Alene

I have managed to finish a drawing before this month gets over. I can see that I have done only a couple of art projects this month. I guess those miniatures have burned me out. I miss painting in watercolor after this short gap. On a happy note, I have been able to overcome a lot of doubts on how to paint crystals after watching Joyce Faulknor’s DVD that I had borrowed from my local library. She makes it looks so easy and simple. Learning a technique from print is so different from watch-and-learn. I find myself trying things out mostly through watch-and-learn. I think it gives you a lot of confidence when you see others doing it.  Having said that now I can add a  crystals/glass project in my to-paint list.

Alene
9 by 12 inches on heavy-weight drawing paper with graphite and charcoal

Addentum (Nov.5) :

Here is the reference picture:

Alene’s parents took her picture at their standing height which resulted in a skewed image. I opted for a cropped portrait because I thought the full-figure drawing at this angle would be too jarring. The resolution was not so sharp so I had to make do with what I have on hand.

This drawing is gifted to Alene’s parents. Photo courtesy of Mrs.&Mr. Sebastian.

Portrait # 27

Fresh Catch of the Day

I tried a totally new technique to do this painting. It is Gouache with Ink Resist and then finally you finish off with watercolor. There is a wonderful article in WetCanvas giving a demo on how to do this. The only extra requisitions apart from your regular watercolor supplies are white gouache and waterproof black India ink. You can use this technique to play down the details in your composition and get that wonderful print-like effect.

I did this painting from my reference photo which I took while I was visiting my hometown in South India about five years back. Since I was living along the coastal area, there was no shortage for the availability of seafood. I am basically a seafood lover and these snappers are my personal favorite. They are especially good when you shallow fry in oil after marinating them in hot spices. We bought the fishes from the fishmonger who used to come to our doorstep every weekdays. As the fishes were sitting beside the kitchen sink for the prep, I had a light bulb moment to capture this moment digitally.  After “artistically” arranging the snappers, I snapped the picture with our hired help looking on with an amazed curiosity. When I started painting in watercolor, I wanted to paint a seafood and this photo was on the top of my list. But the chance to paint this materialized only now.

The paper size is 5 by 8 inches. So this is also in miniature format.

P.S :  Visit the artist Kay Robbins’  website to find more inspirational paintings using Gouache and Ink Resist technique.

Fresh Catch of the Day
5 by 8 inches on W&N Cotman 140lb cp watercolor paper