Koi Miniatures #1

Here are couple of koi miniatures I finished a while ago. When I started sketching the kois, I had no idea how I could paint the water. I just hoped that I would take it as I tackled with it. The ripples were achieved by scrubbing. Since I don’t use masking fluid, I had to do quite a lot of scrubbing.

I just finished my second set of koi miniatures which I will post soon. Please do watch this space…

Kois in the pond 1 & 2
4 by 6 inches on 140# cp watercolor paper
Reference source: Self

Floral Miniatures

I have been doing a series of miniatures for the past few days. That explains the gap since my last post. All these miniatures are postcard size (4 by 6 inches) and this is the first time I am doing small scale. I find that miniatures are easy to sketch but time consuming to paint compared to my usual scale. Speaking of which I have begun to appreciate artists who do their paintings in ACEO(art trade cards). I plan to do a series of miniatures until I run out of steam. Let me see how far I can go keeping in mind that I am not putting myself under pressure. So the visitors can expect a flurry of images in few of my future posts.

The Ballerina

I happened to come across this forum thread in WetCanvas where the contributor, Amelia Jordan offered the challenge to draw the ballerina from her photo. If you browse the thread, you can see various versions in watercolor. The adorable pose of the dancer inspired me to try it out. This is my first try to do a figure painting with an indoor background. I have never painted a wooden flooring before. So for my first try, it came out okay.

The Ballerina
9 by 12 inches on 140# cp watercolor paper
Reference photo by Amelia Jordan

A Century of Postings

I am happy to announce that this is my 100th post in Art Pearls. So far I have done around 85 drawings and paintings. As I pass this mile-stone, I can say that I have learned and improved a lot in my drawings and paintings. This blog has also played an important role. It helps me to stay motivated in my journey through paintings and drawings. I also owe a huge thanks to the regular readers of this blog. Your words of encouragement and compliments mean a lot to me. I consider all the comments with equal importance. Thanks again for all your support.

Now back to my painting. I am absolutely happy with the canna lily painting. I have been wanting to paint one for a while. Somehow I happen to get the drive to do a canna lily this time around after mulling over my what-should-I-paint-next? stage. So glad that I have successfully gotten over the “painter’s block” with a good result.

My neighbor’s canna lily
9 by 12 inches on 140# cp watercolor paper

Lombard Street, San Francisco

When I saw the current DSFDF challenge, I was not thrilled at all. It was a street scene from San Francisco. I had never tried cityscape before so I had a mental tugwar of to-do or not-to-do. I finally gave in and decided to try it in watercolor. If I had not done this challenge I would have never known that I could do cityscape. I would have always kept wondering if I am capable of doing cityscape. Now that I have tried it, I am glad.

Lombard Street, SanFrancisco
6 by 9 inches on 140#cp watercolor paper

A Shade of Mystique

There was no particular reason why I chose this title for my painting but it was what that first came to my mind while I was considering a title. This is a monochromatic study of my previous SP. I just used Prussian Blue for this one.

A Shade of Mystique
9 by 12 inches on 140 # cp watercolor paper

Beach Bum Again

The skin tone is way off in this picture. I will replace this image as soon as I take a photo of the painting.
I painted Beach Bum Again to see how it would look like in acrylic. It was much easier to do the background water and the hair in acrylic. I am okay with the skin tone. All in all I am satisfied with the outcome of this painting.

Beach Bum Again
9 by 12 inches on Strathmore Acrylic Sheet

“I am listening”

I am my own worst critic which becomes obvious when I say I am not too thrilled with this self-portrait. I must honestly say I have tried, really tried my best and this is what I finally get. A high-key, bland version of my portrait. I put several glazes to build the skin tone taking care not to muddy the colors underneath. Finally when it reached this stage, I pulled myself to stop.  I used Quin. Burnt Orange for skin tone instead of mixing my own skin colors. The drawback is that Quin. BO can be easily lifted off. So the glazes have to be laid carefully. I did this painting very tightly with lots of control over the washes. Personally I love to do portraits in bold colors and very loosely but this is the only way I know how to do. Maybe I never dared to find out how it is to paint very loosely.

I  am planning to submit this painting for David Lobenberg’s  Self Portrait Global Love In . The deadline is September 12 so I have got plenty of time to change my mind and submit a different painting if I have another one ready in the meantime.

“I am listening”
9 by 12 inches on 140# cp watercolor paper

Beach Bum

Beach Bum
9 by 12 inches on 140# cp watercolor paper
Reference photo : From nizi at Morguefile

Onlooker

This painting is part of the DSFDF challenge that is hosted by the artist Karin Jurick. As suggested by Karin, I did a full figure sketch first as shown below:

Then I proceeded with painting the figure in watercolor. This exercise helped me build confidence and mitigated the lingering doubt in my mind about my figure sketching skills. Obviously I did not strive to build an exact likeness of the person since that was not my goal.

Onlooker
6 by 9 inches on 140 -lb cp watercolor paper
Reference photo by Karin Jurick