Apple Blossom

Found a nice little picture of an apple blossom on pmp-art.com.  Couldn't help myself, I had to paint it.  I think it came out ok.  I'm working on putting light next to dark and smooth transitions of colors.  Also If I can get multiple colors into each space, so much the better.  The leaves are mostly HBC green #1 and #2 but I've snuck in some Perm. Yellow Lemon and some Viridian too.  The petals are Rose Madder and Vermilion. 

In the original picture the whole branch must have been set on a white sheet, because it had a very soft grey shadow.  I tried to replicate that here. 

I hope you like this one.  I think I'm gonna do a video for htis one, keep a check out for it.

Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto

I found a picture of a robot the other day.  Wasn't looking for one, I just came across it.  And once I did, I realized I had to paint it.  After a quick drawing, and the comments of all my friends and family that were home at the time, I got down to work. 

I used my brand new Holbein Watercolors to paint this, and I think they are absolutely sublime.  I might not even go back to my old M. Graham's.  This is painted on a 12"x12" square sheet and I was thinking I could have two of these standing side by side, so I only used half the paper.  Perhaps in the near future, I'll do the other half and then I'll have them both.

I spent probably half an hour on this, and I think it turned out pretty good.  I think if I spent another half an hour, I could really bring out some of the darks, and that would set up some of the lights a bit better.  And of course a bit of background wouldn't hut.

Prima Marketing Odyssey Watercolors

Well, here it is, the Odyssey set of watercolors by Prima Marketing. The paints wet really nice and are very vibrant. They are very nice watercolors with a little catch. If you are doing more than a couple of layers of glazing, they get a little wonky. But honestly, the colors are so intense that if you plan your painting right, you may never need lay down more than a couple of layers.

You can see from the picture just how nice the colors look. The colors do, however need new names. As they are listed, they are: Tokyo, Rome, Amsterdam, Maui, Jordan, Cusco, Dubai, Jamaica, London, Inca, Budapest, and Calgary. I can see that if you are on a travel odyssey, you would want to name the colors this way, but it does make it hard to compare the colors to other kits that have more normal names. Oh, well. Once you start using the colors, you kinda forget about the names anyway and just look at the colors.

Well, thats all for now, enjoy.

More updates soon

Watercolor Wednesday

Just a quick little painting I did on Watercolor Wednesday at the library. Its a squash and a tiny pumpkin. I have to thank my friend Jessie for putting this on. It takes place once a month and when I am able to, i like to go. Unfortunately with work, I don’t get to go often.

Every time I go, I’ll be sure to update everyone. More updates soon

Tree Frog

Here is a cute little tree frog that I did. I was using a new set of paints that I got. Its Prima Marketings Odyssey set of paints. They are really vibrant and wet very easily. As you can see, you can even paint great pictures witht them. I rather like them, and will use them agian really soon.

More updates soon

Lemons

Ahhh, well it has been quite a while since I made a blog post here. I know I always promise to do better but it really is hard with all the things I have going on. I’ve continued to paint, its just that not all the paintings have made it here.

This painting was done in Strathmore 400 series Multi Media paper. I will admit that I have used this paper befor and dont remember having such trouble. Perhaps that it was that I was much more the beginner. Right now, I have to say that if I never paint on this paper again, it will be too soon.

Having said that, I really enjoyed painting these lemons. I accepted the challenge of the paper and tried to make these look as great as possible. I think i really accomplished this.

The biggest drawback for me is the leaves. I don’t know if I had too much water or too little or maybe a bit of both, but I think they came out a bit wonky. Well, here they are anyway. I hope you enjoy them. I had a great time painting them. Hope you enjoy viewing them.

If you want to watch how I painted these, follow this link

Lake Erie Boat

Here is a cute little boat I painted.   This one came to me from the site pmp-art.com.  It's a little boat on the shore of Lake Erie (Sorry, I don't know if its the American or Canadian side).
I took a quick painting class on my lunch hour today.  30 minutes for a lesson, 30 minutes to paint.  I could have painted the picture supplied, or brought my own.  I chose to bring my own.  And knowing that I wouldn't have much time, I had to find a painting that I could do in a reasonable amount of time.

The lesson was about perspective and distance.  Notice the trees in the back are much bluer than the ones in the front.  That pushes them back.  Also notice that the sand on the beach in the front is much more red than the sand in the back.  That red helps to bring it forward.  All of a sudden, I've got depth in my painting.  Yay.

At any rate, for a 30 minute painting, I don't think its half bad.   I might even decide to do a video of this one.