It was a beautiful spring day, really the perfect day. I went running, spent time with family, and lots of time outside. We barbecued and shared lots of laughs with the kids. And I started a new beach painting. 😀
Hope you enjoyed the day too!
Painting
Stepping back from a painting
I was so happy to have time this weekend to start AND finish a new beach painting. On Saturday I painted the first layers.
On Sunday I added the details – more lights, more darks. I use a lot of white gouache!
I wasn’t sure it was done, but I propped the painting up on a shelf and looked at it from across the room. What a difference compared to staring at it up close. From across the room I declared, “It’s done.” 🙂
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Picking a blue for my next watercolor painting
Recently I created a little swatch guide for all the blue watercolor paints I’d accumulated. Today I used it to help me pick a blue for my ocean mix and a blue for the sky.
Want to learn more about my process for painting the beach? Click here.
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Springtime Creative Inspiration
Eight consecutive days in the sketchbook and everything is inspiring me! I’m loving the warm spring days. Seeing the dogwoods blooming every time I pull up to the house makes me happy. With three kids to pick up and drop off, I pull in and out of the driveway many times a day.
The dogwoods have sentimental value to me, as I wrote in a post last year,
“They were in bloom the first time we looked at our future home. We posed in front of them when we brought our daughter home from the hospital. The house itself has changed – expanded to fit our family that also includes two sons. But the Dogwoods have remained and every time they bloom, I’m reminded of the early days and that this is home.”
Playing around in my sketchbook, first in ink and then in watercolor. And a little lettering practice. Still debating if I should add ink to the watercolor. It’s a common question I struggle with. Either way I have to wait for it to dry. Nothing worse than adding the ink too early and it bleeds.
Hope you are enjoying a beautiful spring day!
Eileen
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Drawing Digital Portraits
A client asked me to create a digital portrait of her to use on social media and the website I was creating for her. Years ago I “drew” in Adobe Illustrator using the mouse. I would click for each point and click and drag if I wanted a curve. The limitation with this drawing method was that the illustrations lacked style and a hand drawn look.
Last year I purchased a new iPad. I didn’t get a Pro and an Apple Pencil, because we had just gotten a Wacom drawing tablet and I didn’t think I’d be drawing on the iPad. Imagine my surprise and delight when I found out I could draw on it! I guess I wanted to after all.
I made the discovery when I noticed a squiggly line in the notes app and tried writing with my finger. From there I purchased an inexpensive stylus pen. I ordered the one that had the “finest point” I could find. I then discovered – through a podcast – that Adobe Illustrator has an app for the iPad – Adobe Draw. I could draw in layers! And I could send the layered file to Illustrator on the desktop for further refinement!
I’m still getting used to using a stylus. I want to lean on the iPad like a sketchbook for more control and precision. For the digital portrait I did several rough drawings for the client using a few photos as reference. She picked one illustration and I refined it and showed it to her again. She requested some minor edits, which I made. At this stage I refined the illustrations in Illustrator on my desktop and created two color variations. She was very happy with the final result – which makes me so proud. I decided to try my own portrait. No one should have to study their own picture so closely! I may have left some wrinkles off. 🙂
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Watercolor Jetty
I added some darks to the rocks and a bird and now I’m considering this one done! Feels particularly good considering this one almost was completely abandoned.
Here are some progress shots:
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Back at it
Preoccupied with other things, I didn’t sit down to paint much this week. So, it feels particularly good to make some progress on this painting today. This painting has been hanging around for a few weeks. It was definitely at risk of going into the scrap pile. But I try to give each one a chance. I know from experience that even the worst beginnings, can surprise you in the end.
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Finished feels so good!
I’m thankful for today’s snow day and the break from everyday life. That and a few days of sketching figures gave me the push to finally finish this beach scene with the three girls playing in the surf. I’ve been afraid to finish this one – afraid of ruining it. As I sat down to work on it, I thought, “Done is better than unfinished, no matter what the result.” And the more I work on painting figures, and getting the shadows right, the more I’ll learn.
Stages:
I use watercolor pencils to draw the figures. Just wet the lines and it disappears!
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Tips and tools that prove invaluable
When I think about the progress I’ve made in the past two months, there are a few things that standout out to me. First watching videos of other artists painting waves gave me some great tips (which I wrote about here.)
Second, one of the artists was using a flat brush so I bought a couple to try. The smaller flat brush has become invaluable to me.
Lastly, when I started using white gouache for the foam of the waves it was a turning point.
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Prints of my watercolor beach paintings are now for sale at shop.eileenmckenna.com. Take a peek!
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