#35, #36 Doll Dresses - Sheryl Hawkins

My mom makes and sells doll dresses, and I painted a few of them for her to use on business cards, signs, etc.  They were so fun to paint because I wasn't worried about painting a masterpiece, just something to illustrate her work.  I am also painting some fun little beach designs to use in my soldered charms and will post them next. These quick and easy watercolors are just good practice and a good way to warm up for more intense paintings.

#21, 22, 23 Seashell Trio- Sheryl Hawkins

I know we are encouraged to stay with one medium, and while I do spend much of my painting time on watercolors, I also love to use oils. I have seen other artists mixing mediums here- so I decided why waste the paintings! This last week or so, I have been working with oils and mostly from life instead of photos. I am still looking at the same aspects of the paintings as I would in watercolor- reflection, shine, detail, etc. As you may have noticed from the paintings I post, I particularly enjoy detailed subjects. I will try to continue mixing in scenes with larger views also!

oil on canvas

#6 Corkscrew - Sheryl Hawkins

I have been painting a lot recently, but don't want to post too many at one time, so I am pacing myself on the posting! This is one of my latest- I have been practicing painting reflections on metal and glass. I am hoping that the more I practice them, the easier they will become to paint. The difficulty with the corkscrew wasn't even the reflections, it was the crazy perspective problems!

Watercolor

#4 and #5 "Veterans Day"- Sheryl Hawkins

Veterans Day has always been a meaningful day in our house. Our sons grew up with two veterans in their family- grandfather (USMC Korea) and dad (USMC Vietnam) and both grew up to be veterans themselves (USAF Afghanistan and Iraq) .

When I was in junior high, many of us had P.O.W. bracelets to honor the many Prisoners of War during the Vietnam years. I do not remember how long we wore them, but I do remember when we got to see many of them getting off the planes in 1973-finally home. For the time I wore the bracelet, I only knew the name of this hero. When the former prisoners returned home, I had a face to match to the name. LCDR Edward Davis was a navy pilot who flew 57 missions before being captured and held for 7 1/2 years. A hero.

When I came across this bracelet in a drawer recently, I wanted to use it in a watercolor. I ended up painting it twice because I wasn't sure the first attempt (from above, kind of difficult perspective) was what I wanted. When I went with the straight on view, I was happier with the painting. I have been working on painting reflections and metal lately, so this was a good learning project for me.