Six in One

Watercolor Studies 5 x 5.5

This is what I have been busy working on lately.  I really wanted to practice my watercolor techniques so I decided to draw the same image multiple times.  I experimented with different colors and processes.  It was a lot of fun, but most of all it was a great learning experience for me. Original sketch is of my Dutch Shepherd, Rayden.  He finds his way into my art fairly often. 

Pare Down your Apple

"Golden Delicious"
5x7
Watercolor

This was a really fun challenge over on DPW.  We had to paint an apple with as few areas of color as possible with it still reading as a 3d apple.  I am still not at all comfortable with watercolor so when I completely messed up the shadow area I decided to play with it and blow the paint/water concoction all over the page.

White Rhino

White Rhino
5x7
Ink and Watercolor

I messed with this one a bit too much.  I think I was happier with it several steps before this.  It was so much easier to have the ink lines in place, but I think I relied on them too much instead of really looking for values.  This is one of the white rhinos at the OKC zoo.  I did not know they had so much hair on their ears.  It was also strange for me to put his eye there because it seemed like it should have been closer to the ears.  Of course, it's always a challenge to paint what you see instead of what you think you see.

Going Mudding

"Going Mudding"

5" x 7"

Acrylic on canvas panel

This is the first acrylic painting I have done in years.  I don't remember acrylic being this hard to work with, but I think it is because I am out of practice.  The paint kept drying on me before I had a chance to put it on the canvas.  I painted it from a photograph of my first horse Jackson.  He was actually rolling in a dirt arena, but I wanted the background to be darker to bring out more contrast, and the dirt ended up looking more like mud.  I did this for the DPW "the lying down challenge".  I forgot to sign it before I took the photograph, but it is signed now.