Room for Two Watercolor Painting of Montreal Building

This is the finished painting of the photo I took in Montreal (or Quebec City...I took so many!) The color is a bit off in the photo so I will have to wait for some sun and try to take the photo again. I also used a bit of gouache and texture medium in this one just to try out some new tricks.

I was expecting more of the texture medium, perhaps I do not know how to use it properly, maybe it works better with different pigments or in larger quantities but it seemed like it did not add much more than a good granulating pigment would offer so why not just use a granulating pigment...will have to explore more :)

Reference Photo

I thought I would upload the reference photo that I used for the column as well.

Reference Photo

I thought I would upload the reference photo that I used for the column as well.

Watercolor Column - Completed

Well I think this column is completed but I will have to live with it a bit to be sure. I have to clean up a few of the edges a bit but will wait until I am 100% sure I am done, or at least 99% sure.

It took me much longer than I expected but I am quite happy with the texture created by going it slow and building up the layers lightly to reach the darks.

I am quite happy with the sky color and how smoothly it turned out as I don't usually do large washes so was not sure if it was going to be a fiasco or not! I am still working on a title for this one as well...I will have to mull it over for a bit.

Art Demo Photos at the Outlet

Here are a couple of photos of me working at Artisan Craft Fair at the Outlet on the weekend. It was a lot of fun and I met some great people and fellow artists and crafters.

There were a few other painters set up there with beautiful original paintings and prints for sale. There were also some really cool jewelery artisans there and of course some amazing pottery. I tried to purchase a piece but it had already been sold, of course I should have bought it when I saw it when I was hanging my artwork earlier in the week....you snooze you lose ;) But luckily the potter, Joan Grisley from the Tri-City Potters is open to doing custom work so all is not lost!

Demo at Place des Arts in March

The exact date has not been ironed out yet but it looks like I will be doing a demo at Place des Arts during the time that my exhibit will be on display. I will follow up with more details closer to the date.

Watercolor Demo at Port Moody Art Association

I have been invited to do a watercolor demo at the Port Moody Art Association on April 27, 2009. It is a very large group with artists focusing on all mediums so it should be a lot of fun!

Watercolor Demo at Art Focus Group

I will be doing a watercolor demo at the Art Focus Group on February 25, 2009. The group meets from 7-9 pm that night so please come out and enjoy the demo. It is free for all and you are more than welcome to join the group.

Art Demo at the Outlet Nov 22 from 1 - 3 pm

I will be doing a graphite demo on Nov 22 from 1 - 3 pm as a kick off to my exhibit at the Outlet and as part of the Leigh Square First Annual Winter Artisan Fair. My demo will be located in the Residence Room along with a demo by Catherine Dumaine who will be working on a loom.

I hope you can make it for a visit and to check out all the crafts. It sounds like there is a great variety of crafts and artwork so it should be a lot of fun!

Leigh Square First Annual Winter Artisan Fair

The Outlet Workroom

2253 Leigh Square, Port Coquitlam
November 22 - 23 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
http://www.portcoquitlam.ca/arts - 604-927-8400

Watercolor Column - Adding the Details

Things are starting to take shape now. Many (many) layers have been added to slowly build up the colors and tonal values. As I want to maintain the glow underneath, each layer must be thin enough to show the underlying layers and dark enough so that depth is added without washing out the previous layer.

I think at this point I need to darken the sky to better judge how much further I want to push the darks so that the lights shine more. The colors I have used overtop of the under painting are burnt umber, new gamboge, raw sienna, sepia, french ultramarine & yellow ochre.

Watercolor Column Underpainting in Purple

This is a painting of a beautiful building that I am currently working on. I have just completed the underpainting and now will start building up the layers of color. I do not usually use a purple underpainting but have heard other have really enjoyed it so I thought why not give it a try!

I used a mixture of French Ultramarine Blue and Permanent Alizarin Crimson to give me various shades of purple. French Ultramarine is one of my favorite pigments as it is so beautiful alone or mixed with other pigments. It is slightly opaque and gives a beautiful texture to the layers applied overtop of it.

Watercolor Figure Painting - Under My Thumb

This is a recent watercolor painting I completed of a soon to be first time mother. I tried to obtain a similar likeness to my graphite portraits but with watercolor rather than pencil. This is the second in a series of prenatal paintings, the first is of the father's hands and will be posted shortly. I wanted to keep this one soft and lighter than the father's hands to further emphasize the femininity of the painting.

I loved the shadows off of the thumbs hence the name of the painting and also liked how the belly ring is stretched nearly to the limit!

Baby Portrait Grandaughter Completed

Well I think this little cutie is completed but as always I will leave it to sit a bit and take another look with fresh eyes. I understated her hands and clothing slightly so that they do not take too much attention from the face. Again, her face is much more developed than a sketch should be but I just can't seem to help myself!

Instant Art for Kids and Adult Kids

I went down to Granville Island to drop off a painting for my upcoming exhibit at the Federation of Canadian Artists yesterday and happened to walk by a small gallery on the island that looked interesting. I remembered the space had been empty for some time and was told by the residing artist that in fact she had 'taken the space on' for only two months to share art with the community.

Her name is Jeanne Krabbendam and she also is a member of the FCA and teaches at Emily Carr, check out her website at http://www.jeannekrabbendam.com/home.html She had easel's set up for anyone, including kids to use free of charge and at their leisure. As I had the kids and husband in tow I was a little reluctant to let the kids slap on the paint as they can be 'a little' messy when they get going. So Jeanne showed me this cool trick for transferring images and making 'instant art'.

Take a photocopy of an image that you like and cover it with masking tape. Rub all of the air bubble out and smooth it out as much as possible with your finger nail pressing firmly. Then drop the taped paper into warm water and wait a few minutes. Take the paper out and rub the paper off the tape and voila, you have an imprint of the image on your tape. I don't know who was more excited, me or the kids! Jeanne then explained that you can also use acrylic medium the same way and put the images on just about anything, tile, wood, paper etc. Aha the possibilities are endless...

Baby Portrait Grandaughter - Rough Sketch

I have transferred the image to the watercolor paper using a home-made graphite paper. I use the premade paper for painting as the lines are harsher and I have learned the hard way if you are going to transfer an image using the premade paper, you better intend to draw darkly and be very committed to the rough sketch!

By making my own graphite transfer paper I do not need to worry about the harsh lines and the transfer paper is reusable many times. I took a photo of the portrait so far and have adjusted the values in photoshop so that the lines are more clearly visible. The actual portrait is much lighter

in real life.

Baby Sketch of Grandaughter for Christmas Gift

This is a mock up that I will be using as a reference photos that I will be using for my next graphite portrait commission. Her grandmother is commissioning the portrait as a Christmas gift.



I took her hands from another photo as she just looked so cute with her hands in her mouth and her little daisy's on her pjs but the lighting was not great on her face and the angle was a little off. Her face in the second photo was perfect and I just matched the size of her hands so that everything fit together nicely. Luckily the angle of her body was the same for both so things fit together quite naturally.



The portrait will be done as a pencil sketch on arches watercolor paper so it will not have as much depth and detail as a full portrait but I think being more 'sketchy' will enhance the fragility of her face and hands nicely.

Life Drawing Sketch

This is a quick, 15 minutes quick, sketch of a friend of mine from Suite E Life Drawing group. We decided to take a night and do 15 minutes portrait sketches of each other and it was a blast. We all took turns 'modeling' and the other frantically sketched until the timer went off. We kept rotating the groups so we all got a variety of subjects and the class flew by!

I was thoroughly exhausted by the end of the evening but I hope we do it again soon as it was great practice!