This is a quickie portrait, based on a photo of singer Dinah Washington. Not a terrific likeness, but it was fun to paint. More work on cardstock.
This is a corner of a collage/watercolor/pencil piece I made. I was having trouble sitting down to work – trying to select what to draw or paint, from the many projects that I could be tackling – so I just kind of scribbled some lines, put down some washes, etc. It’s good practice, I guess, and I got some interesting effects and textures. Note editorial comment in the lower right.
After six months (!) of drawing Smithson, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to work on my rendering of hands (and arms, and the head/neck intersection, and backgrounds, and the panel lines could be a little straighter, etc. etc. etc.) Fortunately I am gifted with as large and bony a pair of paws as a student artist could want, so practicing is fairly convenient.
A few quick paintings (I think the bottom one took about an hour; the shadows moved quite a bit, anyway.) Working on color, rendering light and shadow, etc. It’s tough to keep the shadow colors saturated and un-muddied; I’m using mostly transparent pigments here so I end up going over the darkest parts a few times.
It’s nice to paint on paper not made especially for watercolors; these are on card stock, which is a lot cheaper and good for experiments. It sucks the color right in, though; the originals aren’t quite this saturated. But that’s what computers are for. These are various noir-esque doodles put into the same page. He’s not just glowery, he’s caught up in events beyond his control!
