Hi all! I hope everyone's having a great summer so far! I'm spending it at the pool, wracking up the wrinkles and sun damage so that my kids can get some energy out. I just finished my latest painting, and as usual, I like to post progression pics and helps so that you can tackle your own projects with confidence. Yay! So, this latest one I painted from a photo that my husband surreptitiously took when he was in Asia. I'm not sure exactly where. He was riding a ferry somewhere and he snapped this photo of this elderly lady who was waiting for the ferry. I just fell in love with her...her posture, the wrinkled brown skin, the turban on her head and the eclectic shirt...along with the fascinating and textured background...it all made for an interesting project. The first time I painted her a few years ago, I put her in a show and she sold that night at the show. I guess she was a hit. Recently, I decided to try her again, larger this time...and practice some of the newer techniques that I'm working on. There's a HUGE difference between the two paintings, it's really amazing. It's kind of funny to think that somewhere in Asia, there's a grandma who has no idea that someone is studying her every feature and turning her into art. Here's the painting I painted 2 years ago... Aaaaand, here's the one I just finished....It's fun to see them side by side and see how much I've changed...even my signature has more confidence. ha ha. Verrrrry interesting.....I'm just looking back and forth and I'm realizing that in the first one, I was committing all of the classic "newer watercolor" artist mistakes....too heavy handed with color being one of them. Anyhow, here are the step by step pics. I did mask the flowers on her shirt and parts of the chain link fence. I also masked the light reflection in her eyes b/c I tend to easily lose that. I masked her hair, too, but I ended up painting over it and using some white gouache at the end b/c the masking fluid made it look like she had white worms coming out of her head.
Exciting stuff. Originally, her shirt was kind of a boring brown, but I decided to liven things up with color this time. I liked many colors I used for the shadowed side of her and how the yellow stands out from the background. Anyhow, ask me any questions that you might have! I hope this inspires you to find a picture of a grandparent or something and tackle those tricky wrinkles....they turned out to be fun. Happy Painting! Cady © Copyright Cady Driver 2016 - All Rights Reserved
5 Comments
You can really see how you have progressed Cady the first is definitely more naive, the second far more subtle and interesting and I totally agree about the colour issue. I also find that to create light often only needs a touch of shadow, say under some eaves or on a door....
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Cady
6/28/2013 01:33:00 am
Thanks, Judith...I find it fascinating to repaint a subject a few years down the road to see how I've grown and changed.
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6/29/2013 12:51:30 pm
It really is wonderful to see these two paintings side by side! Thanks for the detailed work in progress photos - they really do give a good feel for your painting process. Love the way you simplified and deemphasized the background in your latest painting. I am trying to work up to a portrait... lol - a human portrait instead of an animal portrait. ;-)
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Cady
6/30/2013 09:41:20 am
You should totally go for it Kathy! I have some other blogs where I've posted step by step pics...feel free to print out pics and use them to help you.
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Kathy Roeth
6/30/2013 04:11:11 pm
Thank you so much! I will cruise through your blog posts! I really appreciate the way you share your step by step pictures and all the information you share. It is very helpful! Leave a Reply. |
About CadyI'm a wife and mother of four kids. I homeschool, paint, run, and garden! I am always interested in digging truths out of Scripture. Here, you'll find my thoughts on art, adoption, gardening, mothering, homeschooling, books and whatever else is on my mind. Enjoy! QuoteCreativity doesn't exist in a vacuum - like skepticism, it's a means, not an end. It cries out for a theme. To treat creativity as an end in itself is to assume godlike character for humans as though they could create ex nihilo. -J. Cheane Archives
August 2016
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