limited palette

I’ve ventured forth once more with a watercolor “character” painting. Humans are my most challenging subject, but I like to push myself, knowing that it helps me grow as an artist. I don’t consider myself a portrait artist, but I love to capture people involved in activity. Two years ago I took photos of an amazing fiddle player named Michael at our favorite pub in Knoxville, Boyd’s Jig and Reel. While looking for reference for a new watercolor on paper, … Read More

Portrait #4 of cute kitty Jethro illustrates using Black Sumi Ink on a white Claybord™ panel. Each of my nine portraits of Jethro presents a different art medium on a 3.5″ x 3.5″ Claybord™ Tile, created and manufactured by Ampersand Art Supply. For this painting I used Yasutomo liquid Sumi Ink KY12, which is water soluable but dries water-resistant. This ink is made from pure vegetable soot, with no additives. Yasutomo brand’s KF series contains a small amount of shellac … Read More

My third portrait of my sweet cat Jethro illustrates using Golden Fluid Acrylics on a white Claybord™ panel. Each of my nine portraits of Jethro presents a different art medium on a 3.5″ x 3.5″ Claybord™ Tile, created and manufactured by Ampersand Art Supply. For this painting I posterized my reference photo in Photoshop to reduce it down to a handful of values. I used just four colors of acrylic paint, with Paynes Gray as the darkest value. I mixed … Read More

This second portrait of my rescued cat Jethro illustrates using Scratchbord Inks on a white Claybord™ panel. Each of my nine portraits of Jethro presents a different art medium on a 3.5″ x 3.5″ Claybord™ Tile, created and manufactured by Ampersand Art Supply. For this painting I made the Claybord into a black surface, very much like Ampersand’s Scratchbord™.  I did this by applying two coats of “Repair Black,” which is included as one of the inks in the set … Read More

My rescued cat Jethro is full of personality and extremely willing to pose for endless photos (he loves attention!). This is the first of my nine portraits of Jethro, each using a different art medium on a 3.5″ x 3.5″ Claybord™ Tile, created and manufactured by Ampersand Art Supply. For this painting I chose a limited palette of primary colors, letting them mix randomly on the smooth surface to create beautiful hues. Claybord has the unique feature of allowing dried … Read More

  When we moved to our house in Tennessee, red foxes were among the abundance of wildlife we spotted in the surrounding woods. The red fox reference photo I found on Wildlife Reference Photos for Artists intrigued me, crying out to be painted! I love doing animals on scratchboard, and the inquisitive fox pose was a perfect candidate. Initially I planned to use black #Ampersand #Scratchbord™, my recent focus. As my design concept developed I switched gears… watercolor on #Claybord™ … Read More

My recent focus on painting portraits has proven successful in eliminating most of my apprehensions, so I’m off and running. One thing I’ve learned is how much fun I have painting white-bearded males! Capturing white hairs is a challenge when painting in traditional techniques of watercolor on paper, where the white of unpainted paper is preserved vs. using any white paint – but a good challenge can help develop artistic skills. Recently I decided it was time to do a … Read More

I’ve read that when you are learning to do portraiture you shouldn’t try painting people you know. Well, I’ve obviously thrown that tip out the window! As soon as I saw my sister post this photo of her husband on social media, I felt it could make a great reference in my quest to do watercolor portraits. I was especially drawn to the casual pose, the side lighting and the beard. The sunglasses would be another ‘first’ for me to … Read More

Here’s my theory: the more people paintings I tackle, the more comfortable I will become with them. So I’ve started on a quest, creating small watercolor paintings of people who I have photographed in casual settings. “When He Was Six” is the first in this series, with the title harkening back to a popular painting of a little girl I painted in acrylics on canvas several years ago, titled “When She Was 3.” I’ve done other people paintings over the … Read More

An art idea hit me like a bullet one day – how about an alpaca painting? I love painting animals, alpacas are adorable, people love alpacas… I should have thought of this long ago! A friend had told me about her pet alpacas a while back, so I contacted her and asked if I could visit for photos. Right away, Beth invited me to come by, and we chose a lovely sunny afternoon. Three alpacas were in the fenced area: … Read More