QoR watercolors

  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

I was ready to try a large watercolor portrait on white Aquabord™ and hunted through my reference photos for an inspiring subject. I had taken some photos of my 3 year old great-niece Emma a month earlier when we took her to a terrific children’s museum. She is cute, bubbly, and a happy little girl; she was excited and animated with the fun activities at the museum. I got some good photos of her but none of them jumped out … 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  created “Sweet Dreams” with a few new twists – not counting the twisted body of the cute little kitten: The reference photo is not one I took I selected an unusual palette of colors The application of paint was unconventional Watercolor pencils added some finishing touches From the first time I saw my friend Dawn’s photo of this kitty, I knew I had to paint it. Dawn had rescued her the middle of the road when she was ‘no … Read More

After recently creating a few paintings of fury and feathered creatures on Scratchbord®, I decided to feature some other favorite subjects in my newest scratchboard painting: wildflowers and weathered barnwood. The black background and the process of scratching down to a white surface favor subjects with light values and strong textures; with this in mind, I’ve learned that I need to select my subjects and plan my compositions differently than I do when painting on white paper or canvas. Wild … Read More

  Continuing my current MO of experimenting with new art materials and methods in my paintings, I’ve completed another scratchboard, this time with a new set of watercolors. I’ve Got Sunshine is my first painting with QoR® (pronounced ‘core’) watercolors from Golden Artist Colors (read more about the paints at the end of this post). As with my painting “Jasper,” I’ve painted this on Aquabord®, a white-surfaced scratchboard panel. When seed drops from our bird feeders into the gravel below the … Read More