One for the Weekend (Pin Up Girl, Feet Up)

A pin up to last you though the weekend.    This one, too, is red, with a green background.  I'm gonna claim Chritmasness because of it.

Ok, now on to a funny story.  I painted this last night during the worst storm of the year. It was, of course, dark.   I got all set up, mixed a few colors, had just started putting brush to paper when..... the power went out.  I had to immediately rethink my strategy.  A quick trip to the office to get a flashlight.  Then a better idea.  A headlamp.

Power was out for about 3 hours last night, and this got painted by LED headlamp.  Not optimal conditions, but interesting.  Given the circumstances, I think this turned out really well.

I had a lot of fun painting it in the dark.  Hope you enjoy viewing it.

Pin Up Girl, Bending Leg

This is the second one, so I guess I'm starting a series.  Though if I am going to paint a series of painting, this is a good one to pick.  

I didn't notice this quite as much looking at the real picture, but I might have to darken the background a bit to make her stand out just a bit more.

Yes, there is a bit of backrun on this painting, and I thought about going in and trying to get rid of some of it.   But I rather like backrun.  Watercolor is the only  medium in which you see it, and it really makes paintings distinctive.  So, I decided to leave it.  

As with them all, I had fun painting this one.  Hope you enjoy it too.

A Departure From Birds and Flowers (Pin Up Girl)

 I am trying to paint much more loosely.  On this painting I got the entire sheet wet, blocked in some basic colors, then went back to put in details.

You can see that the paper is really warped.  I used some student grade paper that I had gotten for my kids.  I don't know why I did that, but I did.  I quickly realized my mistake.  I couldn't control the water at all.  Everything flowed everywhere.  I think you can see what colors held the most weight on this paper.  I was hoping to have a nice blue background, but when I went to block in some red and grey, BAMMO, back runs.  Oh well, that's ok.

Letting things dry, I went back and, using very little water, started to put in some details and shading.  This is what I came up with.  I got some good, and some bad.  I think its a good effort, but you decide for yourself.

Thank you and enjoy.

A Couple of Extras

This painting for sale.  Watercolor 5 1/2 x 8 1/2.  $8

 Here are a couple of paintings that I have had kicking around for a while. I don't think that either are particularly great, but I don't think that they are that bad either.

This painting for sale.  Watercolor 5 1/2 x 8 1/2.  $8

I was thinking that these would turn out is kind of a pin-up kind of way.  The first one I think does a pretty good job of that,  the bottom one, not quite so much.  Once again, on these, I think the hair was the hardest part.  I really like the shadowing on the top one, and actually like the skin tones on both.  I probably still have a way to go in painting people, but I think I'm getting closer.  I'll get there soon, but I think I might move on to a different subject matter for a while. Don't be surprised if starting next week there is a big run on some other topic of paintings.

Hope you all enjoy.