Watercolor Portrait of Woman with White Hair.

Watercolor Portrait of a woman with white hair was a fun painting I did this last week.  I wanted to do something misty and ethereal which it sort of is.

I am loving the colors of blue and purple contrasting the warmer flesh tones. I did not intend to use black but the eyelashes were too pale so I bit the bullet and added black around the eyes. It seemed wrong to only have black there so I gave a little speckle of black around the side of the face to mark the border of the whitish hair and the face. I wanted to have more movement of a soft texture in the face but just lost interest in doing that after putting so much texture in the background.

I began to feel that I was overworking the picture so I decided it was done.

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Adron



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c) Adron

Watercolor Portrait of Bald Man, Almost Abstract

A watercolor portrait of a man is a drawing I did in watercolor to experiment with the color combinations of the face. There are many colors in the human face some are from the skin or the flesh below the skin. Some colors we see are reflected colors from the environment and some are the effects of the lighting; then the shadows add other colors.

Watercolor portrait of man

I was very happy with the results of the project. It was not a study in anatomy and a discerning viewer will note the mistakes in the proportions, (I won't list them you can look for them). I liked the way the colors worked together and in places contrasted each other. I liked the extremes of the colors it is like the very warm yellows and the very cold blues battle it out on the paper.

Watercolor of Falls Across Lake Neuman

Watercolor Painting of Falls Across Lake Neuman

Water Color Of Falls Across Lake Newman.

This is a watercolor of the waterfall across a lake. It is painted on a sheet of 9x11 paper.

I had a lot of enjoyment painting this picture, and worked on it over several days whenever I had a few minutes here and there.

MY TECHNIQUE
The sky was a clear wash with color dropped into the water. The distant mountain was done in several washy layers.  The middle ground was done with a wash first and the details applied by dabbing after the wash was dry. The water in the foreground was a dry brush at first, but I was not happy with the effect so I gave a clear water wash over it and that smoothed out the roughness.

ARTIST CIRQUE
It is an OK painting but not one of my best.  I think I could have worked more on the composition before I executed it. I could have done more with the under-wash before going to the smaller brush and adding detail; maybe I did too much with the smaller brush.  The intention of the shore line was to make it uneven but instead it looks tilted.  There is too much water in the lower area; I thought of putting a near shore in part of the foreground, which I wish I had done so now.  The values are too flat in the middle ground; the colors should pale in the distance and be more brilliant in the foreground. I admit I was struggling with the medium a bit. I should have used more of the sky color in the water; the two different blues look inharmonious in the same picture, one knows logically the sky is reflected in the water and share a large volume of color.

Live and learn. Never give up.

I hope this discussion is helpful for you in your art.

(c) Adron

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I hope you enjoy my art. 
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Adron



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Practice Model Wood Man.

Wood Man Practice Drawing

Today I was teaching a class on drawing and we took our wood man model, set him on an upturned glass jar and drew him in a sitting pose.

This drawing took about twenty minutes. I used only an hb pencil.

I do a quick rough sketch by marking the location of the joints and drawing connecting structures between the joints. This makes an outline and then I go over it again and again making corrections and adding shading for volume. It was only part of the class if we had more time I would make a lot of little changes with the shadows and clean up the lines.

These are great ways to learn the basic human figure and cheaper than paying for a class. I recommend it.

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Chokeberry Flowers, Handmade Print

Chokeberry flower. 

This is a mono print, a handmade one of a kind image.

Chokeberry,  Monoprint,  edition of 1 by Adron.

I made this by drawing directly on the ink with a pencil while it was on the ink-glass then pressed paper onto it. This is not the normal way of print making, at least that I know, normally you would cut a block of wood, linoleum, or foam and then ink the block then press the paper onto the block. It allows you to make many editions of the same image. The block can be re-cut for additional colors and effects, but the mono print does not offer that opportunity.

I think it would have been more effective if I had a different tool other than the pencil that I used to draw the picture with. Maybe a wider or duller instrument would have given more variety in the lines, and more interest in the picture.

I am happy with the results and will consider framing it.

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(c) Adron

Owl Relief Print. Handmade.

Mono Print of an Owl.

This is a hand made one of a kind relief print. 

Owl Handmade Mono-print 1/1 printed 12/22/12 

I have been having a lot of fun print making lately. I read in a book about a process of scribing into the ink while it was on the glass and printing off of the ink-glass  directly. This does not require carving a block, but you only get one or two images.  

This owl image was made after I did some other print work and I had a little ink on the glass which I didn't want to waste. So I used a dull pencil and drew right on the ink and laid a page on it. It was the fist time I tried this sort of thing. I was mostly happy with the results. The unevenness of the print is a little disappointing but the image is clear. Water based inks seem to dry  unevenly on the glass after you roll the brayer over it a few times so that is why the uneven dark and light areas. 

Sun Image, Handmade Monoprint

A Monoprint of a Sun  

This is a hand made print. Only one is made so it is called a mono-print. The sun is a popular and favorite subject.  

January Sun, monoprint, 1 of 1 made. 8.5x11 inches by Adron 

This was made in my basement studio on January 3rd 2013. I first rolled a square of yellow onto the paper. While that dried I cut a block, or in this case Styrofoam, and rolled ink over it then pressed the paper onto it. The outside shape was cut and he face was simply drawn in the soft material which depressed the Styrofoam and left the yellow underneath to show through. The raised image leaves the print of the image. 

It is always an adventure because you never really know what it will be like when it comes out. 

The ink I use is speedball water based ink. The paper was 20 lb paper. Which is a little lightweight for my taste but OK for making something for fun.

I didn't feel like going to great lengths to make different colors and try to get things to match up for more layers of color. So I kept it simple. 

Watercolor Painting of Sea Wave Crashing

This is a little study I did in watercolor to practice the technique. The wave crashing over the rock was my point of interest. It is always a popular subject. The sea is so powerful and restless one only wishes to capture it but never succeeds.

Water Color painting of Sea Wave Crashing.

The wave was done with a small brush and a very thin wash of ultramarine blue, cerulean blue and alizarin crimson. I dabbed and scribbled the pale colors over and did a little layering. The trick is to think ahead and plan what the water is going to do in the future stage of the picture so you have the little halo around the crashing wave.

I used a medium sized brush for the waves in the foreground. I was a little unhappy with the brightness of the blue water in the foreground. I didn't want to muddy the colors too much with greens and grays but wonder if it wouldn't have given a nice contrast.

I wish the sky was a little darker but it turned out OK.

In retrospect, I should have made the rocks darker but they were getting muddy.

I am happy with the composition the space between the rocks lead one to the wave crashing.
(c) Adron

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Thank you for visiting my blog. 
I hope you enjoy my art. 
If you want to see more just choose from the labels or the favorites in the sidebar. 




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