30 paintings in 30 days!

'Rhino's Spot'

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It has been quite a while since I've done a single painting in a single day for lots of days in a row. I've been so preoccupied with painting the dailies that I have neglected blogging or uploading them (although I am uploading them every night to my Instagram and Facebook, simply because it's so much faster and I'm usually soooo tired by the time I finish painting them at midnight haha)!

It has been incredibly FUN to have a new painting to complete every day. Sometimes I can get caught up in a big painting for MONTHS at a time. Which can result in really cool and impactful work, but can also be stressful. Incredibly stressful. I am enjoying the heck out of this challenge and approach each day with an excitement for painting that I haven't felt in years!

I've decided to paint all of them in oil, simply because it's faster for me and time is very, very short. I am learning a lot each day with each new painting. And it has been a great time of growth for me artistically. I'll try and share one thing I've learned each day. As often as I remember haha.

I'm very behind in blogging about these so I'm just going to start with my favorite one so far, not the first one. This sweet pup (Rhino) belongs to the family that owns the gym I go to. They bring him to the gym with them every morning and he is a huge hit with the gym family. Yesterday he was in just the PERFECT spot of sun and held still long enough for me to get some pics with my phone. We call him the gym mascot and he is the biggest sweetheart of a dog you'll ever meet.

With this painting I realized the importance of painting in your brightest colors first and then working around them. This resulted in the glowing ear, with no mud from mixing white or greys near it! Worked like a charm. I know I've learned this lesson before, but seems like I'm relearning a lot of things this month.

Listening to: Higher Health Radio

Watching: BBC's Sherlock (for the 15th time)

Reading: Love and Gelato

Drinking: Diet Dr. Pepper

Snacking on: Caramel flavored rice cakes

Moose - SOLD

"Moose Man" SOLD

6" x 6" watercolor on paper

"When I am wrong, he is delighted to forgive. When I am angry, he clowns to make me smile. When I am happy, he is joy unbounded. When I am a fool, he ignores it. When I succeed, he brags. Without him, I am only another man. With him, I am all-powerful. He is loyalty itself.

He has taught me the meaning of devotion. With him, I know a secret comfort and a private peace. He has brought me understanding where before I was ignorant.

His head on my knee can heal my human hurts. His presence by my side is protection against my fears of dark and unknown things. He has promised to wait for me... whenever... wherever—in case I need him. And I expect I will—as I always have. He is just my dog."

Gene Hill

My friend Carrie Waller sent me a photo of her dog Moose when I put a call out for dog photos on my facebook page. Don't you just love his face? All love and devotion. He has very soulful eyes. He's a bull mastif I believe, and quite large, but a real sweetheart with her two small boys (sounds just like my dog :), even if he is large enough to eat the breakfast off their plates at the dining room table. ;)

This is my entry for this week's Daily Paintworks challenge, which was to paint a close up of an animal. That's kind of my thing so I just had to do it right?

See you next week everyone! Huzzah!! :)

So Serious - SOLD

'So Serious'

6" x 6" watercolor SOLD

click here to buy now

$100 plus $7 US shipping or $15 International

I love this little girl's face. Her dark, sparkling eyes and her pouty lips. I love the subtle colors in her warm skin tones, and of course that pink helmet. She is a sweetheart. I just want to cuddle her.

But, man, was she hard to paint! This was my second attempt (the first one was on aquabord, which is dead difficult to work with, so I don't think that one should count) and it took me a long time, mostly because of the subtle value changes in her skin tones. That took a lot of careful observation, and planning, and then speedy execution. 

With a painting like this, there is absolutely no chance to go back in and move the paint around once you've laid in a wash. In order to get smooth, soft skin tones, you have to get in and get out. No overworking! Easier said than done right? Yeeeep. :)

I love that soft, diffused lighting, and I plan to use more of it in my portraits, because I love the sparkle it gives to the eyes, but it is tricky to paint. There's not a lot of clearly defined shapes so you have to really, really, reeeeealy look for them. 

She was quite a challenge but a good one. :) I really like this painting. 

Have a great rest of the week everyone! Huzzah!

Photo reference by Steve Evans. Thank you!

Bunny Bunny

Bunny Bunny

6" x 6" watercolor

$65 plus $7 US shipping

So, it's spring. And Easter is on Sunday. And bunnies are unbearably cute and fluffy. And Watership Down is one of my favorite books. And, and, well. . . I just really wanted to paint a bunny. :)

Also, bunnies remind me of chocolate milk which is one of my favorite things. We drink a lot of this in my house:

Because we love chocolate. And yes, it has to be this specific kind of chocolate milk. The one with the bunny on it. When my youngest son started talking, at around eighteen months old, he would always ask for a sippy of chocolate milk. It's still his favorite drink even now at three and a half.

And the thing I loved most about his request? The way he asked for it.

He'd toddle over to me, grab onto my leg, lift his empty sippy cup up to me, and say, "Bunny bunny?" in the sweetest little voice you've ever heard.

Since then chocolate milk has always been called bunny-bunny in our house. And I hope it stays that way forever.  

Until Thursday my friends. :)) May your milk always be full of chocolate! Huzzah!!

From Within SOLD

From Within

6" x 6" watercolor SOLD

This is my friend Taylor. I loved the lighting in this painting. I loved how it emphasized Taylor's personality, how she has so much light and kindness from within that radiates out to others when she smiles. She's awesome and I loved painting her. :)) Thanks for volunteering to model for me!

It's nearly time for spring break around here (next week), and kiddos are running around my house more frequently since it's early out day every day this week at school. Painting time is precious and harder to find, and that's completely okay. I love having my boys home more.

But it does force me to make the most out of the time I do have. Here's a photo of what I did yesterday while waiting in the car to pick my boys up from school.

A new little colored pencil piece on Ampersand Pastelbord. I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along. I'll get a better shot of it for my next post so you can see it a little more clearly.

This brings me to two things I want to say today:

1. Make time to do what you love. The time is there, it might not be the 'ideal' time, but you can make it work if it's something that you LOVE doing.

And 2. Paint what you love, or what excites you. Don't let yourself think that there's only one subject, one way that you can paint. That's part of what makes us artists,  our constant striving, and reaching, and trying new things to stretch creatively and create work that moves people and makes them feel something, that makes us feel something. There are no absolutes in the life of an artist.

And in a totally unrelated note, I went and watched The Hunger Games movie and was completely blown away. I loved the books and the movie was the best book to movie adaptation I've ever seen. I'm more of a book person than a movie person, but this is a must see. Seriously. It's inspiring a new portrait (not a character from the movie, but the result of the feelings I had while watching it) that I am dying to get to work on. Here's a link to the best review, by my favorite author Maggie Stiefvater, that puts my exact feelings for this movie into words that I couldn't.

Have a great week everyone. See you Tuesday. :)) Huzzah!

First Up - SOLD

First Up SOLD

6" x 6" watercolor

This year I made a promise to myself. It happened last week while I was outside clearing out the withered brown corpses from last year.

It's pretty hard not to promise to try a little harder when you're doing such a grizzly task. Poor little unsuspecting flowers.

I really don't try to kill them, it's more like death by neglect, or indifference. So, sometimes I forget to water them? I really don't mean to, I just. . . sort of. . . forget.

But this year? This is the year that I no longer wear their blood (sap?? I don't know what to call flower blood. Do they even have such a thing?) on my hands! Huzzah!

"I will not kill any flowers this year. I will not kill any flowers this year. I will not kill any flowers this year."

:)

This is my painting in response to the Cook-Waller monthly painting challenge. The theme was: New, chosen by me.

The first, new crocus peeking its head through the snow in the spring always makes me feel so hopeful, like no matter how bleak or dark the winter gets, sunshine and warm days are coming closer day by day.

And just in case you were wondering, these are indeed flowers from my garden, and I did NOT kill them. Of course crocus are kind of hard to kill, they're pretty self sufficient little buggers. That's another reason why I like them so much. :))

Here's Carrie's paintings:

                            

'Sam, newborn' by Carrie Waller 8" x 10" watercolor

'Steven, newborn' by Carrie Waller 8" x 10" watercolor

These are paintings of Carrie's two sons as newborns. Aren't they beautiful? She did a wonderful job, painting a newborn is no easy feat let me tell you. I love the soft gradations of colors in their full little cheeks. And I just love Sam's little hands. Such a classic newborn gesture. :))

Until Thursday my friends!

P.S. If any of you garden whizzes out there have some suggestions for me for hardy (as in, hard to kill) but beautiful flowers I can plant this spring let me know in the comments. I could use some help with my promise. :))