A Project and A Class Report

I guess I'll start with the watercolor class I attended yesterday and report that it was actually fun and while I didn't do my best work by a long shot, at least I didn't freeze and was able to participate.

Those are tomatoes in case you couldn't tell!  We were supposed to paint a 'round fruit' and I forgot about taking something til the last minute when I grabbed up a tomato from the garden.

The first tomato is wet on dry and I didn't have time to finish it as it was done second.  The other tomato was done wet in wet and was much harder for me to do.

I was pleased that I was able to paint the tomato without using a sketch and I wasn't pleased that I forgot to leave the white of the paper for highlights!  


And I've been working on a project for my nephew and his wife that I completed today.  Both of them are just the loveliest people and such a ball to be around.  They joined us when my sister visited and we were at the beach and took part in the ferry trip to both the Cape Lookout Lighthouse and Shackleford Banks.  Anyway, they wanted a painting of the lighthouse on an oar and I've just finished it.  My DH insisted on cutting out the oar shape where he promptly broke the band saw blade!  After finally finding another one to fit, I prepped the oar and put on the design from a photo we took from the ferry.  Here is the result.

I texted a photo of it to them this morning and they both loved it (Whew!)  I also found out that they're going to have a baby and they want some bunny paintings for the nursery.  You know that's right up my alley and my head is spinning with lots of ideas but have a portrait of a beautiful Golden Retriever to finish first.

My dear friend, Tammy, lost her baby not too long ago and she wanted a portrait to go with the others I've done over the years.  This is the same woman who lost Zoe in July.

Although Zoe was actually her husband's dog and they only married a couple of years ago, Zoe was still very special to her and her husband both.

This is a hard portrait for me as the dog was a large part of my life for several years too.  Tammy and I have been friends for ages and I've been around her dogs a lot during that time.  Tristan was a real love and it's hard to think of him as gone.  I'll miss him a lot also.

So I hope I can do the best job ever on his portrait and I also hope the bunnies work out as well as I envision also.

I'll keep you posted!

Nearly Finished with the Cradled Hardboard Painting

I've finally gotten to the point where I could glue the paintings to the cradled hardboard and thought you might like to see the (almost) end result.  I don't actually use glue for these but use the recommended Golden brand Soft Gloss Gel Medium.  I use it to both attach the painting to the prepared board then also use 2 coats of it to seal the painting.  By the way, that's the shine you see on the paintings as the Soft Gloss isn't quit dry yet.

Because this is a gouache painting and gouache lifts very easily, I gave both the rooster and this lighthouse a light spray with an acrylic sealer.  This kept the gouache from running when I brushed on the diluted Soft Gloss.

In the past I've used a Preval sprayer or my airbrush with the diluted Soft Gloss and was able to skip the acrylic sealer step.  However, this time I had some sealer handy and it was easier to use it than bring out more equipment.

After a few days, I'll give them a several coats of Golden's spray varnish with UV inhibitors and they'll be finished! 

I'll be working on a design project for the next few days and probably won't be able to post here on my blog.  But keep checking back as I'll return with even more art or art ideas!