back and its been hard to sit, stand, lay, move, hold still, etc.  I think you get the idea.  I've not felt like trudging out to the studio to do any painting.  What I've felt like is, well, horrible.

But on Friday, I started feeling a little better.  I made it out to the studio.  On the side of the driveway, next to the door to the garage, is a bougainvillea plant.  It's got these really nice magenta flowers on it.  I gave it a quick study and then off I went to give a try at painting it.  Actually I was trying to film it too, but that didn't go well.  (yes, you may see Dabfly Arts videos soon)  What I came up with, you see on the side.

I did it all with a number 2 paint brush and a couple of watercolor pencils.  I've been watching videos again (i know, that can be trouble) and found something that was mentioned in passing in several, but not highlighted in any.    If you hold your brush back past the bulge of the barrel, you can't paint with any real detail.  You are forced to think more about basic shapes.  You, unless you have the steady hands of a brain surgeon, won't be able to work in tiny little places and wont be able to put in tiny little details.  You'll be using a slightly larger muscle group and as such will only be able to make larger strokes.  The thinking is that if you can only make larger strokes, you will force yourself to try to reduce whatever it is you are painting into its basic elements and only paint them.

I tried that with these.  What I got was, ... , well, kind of a mess, but kind of really nice.  I can see how holding your brush so far back changes how you paint.   I think I'll explore this a little further.

Oh, and I guess I should mention that I did add a few details with a watercolor pencil.

Thanks for the view, hope you enjoyed it.

More Hydrangea

Well, I wanted to paint hydrangea again.  I don't know why I like it so much.  Maybe it has to do with the huge hydrangea at the end of my driveway at the house I grew up in.  My brother and a I made a fort inside it, and we were able to stand up without obstruction.  That just shows how big it was.  Like I said, huge.

For this painting, I decided to embrace hard edges.  I've painted hydrangea before and kind of muddled all the edges and made it all soft.  I've been trying to accept that I cant always stop hard edges, so I jumped in and went for all the hard edges I could get.

After drawing my little clump of flowers, I thought it would be cool to paint all at the top level and make the paint drip.  Then walk away so that it dries.  Coming back when it was totally dry, I started on the next set of petals.  Painting right over the drips from the layer above, I didn't even try to erase the lines.  I just kept repeating that until I got to the bottom.

I learned a few interesting thing.  First and foremost, when you want your paint to run, you almost can't do it. secondly, the addition of water at just the right time will lighten just enough of your painting to give some cool effects.  Of course you might want to sop up the extra instead of forcing a run.

I was also hoping to limit my palette.  Something I am always trying to do.  In the effort,  I made it look awfully monotone.  I did actually find a way to use two colors.

Hope you enjoy it,   I sure did.  Thanks for the view.

Last One In This Series (Nudes)

I don't know what happened with this one.  I thought it started out great, and then I kinda lost a little momentum.   I think I started putting shadow where my brain told me shadow ought to be, rather than where it was at based upon the picture.

I have that problem every now and again.  I don't remember if I need a right brain or left brain shift to rid myself of that problem.  Maybe just a change in music will do it.  I've started listening to Dean Martin while I paint, but perhaps I need to listen to something just a bit different.

Well, m not disappointed in this, but I think I could do a better job if I were to do it again.

Regardless, hope you enjoy it.