Illuminating Letters - What Fun!

For the first part of this lesson by Val Webb we drew our letter, painted the inside and used white ink to added curlicues and designs inside the letter itself.  Today we expanded upon that same design and decorated the outside area.  It was so relaxing and fun that I forgot to plan dinner! :)

Watercoloring Lettering with Val Web (cont'd)

In this lesson of Val Webb's online Watercolor Lettering class we learned to do Celtic lettering.  I only had time so far to do one letter and one border.  If you like stippling or things that are slow and deliberate you will love this -- sort of like meditating! :)

This border sketch is much longer and "in progress",

HB pencil on 140# watercolor paper

Celtic letter "G"

Nano-Liner .01 pen in black, watercolor on 140# watercolor paper

Watercolor Lettering with Val Webb

I follow artist Val Webb on Facebook and enjoy her lovely botanicals.  She offers several classes on-line so I decided to try her Watercolor Lettering class.  She does a fantastic job with instruction, providing very clear printables and video directions.  She speaks and demonstrates at just the right speed and seems very comfortable and cheerful doing so.  I joined a little late but am thoroughly enjoying the class.  I find it to be extremely relaxing, sort of Yoga for artists! :)

Our first lessons was having fun with our brush and different brushstrokes, combining them to make swirls and botanicals like stems and leaves and fun borders.  I have a couple of large pages of these doodles.

Then she showed us how to start doing lettering, nice and even but with a bit of flair.  She even talked us through her process of trial and error to come up with a pleasing composition and sizing.

Here are some things I have done during her class so far.  Val had really great instructions and video on making a nice scroll and lots of examples for ribbons, banners, etc.

Next we are doing Celtic designs!

25 Years Together

Trying my hand and portraiture again.  I did this all in one afternoon as a gift for Jeff for Valentine's Day.  The reference photo was taken on our 25th wedding anniversary.

"25 Years Together"

11" x 12"

Watercolor, Arches, 300# Cold-Press

"French Horn"

I liked this photo of my nephew Spencer playing the French Horn because it tells the viewer something about him.  

When I decided to create a painting from this photo I realized that the French Horn dominates the picture.  It is a very elegant and elaborate instrument but I want the focal point to be centered around his face with a little of the instrument so I'm going to try to fade out the lower part of the horn and make it less intrusive to the final piece. That's the plan, anyway. :)  

I'm also trying to take a little more time in the planning process with the hopes of not "getting lost" during the actual painting.  Here are my steps so far.

Step 1: Enlarge, crop and lighten reference photo, remove background

Step 2: Thumbnail sketch, value scale

Step 3: Played with various color combinations and then did a quick color study

Step 4: Stage 1 of the painting.  He is playing at his 8th grade graduation.  I want to down play his graduation gown which is burgundy and his accomplishment medals because I think it would make the painting too busy so I've grayed down his costume at this point.

"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

Boats on Monterey Bay

I took the reference photo for this painting at Monterey Bay a few weeks ago when we were having unseasonably warm weather.  It was one of my favorite weekends, lunch with good friends and sitting watching the huge waves crash against the rocks while we explored the tide pools.  These boats drew my interest because of the way the wood was worn and the boat on the right was filled with water from the previous rains.  For this painting I wanted to push the limits on color and give them a playful look with contrasting colors and orange and yellow water.  I added the pen and ink to finish the boats and give them a little bit of a graphic style.