Watercolor #37 - Dora Sislian Themelis

#37 Peach at the Beach with Two Shells 14x20 Watercolor
©2011 Dora Sislian Themelis

Moving along in the challenge at a snail's pace for the time being, but I'd had enough of this work and had to end it here. I am done!

Lorrie #57 - Osprey Alights

Osprey Alights, watercolor 9 x 12 inches

Toying around with minimal color palette: Payne's Gray and Gamboge Yellow, with a touch of red mixed into the feet, body, and beak. The osprey's position is based on a magazine photo.

Lorrie #56 - Hidden Lion

Hidden Lion, watercolor 8 x 10 inches

During a walk in Berkeley, this stone lion head appeared from behind some overgrown landscaping shrubs. It was a lovely day so I sat down and painted a while. As usual I had more to do back a home to finish up the painting.

Lorrie #55 - Surprise Waterfall

Surprise Waterfall, watercolor 6 x 9 inches

A while back on a trip to Costa Rica, while hiking on a little trail, this view met us around a corner ... or something like this, since I didn't paint on the spot. It's what I remember it "feeling" like, anyway.

Watercolor Painting #36 Dora Sislian Themelis

#36 Afternoon Sunflowers 14x20 Watercolor ©2011 Dora Sislian Themelis

The latest watercolor painting is finished #36 Afternoon Sunflowers. Still painting in twenty minute segments moved this work along, but I'm finding that the bigger my surface gets the more work one piece needs and I'm not moving along as quick as I'd like in the challenge. Besides the bit of resistance I come up against now and then, I'm crawling along pushing my limits. I'll get there. Eventually.

Liz 78 and #79 Clouds with water soluable caryons

Blue textured 9x12 paper

On our 6 hour ride there were so many cloud colors and changes I tried to capture. Using colored pastel paper worked much better than the white paper.

Liz #76 and 77 A Change Wax based watercolor crayons

As we were driving to Massachusetts, I picked up some water soluable wax based crayons and attempted to capture the areas of rock that were on the side of the highway and a portrait using water soluble oil pastels
which were not as densly pigmented and spotty when washed with water. What a breeze to clean up!

liz Cutler #74 and 75 Oil on 12 x 12 Panel

More plein air painting as the

weather shifts. I am noticing the clouds and working on reflections and adding more medium to the paint so it is harder to photograph but nicer to work with. I am much faster now as it sure is cold sitting on the rocks! Both of these were 5:00 ish on Toddy Pond...as the sun was sinking.

Kelly - Paintings 77, 78, and 79

oil pastel

watercolor

watercolor

Matty and I watched this Pied-billed Grebe last March when we were in Florida. I painted her in three styles...

Lorrie #54 - Harbor Seals

Harbor Seals, watercolor 4 x 6 inches

Plump little guys snoozing on plump rocks in Monterey Bay.

Painting #19 A view of St. Peters - Claire

This is a view of St. Peters in Italy. You might be thinking that I visited Italy over the summer... well not quite. I took another imaginary adventure with Laure Ferlita, and loved journeying through Italy from my dining room table.

Lorrie #52 and #53 - In Vitro, Ex Vitro

In Vitro, watercolor 8 x 10 inches

Ex Vitro, watercolor 8 x 10 inches

Bright colors, yes! This pair of paintings is homage to (and humor for) people who work with cells in the laboratory. In Latin, in vitro means literally "in glass" -- meaning in a glass flask or a Petri dish as shown here. The liquid that many cells thrive in is a pinkish-orange in color when it's the proper degree of acidity/alkalinity. For the second picture, in Latin ex vitro means "out of glass" which is depicted and, well, just being silly ... hehehe.

Kelly - Paintings 73 - 76

...this painting started as a mild-mannered watercolor. It was minding its own business and was behaving itself too, but it was a little boring, so I took pen & ink to it (outlining and stippling)...and then rubbed charcoal over it! As if that wasn't enough, I then scanned the painting and ran the file through a quick PhotoShop filter to come up with this "tough bird." It was the first time I ever ran a painting through a filter, and I kind of like it. (Since then I've used filters on photos and a set of collaged paintings to create some neat looks. I didn't count them as part of the 100 paintings challenge because they contained some collaged photographs.)

...again, I started with a normal watercolor, but this time while the paint was wet, I sprinkled in salt to create the mottled background...then outlined and stippled with ink...added a course rub with charcoal...and topped it off by running it through a PhotoShop filter. (If you want to try putting charcoal over a painting, use a rough watercolor paper that has a lot of tooth and go lightly.)

...an oil pastel over a quick watercolor painting (this is my favorite--I always love grungy oil pastels with lots of pigment). No practice sketch with this one.

...the first in the series. It started as a 2-minute watercolor, then I just scribbled over the top of it with colored pencil. I was just using this practice painting to figure out the colors of the bird and the patterns in the wings.

Last year at this time I was only on painting 42, so I'm doing much better pacing myself this time around!

#9 Little boy!

I have been copying figures painted by other artists and also sketching using a pencils....this is an attempt from a reference picture. I seem to have messed up on the face and certainly haven't managed the shy expression....but its being posted anyway!

Liz #69-73 Plein air oil on gessoed plywood apnels

#69 Once the sun came out the golf course was brilliant.

This is the garden outside our room, the tree needs work.

I deviated from the square format to paint the tree while sitting inside.

An attempt at monoprinting on a plywood panel which unlike paper repels the oil paint and blotches.

Another painting of the shed. Hard to get the colors right as they were so close in value.

Liz Cutler # 68 Oil on plywood panels, plein air

We went to the Samoset in Rockland ME for a conference. The Farnsworth Museum was amazing. All those Wyeth paintings makes me want to try egg tempra. I was painting sitting by the breakwater painting clouds when all of a sudden a storm hit, the specks are sand from the faceplant my painting did.

Watercolor Still Life #35 Dora Sislian Themelis

#35 Two Sunflowers 9c)2011 Dora Sislian Themelis
14x20 Watercolor on Lanaquarelle paper

Another still life using my own photographs of the sunflowers from the vegetable share makes this watercolor painting #35 in the challenge. I finished this work in three twenty minute intervals, allowing me to step away and keep details to a minimum.

Lorrie #51 - Bio with Cheesecake

Bio with Cheesecake, watercolor 12 x 16 inches

Biology study (the textbook) meets cheesecake, what could be more fun?!? I did not have time to photograph this before putting it up (at the cafe that serves that cheesecake ;) but my daughter took an on-site photo to at least have a record of it.
 

Lorrie #50 - Billy's Rainbow

Billy's Rainbow, watercolor 6 x 9 inches

This is a sketch of  the view from the car, while watching a storm sweep over the ocean. At the time I was also on a conference call with some dear friends, and this rainbow is for Bill P.  I look forward to playing with a larger, wet-into-wet version at home to get the rainbow more ethereal looking, as it truly was.

#46 Kristin, Purple Mountain Saxifrage

8 x 10.5 acrylic and pen

I worked out this composition from some photographs I took this summer. Purple Saxifrage is a high alpine plant that practically grows out of the rocks.

#8 first 'live' sketch

My husband was reading his newspaper this morning and I decided to do my first 'live' sketch! It was quite quick as he was not really too still, but I enjoyed the experience! I am feeling happy about it as I was able to get a reasonable likeness, but more importantly, get some light and shade!

#18 Medusa's Curse - Cheri

This is another project from school. We were challenged with using 4 of the 12 techniques we learned.  So I used Sgraffito, Glazing, Impasto, and Scrumbling.  18 x 24 x 1.5  We also used color to bring sections forward and send others to the back.

Lorrie #49 - Violightning

Violightning, detail from watercolor 16 x 20 inches

Violightning (that is, "violet" and "lightning") was a fun imaginary scene done in colors I rarely use -- which was the motivation. It's mostly burnt sienna and violet, which made all kinds of textures and colors that I didn't expect when added separately or pre-mixed onto damp paper. 

#5,6,7 more sketches!

I will be posting everything I draw since I am recording my growth and progress. These are still sketches that I have copied, but will start doing some real life soon....possibly just quick sketches to understand form and get my proportions right!

The last one is certainly way to thin!!!!

# 4 pencil sketch

This challenge is a special one for me as I want to finally be able to paint portraits and figures in watercolour. So I will not be sticking to the same medium, but rather sharing the process of my learning. I copied this picture from a book of sketches, to see if I could draw a face. This is the result

The picture came out much better than I expected, but I realised that I need  a lot more practice in drawing figures in proportion. I have been looking at some books and feel I need to do quick sketches not only from pictures, but also from real life! I wish I could spend all my time drawing and painting, but life seems to take over!