"Spencer"

I just found a wonderful used book on-line entitled, Paint Watercolors Filled with Life and Energy, by Arne Westerman.  I sat down and read and read and read.  I like the style of this book because he explains what makes a good design and how he sets about accomplishing that task.  He gives plenty of examples of paintings that he feels meet a particular criteria.  

This painting is of my nephew, Spencer, on his 8th grade graduation.  I tried to use some of the design suggestions from the book, including starting with a thumbnail sketch, I did two but like this one best.  I still had a hard time going really dark though and ended having to work over the painting a bit.  This is pretty small, I think it will help me if I start painting larger. 

"SPENCER"

7x10

Watercolor, Kilimanjaro Cold-Press