More Child Portraits

"Little Lexi with Ponytail" - Pat Dolan - 13" x 10" watercolor

The impish side of Lexi was captured in the painting - she was a delight to paint! But I certainly didn't know if I would capture that cute little one with this particular aspect of her personality. It isn't always on display!

Here are a few photos of this painting in process:

And here's a shot of both twins and their cousin, Ida on my art table. They were great fun to do - now I have new drawings ready to paint this week - only one with children, plus a Sunflower, and two cat portraits.

Three Bluebird Watercolors : Step-by-Step

Having so much fun painting again and listening to Pandora Radio - Paul Hardcastle station. Smooth Jazz stations are next to impossible to find in Central Pennsylvania, so my iPod and Pandora fill me in with my favorite music while painting.

The last post featured two bluebird paintings on the drawing table. Here are the next three of the five I've set up as my refresher course in watercolor painting. They were a lot of fun compared to the first two. I'm getting back in the swing of things and I'm "remembering" some of what was lost when I wasn't practicing!

Step-by-step Bluebird #3

Bluebird Squatting - Pat Dolan - watercolor - 5.6"x8"

Step-by-step Bluebird #4

Bluebird Looking Right - Pat Dolan - watercolor - 7"x10"

Step-by-step Bluebird #5

Bluebird Looking Left - Pat Dolan - watercolor - 7"x10"

I hope you enjoy seeing how a painting progresses through various stages of development. These have been very good for practice as I've been out of the studio since Christmas and just now am able to be painting once again.

Time evaporates when I'm painting, drawing, creating in one way or another. I definitely loosened up with each painting and felt more comfortable with the paint on the brush in my hand. Just getting back to mixing colors, making sure to have the right amount of paint/water ratio, and remembering how to integrate a background to make the bird feel it belongs in the painting... So much of this is done automatically when one has been painting frequently, but things get lost when one isn't regularly practicing!

Autumn Artwork

"Old Truck" - (c)Pat Dolan 2017 - 10" x 14" - watercolor on Fabriano Artistico 140# wc paper

When we moved to our current home about 3 years ago, this old truck was resting jauntily on the hillside, it's bed filled with growing plants. I photographed her in every season, even to taking pictures as she was slowly driven away to be sold to the highest bidder. The autumn matched her coloring perfectly, although in this view, one cannot really see the wonderful tall grasses in the truck bed. I may need to do another one... Meanwhile, below are some step-by-step progress photos to help you see how a watercolor painting is developed from drawing to completion.

Here's another fall watercolor recently completed, although it was started years ago! Sometimes I have to put away in incomplete painting until such a time as it calls to me to be completed. I put down the first few layers about 5 or 6 years ago, then got stuck trying to figure out how to proceed.

"Tennent Church Cemetery" - (c)Pat Dolan 2017 - 10" x 14" - watercolor on Aquarell 140# wc paper

The Old Tennent Church is a Presbyterian church located at 450 Tennent Road in Manalapan, New Jersey, where we once lived. It's cemetery has Revolutionary War headstones, among so many others. It's an incredibly scenic and tranquil spot next to the Monmouth Battlefield of historical fame. It's particularly beautiful in fall and winter, although also beautiful in spring and summer!

Once again, the completed painting.

"Blue"

Blue - 13"w x 10"h - watercolor on 140# Fabriano Watercolor Paper - (c)2017 Pat Dolan

Several people have asked to see how this painting was accomplished. I took a few photos along the way, but I've never video recorded my painting process, so I hope the photos will provide enough of an insight into the process as needed!

I begin by wetting the sheet of stretched watercolor paper thoroughly with a hake brush. Then I allow the water to seep into the paper so that the shine is beginning to diminish, but the paper still glows under the light.

Then, after mixing good quantities of the colors I plan to use, I begin by dropping rich color (ultramarine blue) onto the paper with a fairly good sized watercolor brush - in this case, I was using a 14" round Creative Mark Mimik Kolinsky brush.

With the paper still quite wet, I began adding darker blue tones to add depth to the fur. It's a mixture of cadmium red and ultramarine blue, making a deep purplish brown color...

Above, I added some color to the lower corners to 'ground' the painting - I didn't want the head to simply 'float' on the paper!

Just a close-up shot at this point.

Still adding some depth/darkness to certain areas.

Beginning work on the eyes, nose, mouth...

Adding more details to the facial features...

Here, I'm fairly satisfied with the end result - I've lifted a bit of color in a few places and deepened the color in a few other spots. All that's missing is the whiskers and to brighten up the highlights in the eyes.

I used Winsor Newton Designer's Guache Permanent White to achieve the final results.

While masking fluid is an excellent resource, I haven't used it since back in the 1980's and am a tad reluctant to do so until I've got more watercolor practice back under my belt! In the 1980's, I did very realistic watercolors, using masking fluids at times, and leaving the paper white at other times to achieve the desired effects. I recently purchased Pebeo Drawing Gum and The Original Incredible Nib so that I may begin re-learning that technique. It's certainly useful for saving small details of white paper when choosing to wet the entire sheet of paper and apply loose color in dramatic fashion!

Hope this little "step by step" photo series is helpful!

"At the Window" - New Watercolor

At the Window - 9"w x 13"h - watercolor - Pat Dolan

The following photos will show you the progression from drawing to completed painting...

And the final shot, complete with whiskers!