Week 7 - Watercolor Painting (Part 1)

Alright. So for art this last week, we've been working on putting together a great big watercolor painting. Unfortunately, I'm not quite finished yet. For my watercolor piece, I'm trying to replicate this image:

I've not quite put in the time I'd like for this project, so I'm not quite finished yet. Fortunately, I am making progress from the blank piece of paper I started with. Here's what I have so far:

It's 14x11 inches and currently under the working title "watercolor bighorns". Very original, I know. There's still a lot of work to do (mostly with greens), and the picture still has rather blurry look to it, but I'm looking forward to trying to bring out the eye popping color this picture deserves. I'll try to remember to post the the final product when I can find the time to polish up the piece. :)

Photo from http://glacierparkmagazine.com/wordpress/?p=65

Week 7 - Design

Title: Euphonium
Size: 10 by 8 inches 
This piece shows my euphonium in all it's glory.

I went about 20 minutes over the time limit with this piece, but I'm okay with that, because I really like how it turned out. I really had never before realized quite how much tubing there was on my instrument. I spent 50 minutes on outlining, and I still managed to miss five lines (that I've counted so far). ;)

For this assignment, we were supposed to find something in our home that we enjoyed the design of, draw it, and try to keep in mind how very many things in our homes had to be designed by someone. Architecture, furniture, dishes, electronics... the list goes on and on. Personally, though, I really would like to know who comes up with the designs for instruments. It's incredible how convoluted it seems, but then it plays music so easily. It's an interesting relationship, I think. All that effort to make it, just so that it takes less effort to use.

Anyway, It's been an interesting assignment. :D

Week 6 - Watercolor Landscape

Title: Trees by the Lake

Size: 14 by 11 inches

This piece portrays a lake up in the mountains surrounded by trees, done in watercolor.

It was interesting to try and layer the paints to try and show a landscape. I'm not quite satisfied with the clouds or the mountains, but overall, I like how it turned out. I do like my trees though. :)

Week 6 - Watercolor Color Wheel

Title: Watercolor Wheel
Size: 8 by 8 inches
This piece shows the primary and secondary colors.

Red, yellow, and blue are the primary colors; and green, orange, and purple are the secondary colors. Any colors that are across from each other are complementary colors.

This little color wheel was fun and quick to make. It was interesting to try and get the colors to get the colors to blend right. :)

Week 6 - Watercolor Bug

Title: Spring Loaded
Size: 14 by 11 inches
This piece portrays a grasshopper perched on a piece of stone in watercolor.

This was really fun to do. It took quite a while, but I really enjoyed it. Sketching out the right proportions took a few tries, but I am satisfied that it looks like a grasshopper. Trying to color it in was entertaining too. At first I was like "Okay, this bit is brown, that next bit is... also brown... next, brownish orange...", but then I got more into it and was able to distinguish which colors should go where a little more.

I am almost certain I went overboard with the speckling, but what can I say? I love speckling... :D

Week 5 - Abstract Watercolor

Title: Lightsong Exclaims

Size: 11 by 14 inches
This piece uses watercolors and the abstract style to portray the emotions of a happy person. :)

For this piece, I just sat down with my sketchpad and paints, blasted Happy on repeat, and started playing with the paints. It was really fun to do a piece where I didn't have to worry about it looking like anything. I really like how it came out, even if it looks a bit like a melted easter egg. ;)

Week 5 - Self Portrait

Title: Self Portrait

Size: 6 by 8 inches

This piece is the result of my attempts to draw myself in my personal style.

I feel like this piece turned out okay. Not great, but not awful either. The problem with pen is, of course, that it can't be erased. So any errant lines are stuck in the picture. I could drone on for a few hours, complaining about the many things I wish I had done differently, but, instead, I shall endeavor to stay positive.

The girl in the picture looks sort of like me, so I'm going to call that a victory. 

Starting out, I didn't intend for this picture to turn out quite so brown, but now I rather like the sense of unity all the shades of brown lend to the piece. I tend to doodle cartoons, and my drawings are often populated with mini me's, but trying to draw myself in a more realistic manner was an interesting change. If nothing else, I had a lot of fun drawing it. :)