Natalie - watercolor

watercolor, 2017

available, 9"x12"

      Just a quick, loose portrait of a model from some glamour site. There's very little about this one I don't like -- except maybe the scan. Scanning always adds contrast and washes out some of the lighter spots, hiding much of the subtlety inherent in the real painting. I recently went through some originals and was struck at how much better many of them were than I remember them because I'm used to seeing the scanned file. I'm still trying to figure out an easy method of shooting originals with my camera. Theoretically, I should get a much better, truer-to-life image that way.
       I used a pretty limited palette on this one, yellow ochre, a warm red and ultramarine blue for the skin tones - with just a touch of permanent rose to bring the nose forward. The hair and lips needed a couple more colors and I think the background blue is a loose mix of ultramarine and cobalt. The fewer colors you use, the less chance of mud, everyone always says.

Manila Fire & Rescue - watercolor

watercolor, 2015
available, 7"x11"

      Here's another one from the Philippines for this month's Virtual Paintout. I didn't include any of the surroundings for simplicity's sake. But I found it interesting that these are just parked on the side of the road across from the manual railroad crossing from last week. There's no building or station like we're used to in other parts of the world.

      Anyway, I'm pretty happy with how this one worked out. It's just loose enough and just tight enough. And, I did it with a three-color palette - ultramarine blue, raw sienna, and cadmium red light. I've been experimenting with limited palettes with my figure paintings, which I don't post here. This image all but screamed limited palette.