Hmmm....they say there's a resemblence

This is still a work in progress, but I think it's coming along. Curiously, both my husband and friend Linda think this looks more like me than the watercolor or acrylic versions. What does that say about me??? Eccentric maybe??

I'm pretty happy about the face, but I need to define the neck/ hand areas. I've pasted it down with repositionable adhesive (basically what holds postit notes on), so I can play with where the pieces are and can lift and layer differently as needed. I can give myself some pretty quirky expressions just by shifting the eyes. Not quite sure how I will permanently adhere them. I don't want the paper to wrinkle with wet glue. Any suggestions?

Will the Real Me Please Step Forward

Inspired the Carol Marine's Daily Paintworks challenges a few weeks ago, I decided to do a series of self-portraits. It is HARDER than you think. For one thing, I've been using a mirror instead of a photo, so everything is backwards when you try to look at me and the paintings side by side. The acrylic painting was my first attempt. The first go around looked rather ghoulish and pasty so i tried to adjust the colors to give me more life, but now it looks overworked and harsh.

So on to attemp #2. Watercolor and watercolor pencil. I like this one a lot better. I think it's a pretty good likeness with out being too exact. My husband doesn't particularly like it - doesn't like the chin - so every one is a critic (haha)

.....so then on to attempt #3 - paper collage. this one isn't glued down yet, so there's a lot of give and take that will happen before it's finished, for one thing I need to move it to a bigger piece of paper than the one I sketched the underlying image on. Anyway, I think this one will be lots of fun to work on !

Door County Conversation X Two

After looking at the watercolor for a day, I decided that I needed to break up the 3 color right edge so K will have something more to build from to paint the next panel. I also intensified the colors of the robe and changed the color of the beverage glass.

And then....

I decided to do another one using collage. I REALLY like this one. I think it needs a little more contrast, maybe paint over the white diagram area in the neck with a transparent color to bring out the design. What do you think? Cooler 1 or Cooler 2?

The begining of a conversation

I was really intrigued by the "conversations" that Jill Posby showed on her blog. Since K and I are always looking for ways to inspire each other, we decided to start some conversations of our own. K is starting one and I'm starting one. Here's my start. I think I need to make the edges a little more interesting so she has something to work from. So here you go....

I was so close to just scraping this, but after adding more color and directional lines to give it a better composition I kind of like it. I'm not sure it's worthy of posting on virtual paintout, but it's getting closer to a successful painting. I really liked the contrast in the personalities of these four women through their dress that the photo captured my imagination, but I'm not sure i did them justice. Hmmm.

And here's the second painting I've been working on this week. It is the Zippo lighter challenge for the Dailypaintworks challenge. The challenge here was to use the reference photo and paint it using only Ultramarine blue, Burnt Sienna and Titanium White. A nice little challenge in color blending, but of course I had to give it a twist...literally. Fun

Here's the next phase on this image from Romania Google Streetview. I worked into the background more and defined the gals a little more, but I'm still not happy and don't know where to go from here. The image has the potential to tell a story, but I'm not quite sure how to pull that out. I really want to improve on my figure painting, but they continue to look like "mine" and I'm not happy with that. The deadline for posting this on virtualpaintout is next Monday. We'll see what the weekend brings, but this may just get gessoed over.. Aargh.

Romania Take 1

I found a really interesting street scene on Google maps in Romania to participate in the Virtual Paintout challenge. Here's the first layer, blocking in the figures. I like the flow, but I'm not sure the figures really fit the page. Hmmm. I'll have to play with it. Maybe even to another. Also the colors are pretty much WSIWYG. I think I'll play with that too, to get a more interesting congruent painting. This scene was just so interesting. Four women, dressed from ultra-conservative and old fashion to quite the hip sundress.

Quatro Campari Tomatoes

Here's what I have so far to submit to the Daily Paintworks challenge. Instead of just trying to better the paint strokes, i tried to change the feel of the painting. It was difficult to do a 10 minute challeng in watercolor considering that you usually need to let the layers dry in between applications so that you don't end up with bleeding and muddy colors. I'm going to try some more and really jump off the deep end next. You'll see what I mean later.

One more variation

Here's one more variation on the lines of the Imperial car image. I rotated it 90 degrees and I get the feeling of totem pole images. I think it's a pretty successufl composition and had fun just expanding into abstraction.. I guess the underlying image imparted that to all the submissions to the challenge. Thanks Carol Marine, I've followed your blog for a long time and appreciate the challenge.

challenge...

Here's what I've done for the Daily Paintworks Challenge. Then I took it out of the box. Sort of Op Art-ish. I think I may do a collage version too. What do you think?

Doodles

K and I were intrigued with the Doodle a Day Calendar that Myrna Wachnov showed on her blog so I ordered two for us to jump start us each day. Since I didn't get them until the first of February I picked out 3 from January to attack. Let me say, this is harder than it looks, or else this just isn't how my brain works.

My other resolution is to try and participate in the Dailypaint works challenge each week, and also start a series of things. I'm thinking portraits, but that's yet to be decided. I'm still making progress getting organized and really that is step 1.

I can't commit to being a daily painter, but I am going to try to do more than once a week. Here's a quick sketch I did just to get back into things. It's on watercolor paper, so I think I will tackle "colorizing" this.

And K, here's a little collage that is coming your way to add to. Think I'll put it in an envelope though!. See what you can add to it.

My Bad

I've had paintings a gallery here in town, and they are reorganizing so I went to retrieve all of my work that they've had as part of their inventory, but these 3 guys are missing. I guess i should have been more diligent about keeping a list of exactly what they had and checked in more frequently to see if they had sold. I'm sure that if they did sell, I'll get paid, but first we have to locate them. So here you go, alley alley in free!

OK. It's been a log time since I posted. It has been one BUSY year, but I think I'm back on track. I've spent the last week cleaning up my studio, reorganizing finished paintings, putting paints, pencils, and papers back in drawers, throwing away lots of paper and printed reference photos that no longer inspire me and just flat out unearthing my drawing table.

Today I went to Michael's in search of a small drawing pad so I can start doing some small daily projects that don't require a full blown effort. ..... but they were having a SALE on canvases and strathmore pads so I ended up getting 8 gallery wrapped canvases 8 watercolor pads....Now I have no excuse to get busy. Will post a picture of the "after" studio, since I didn't take a picture of the "before" (not to be seen by anyone not related to me) studio.