Complements

It may be hard to believe, but the composition for this started with my previous post's painting. I was fooling around with ideas this morning, based on this composition and this emerged. It's pastel and influenced by some oil pastels I saw at an art sale this weekend, although I'm sure no one would confuse that artist and me! It's fun to work with pastels because I can go in and add lights. It's hard because it's messy and it's hard to tell exactly where the mark is going to be on the paper because of the size and shapes of the chalks. A nice, pointy, round watercolor brush is much more precise.

Jamaican landscape

This little road was almost directly across from the house where we stayed in Jamaica. We all thought it could be Tuscany, except for the palm tree.

Skip getting coconuts

I just realized that I hadn't posted my version of Skip climbing for coconuts in Jamaica. When we were watching him climb, I just held down the button on my camera and let it take multiple photos. So I have a gazillion (I *love* my digital camera) pictures and picked a different one from Fran's. I'm really happy with the way this one turned out. I worked hard to make my drawing as clear as I could, then within each element of the painting and shapes, make the paint loose and "painterly." I think I did it.

Numa

I figure that if I put Amari's picture on here, I'd better put Numa's up, too. Have to be fair, you know. I did this a couple of days ago from a photo I took some winter when we had snow. It's watercolor, 10" x 14". Interesting challenge, painting a white dog against snow, except that he doesn't look really, really white in the snow.

Amari

Now, imagine that you are sitting on a couch with a dog plopped next to you, butt at the back of the couch and head almost falling off the front. Imagine, also, that she's on her back and her tummy is being rubbed. She's in ecstasy. I happened to have a paper on a clipboard on my lap, being the human doing the tummy rubbing, and I did a quick sketch of what I could see. This version is basically traced into Photoshop, via my computer drawing tablet. I thought you might enjoy my view of such a dog.

Stone Bridge

This bridge is at one place where I walk the dogs. I don't remember when I took the photo but we haven't had that much snow this winter. It's pastel, 14 x 22, and I'm not entirely happy with it but I'm not sure why. Suggestions? Click on the photo to see a bigger and more colorful version.

Granddaughter and Son

This is, I think, the sixth version of this, not all posted here. As a matter of fact, some of the versions are already in paper recycling! This one is pastel. I see I still need to work on her nose a bit, and I'm hoping anything else glaring will be reported to me posthaste, especially since DS's birthday is Saturday, the day after tomorrow, and I'd like to give it to him.

Sunset Harbor

This piece, mixed media, just got accepted into the Philadelphia Water Color Society's Members' Exhibition. It's much changed and a bit cropped from the one I posted a week or so ago. The more I looked at what I'd done in the workshop, the more it looked like boats in a harbor, so I worked on it with charcoal and pastel to develop that idea. Click on this small image and look at it bigger. It's brighter and you can see more of the texture and detail.