Watercolor Sketch Of Flowers in Cracked Urn.

My wife has had a good year growing flowers so I did portrait of one in the urn in the back yard. This urn has a gashing crack on the lower half that is gorgeous and horrid at once. It makes the greatest focus in the composition.

This is a sketch not really a painting since it was done quickly and with minimal effort.

The Cracked Urn

It was so hot outside that my watercolors keep drying on my palette as quickly as I whetted them. I set up an umbrella to work underneath but that was only a little help. The sun was so bright on the paper that my eyes were watering, I had to hold the paper close to me under the umbrella. This was handy since I was literally splashing water and medium on the paper I was able to turn the paper quickly and let the medium flow together. The nice thing was that the washes dried quickly and I was able to add layers on without too much delay.

The urn was my interest and I spent more time on that than the rest of the piece

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Adron



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Watercolor sketch of three apples.

I had a little free time and felt I wanted to do some painting. I had bought some apples and thought they made a nice composition.

I call it a sketch because it was a quick painting with little effort.

Watercolor of three green apples. 

I began with a careful pencil sketch, and then did several washes layering color down. First I laid down the background blues and reds. Next I did the lightest values of yellow in the green apples, which I dropped green in and spread it around a little. I went back and gave the background a deeper value of blue, that made the green look tool pale so I had to deepen the greens. The shadows were a combination of grey and violet.

I think I needed a little muddy color here and there in the shadows to take down some of the brightness.

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Adron


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Church Mural Concept and Design.

I was asked to design and paint a mural for the nursery at my church. Anybody else would have done Noah's ark but I have to be different.

I chose a text from the Bible "And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you he shall not lose his reward." Matthew 10:42. NASV.

I began to sketch ideas and play with concepts about two weeks ago. My idea was to put the verse on a scroll with a hand holding out a cup of water on one side of the verse and on the other side have a hand holding a baby bottle. This way the verse relates to the nursery environment. I sketched 18 different versions and parts of the scene.

BASIC SCENE
Since the mural will not cover the entire wall but only a portion I wanted to have it contained within some boundaries that would separate it from the wall. I chose to add wide and deep shadows around the scroll and fill them with reflective colors of lavender blue and purple.

FONT
I designed a font to use by looking at the ones I have on my software and decided what would complement the verse and keeping in mind the wall is brick so has a heavy texture which means I have to keep things simple. I picked bits and pieces out of several ones and feel I got something workable and not too generic.

NO MODELS
I could have hired or bothered friends to model the hands but didn't want to pay money and then find the project is not acceptable for the church, so I used printed, on line images and other reference material and then by combining a few got the hands believable. Once I had the hands designed everything else was easy.

DRAW and DRAW SOME MORE
I used a light box a lot and did a lot of copying of things to get the placement to where I am happy.

I spent over 20 hours on it.

Matthew 10:42 concept sketch for a mural in the church nursery.

I think I will edit the yellow to more of a tan / peach color.

(c) Adron

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Lighthouse at Sunset Watercolor

Here is a little watercolor sketch I did of a lighthouse on a rocky point. 

10.5 x 7 inches.

Watercolor painting of Lighthouse on rocky point.

I did the sky wet and dropped color into it starting with yellow, then blue, and lastly violet. I held up the paper and tilted it one way and another to let the color flow and blend.  I was not happy about the paper having a deckle finish and the color puddled in hundreds of little dots, but I fixed that later by damp brushing clear water to lift and blend the puddled colors.

The sea was under-painted green grey and then a brighter blue brushed over it.

The rocky foreground was under-panted in sienna and let to dry then using a flat brush I layered textured dark values of ultramarine blue and umber to get the effect of a rocky point. To give the color some movement I added a little lavender to the wet and let it flow some. I finished the rocky area with a liner brush drawing out some details, adding edges to shadows and, breaking up some areas.

The house and lighthouse was drawn in with some small brushes. I started the lighthouse with yellow and let that dry then added blue down the center and lavender on the shadow side. Instead of using black I mixed ultramarine blue and raw umber and added the details to the lighthouse.

I treated the house pretty much the same. The red roof was calculated to introduce a focus.

The surprise color is the green splattered around in the lower left.

(c) Adron

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Portrait of Tree Blossom, Pencil Sketch

I drew this while standing under some bushy tree that had these beautiful five fingered blossoms. It was a lesson teaching some kids how to draw outdoors.

Pencil Sketch of Tree Blossom 

These blossoms do not last so drawing had to be done quickly; as they were being sketched the petals began drooping and wilting.

This was drawn in pencil and just a little charcoal in the deepest dark areas. I did a lot of rubbing on the background to stain the paper so the petals were bright. There was a lot of blending in this project but not so much that it lost the effect of being a drawing. There was a lot of play between light and dark so there was one against the other for contrast. The contrast between the smooth rounded petals and the rough jagged edged leaves was beautiful and I really wanted to capture it which took some effort and constant critique . It was fun playing with the different values of grey and going from the very light, almost white, to the very dark, almost black.

I could have worked on it for another two hours but I have to get on to other projects, and I really want to make my drawings look like a drawing.

(c) Adron

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Simple Watercolor Still Life With Four Objects

This is a little still life in watercolor I painted on 9x11 paper. I was looking for a break from landscapes and portraiture.

Still Life. Four Objects. Watercolor.

I spent a modest amount of time on this. I could have spent more but there is always the danger with watercolor of overworking something and then needing to lift it out.

I did a sketch of the book, box, and candlestick holder carefully and took time to get things the way I wanted them to be. If you have a bad composition no amount of skill or technique will repair it.

I started with the background and did some wet into wet application of the color. I like to drop the watery color into a wet surface and add a second and let them blend. I did the under painting of each idem starting with the box just working my lightest values at this time. After the under wash dried I added the next layer and changed the hue a little leaving the lightest areas as they were. I did a little wet into wet and blending. I repeated this for the darkest hues using a smaller brush.

I took a break and when I came back I decided to darken the background and a few points in the objects.

In hindsight I probably should have made the background a different color or darker altogether. Another step I could have taken to make it more interesting would be to introduce a random color somewhere, like a splash or smudge.

I am mostly pleased with the outcome, it will look pretty matted and framed.

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Adron

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Landscape Painted With Dry Pastels

I do not do dry pastel very often but I wanted a break from the usual watercolor so I dug out my box of pastels and tried to see what I could do. I think it turned out OK for a first effort.

Taylor's Field, Pastel Painting On Paper

It was not a complete set of colors and not the colors I would have chosen but I feel it is important to work with what you have so I struggled through with it.

Ignore the composition or the lack of it. There are too many barriers to the eye and not enough to engage the viewer. I thought I might put a big tree on the left side or maybe the right side to balance the fence post on the left.

The values ware a real struggle for me, I wanted the far field to be lighter and the color duller. The trees in the distance were fine, I kept adding layers on top of layers to get them right. I am happy with the mountain, I did layers and then had to brush some off to reduce the intensity of the value.

I like the choppy effect of the medium. There is something to be said about feeling the medium contacting the paper and feeling the grind and rub as you go along. I feel I need a lot more practice with this medium before I really enjoy working in it.

(c) Adron

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Watercolor Sketch of Autumn Scene

Here is a watercolor sketch I did of a road with autumn trees on each side.

Autumn Landscape With Road Watercolor

It is a simple "U" composition where the trees on each side make the scene like the letter U. The scene is a little too direct, your eye goes straight up the road and ends at the far trees.

I was trying to get more impressionist in the treatment of the trees and the general scenery and then have an area of sharp reality. I was in the mood to do orange and reds.

The trees and undergrowth were built up in dabbing technique and I mixed colors on the paper by dabbing fresh color into the wet of the previous color. I had a little trouble with the values and as such it looks a little flat. I should have made the distant trees and fields more pale. A mountain behind the trees would have been a nice addition for depth.