Metro Portrait No.1 - Velma

MetroPortrait  No.1 -Velma
Watercolor 12x16

 I don't really know her name but she reminds me of Velma from Scooby Doo for some reason. 

Tried out my new watercolor brush that I bought today.  A 3/4 flat and I also got a rigger but didn't use it for this painting.  I tried to use more bigger strokes and work my way down to a smaller round brush only when I needed to.  

Below is the image with a threshold adjustment layer added in Photoshop.  It reduces the image down to just black and white.  It's very good to see how readable your image is in just two values.  I found the results interesting (and readable) so I decided to throw it up here.  

Here is the sketch that I drew on the bus on my way to work.  I later added watercolor when I got home.  Her coat wasn't originally pink and her hair wasn't orange but I thought they looked cooler.  So there you go.

Beach Week

Went to the Outer Banks last week for some beach fun.  Here's a quick sketch of a dad and his daughter mesmerized by the waves.

And here below is an attempt at a cloud study while at the beach.

I've always have been fascinated with clouds and wanted to paint them. This has been the first time that I had really made an effort to capture what I see.

The colors they take on and the way they show form are very intriguing to me and they are definitely harder to paint than I realized. 

 I don't get much time to sit around and paint clouds all day like I want to. So I'll have to come up with a way to take good pictures and quickly make value/color notes with pencil/pen. I hope to do more in the future.

RedDie No.1

At long last here's my latest piece. And it's all digital.