A seat in the shade

8" by 10" watercolour.

Tried another pour with this one, for the background. From my own ref pic, taken on holiday a couple of years ago.

A day at the beach

Watercolour, 8" by 10".

This is another piece I did for the WDE this weekend (found myself with a bit of spare time!).

Rex, an Australian Cattle Dog

Here's one I painted for this week's WDE on WetCanvas - Rex, an Australian Cattle Dog.

5" by 7", in watercolour as usual!

The big fish

Here's what I've been up to over the last couple of days. The reference was a fab photo by Graham Harcombe (worldphotographyforum.com), used with kind permission (thanks!). I was going for a real bright and sunny feel with this one. Enjoyed painting this, though I may have to go back and do something about the wobbly horizon...

Watercolour, 8" by 10".

Eyes downcast

Here's another painting from the 'archive'. This was the first portrait I did that I was happy with, back at the end of 2007 (though cunningly you can't actually see any of her features, which helped!). I caught the portrait bug with this one - it's still my favourite subject matter.

In the pool

Here's a real experiment for me. I have a load of photos I took on holiday a couple of years back, that I really like. I've been pondering whether they'd make good paintings, and how to go about it. I was thinking back to an art class I did earlier in the year, and I remembered the tutor showing us a portrait in ink on aluminium foil, and thought I might try it out, but with acrylics rather than ink. I scrunched up the foil, then flattened it out and glued it to a cheap piece of sketchpaper, sketched out the picture with a marker pen, and had fun with the acrylic paints. And this is the result. Well, it's different, anyway!

In the pool, A4 (approx 8" by 11"), acrylic on aluminium foil.

Theatreland

Here's what I've been up to this week. This painting was inspired by my sister - she'd been to London to see the show (which she loved), and was later telling me all about the fabulous West End atmosphere - I thought it'd be fun to try to 'paint the atmosphere'. This was a first for me - I used the 'pour' technique for this painting (watercolour mixes were literally poured onto the damp paper, letting them mingle and do their own thing, so no brushwork for the basic background colours). I used a bit of gouache in the neon lettering, and the lamps.

So, watercolour and gouache, quarter sheet (about 11 by 15"), based on a ref photo by Flickr member nyaa_birdies_perch, under Creative Commons (thanks!). I think it could benefit from a crop perhaps, but I'm pretty happy with the way this one went!