Thursday, February 12, 2015

Daily Painting 3 - Disaster!



I was so discouraged with my painting yesterday that I didn't post it. I had a busy schedule with tending my grandson, taking my daughter to the airport, and going to an opening of a friend's show (more about that in a bit!).

For my painting subject I picked something that I thought would be fairly easy, a sheep. I have painted many sheep over the years and thought it would fit best in the amount of time I had to paint.

It is a watercolor, and I thought I would do a sussex sheep image that I had taken at the State Fair a few years back. I felt in a colorful mood so I started painting the sheepy's head in purple and windsor blue rather than shades of black and grey. I also thought a few flowers would be nice.

What I ended up with is a very pastel looking painting, and it was awful! It was time to go and tend my grandson, so I had to leave it. Painting something you don't feel good about is really a downer!

Thank goodness I had a reception for an artist friend of mine to go to! Jeff Clay is a wonderful photographer who really puts the art into his photographs. Here's his link:  Jeff Clay PhotoBlog

Jeff has recently returned from Cambodia, and he has photos from there that are featured in his show, along with international scenes as well as the amazing shots of New York, the beauty of southern Utah, and it's northern deserts.

Looking at good art always cheers me. Jeff had 75 images in his show! If you want to see it here is the info: Jeff Clay Exhibit

Ok, so back to my 3rd day of Daily Painting. I woke up this morning kind of blue... like my sheep. So I went to my desk and looked at it. Now if you are an artist, you know you can't keep your hands off the painting if something needs to be fixed. So I spent about 20 minutes with it and I think I can post it now.

It was a bit whimsical to start with but when I finished touching it up, it is now definitely whimsical!

I darkened some of the colors as it was pretty low on contrast. Then I scanned it in... On the computer you can often get a good idea of what needs to be fixed next. It was still too pastel. So I did a wash of a golden brown over the whole painting. I knew I needed a pretty wide brush so that I wouldn't wipe out the painting with a lot of small brushstrokes. I grabbed my trusty Sterling Edwards flat brush and painted a light wash over the painting. I love those brushes! It's a must have. Visit the link, Sterling also has a bunch of free painting demos too.

Ok, back to the painting. After the wash was dry, I lifted some of the white in the sheep and surprise! A halo also developed! So suddenly I had a title as well: Angel of the Morning.


Angel of the Morning
8" x 10" Watercolor on 140 lb. WC Paper


Click on price to purchase. US shipping free
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Now on to the daily painting for today! What to paint? I am doing watercolor all this week, now for the subject matter...

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