Finished for Now & New Project

I’m done with this one for now. I’ll probably go back to it at some point, to add more detail to the background or make some adjustments, but it’s time to set it aside and let it marinate…

Finally back to class

I know it’s been a while; last week, I drove out to where I take my class only to find that it was spring break, and ended up at home fixing the toilet instead.

Anyway, I’m happy with where it’s going today. I know the eyes are too dark, but at least they fit the face better than they did. All that’s left at this point, I think, is the finicky bits. If I mess with it too much, it’ll turn into mud.

Back to Work

I still have a ways to go – some changes in the face (the eyes need to be lower, as well as the hairline), more detail in the top and another layer in the background – but I’m happy with where it’s headed now.

Progress, Feb. 21

Now it gets interesting.
I’m fairly happy with this, but will have to tweak the face a bit more – the nose is too low, for one, which makes the face look older. As it is, it doesn’t quite fit the body. Fortunately, at this point it is still fixable, I think.
More next week.

Round Two Wash

second draft

Last week I started over, this time using the correct paper (and a better drawing). I sketched it out at home, using the old grid method instead of projecting. Sometimes I like to do it that way, to remind myself that I actually do know how to draw, not just fill in the colors. Anyway, I think it’s clear that, though I haven’t yet done as much on this one, what is there is more interesting than the mudpuddle I began with the first time. My class is today, so I’ll post more progress this evening.

Back to the Drawing Board

Well, suffice it to say that today’s painting session went rather less well than I would like. I discovered that the paper I used was not what I thought I had grabbed originally, and didn’t work as I expected. So, rather than torture myself with bad results I am going to start over, using the correct paper.

*sigh*

First wash

This is the first layer of watercolor paint, currently at the point where you look, groan, and think “Uhhh… is it supposed to look like that??”

Theoretically, with subsequent layers, it will improve…

Project for Next Year

This is going to be the starting image for my first project in January. It’s mostly for my Mom, who brought this picture with her when she came to visit last summer and said she thought it would be a nice watercolor. Yes, that’s me in miniature, in the front yard of the house my Mom grew up in, and which later, for a time, became a lodestone of sorts, drawing to itself some of the best and worst events in my family’s history. The front yard, pictured, was very mysterious. Always shady, with more moss than grass, adorned with ferns and edged with a great rockery to keep the road and driveway from slumping down. There were great trees along one edge, adorned with huge leaves in the shape of a cat’s face. They grew next to the driveway, but leaned away from the it; my Mom used to joke that they were trying to distance themselves from my Grandmother’s driving (she grazed them more than a few times). The darkness in this picture seems almost fey to me – or perhaps feral. This image has been turning in my mind for a few months now. It’ll be interesting to discover what, if anything, lurks in the shadows…