Watercolor

I attempted to do watercolor for the first time in a couple of years, and I think it actually turned out pretty well. It wasn't traditional watercolor, though. This piece is an ink contour with watercolor splashed onto the paper, loosely following the colors of the picture. I put together two pictures: one of an owl in a nest and one of a cactus in the desert. Luckily, the light was coming from the same side in both pictures, so it wasn't hard to manipulate. I used different greens, yellows, blues, and lots of water to create a certain look. The colors surrounding the owl are mostly cool colors, and the then used oranges and reds to make the owl more interesting and to make it the center of interest. This piece turned out well, being the first time I had done watercolor and ink.

Breadth 1

Finally, something other than an oil painting! My concentration is done, and now I'm moving on to breadth pieces. For this piece, I chose to do a pencil drawing of two little girls running. Pencil turned out to be challenging since I hadn't done a pencil drawing in about a year, but I was able to work through the values and create a full scale of values. The different patterns on the girls' uniforms and grass created interest, as well as the negative shapes. The shadows of the girls made interesting shapes, and the lights and darks helped the composition. Doing a piece that wasn't oil was so refreshing! Working through the challenges of moving from oil paint to pencil was particularly rewarding.