Beach Lover Wooden Sign

September 13, 2014May 4, 2017 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

I bought a piece of wood and had it cut into pieces at the hardware store. Using acrylic paints – teal and white – I added streaks of both and blended them, to get achieve a beachy, sun bleached look.

Wooden signs
I set up the lettering on the computer and outlined it. Last time around I cut custom stencils which was a lot of work. This time I found advice on hand lettering. I laid the printout on the wood and using a hard stylus pen (from my kid’s old DS), traced the outline of the letter. When I was finished I could see the outline impression on the wood.

Following the outline impression on the wood, I painted the letters black. When they were dry, I painted white steaks over the letters with a very dry brush to capture the distressed look. I’m happy with the results!

Click here to learn more about how I painted the background.

Mounting on pretty paper.

September 9, 2014 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

I decided to mount today’s practice watercolor and ink onto pretty paper. I was inspired by artwork in the background of the Pottery Barn catalog. I think it looks cute. 🙂

Back to School – Back to Acrylics

August 25, 2014 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

I’m looking forward to the kids going back to school (lol!) and having more time to paint – especially with acrylics! This week I got a jump start and worked on my painting “Little Girl Digging.” It’s been almost 2 months since I worked on this! If I let too much time pass I lose momentum and then it’s really hard to get back into a painting.

Although I haven’t worked with acrylics all summer, I’ve been creative – sketching, painting with watercolor, etc. I’m proud of all I’ve done during these busy months. It will make September, when the house is quiet again, all the more productive.

Here is where I started from:

First I worked on the sand and added some definition to the ocean. Then (above) I added color to the ocean.

Painting without a plan

August 19, 2014 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

While I’m sad that vacation is over, it is nice to have some quiet time to paint. What amazes me about these three paintings, is that I had no preconceived ideas until I sat down to paint – I just went with it. All three were done yesterday and they are all so different!

The first one I painted was the flowers in the container. I looked around my patio and picked the container just as I started painting.

The second painting was the hearts. I started painting the background, decided to leave the dry areas dry and filled one of them with a heart. Then I started adding more hearts and the word love. It is my favorite of the day – and I have no idea where it came from!

The third painting is the watercolor background with the ink flowers. I decided as I was painting – to make a colorful background and add ink to it. As I chatted with an old friend on the phone – I added the flower doodles. I looked around my yard for inspiration.

I am excited for another quiet day and more painting!

Swim Team Cards

August 7, 2014 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Summer swim team is coming to an end! I made these cards for the swim coaches. In the past, I would have never followed through on my idea. I lacked the confidence to show others my work. But now that I have shown you – the good, the bad and the ugly, I followed through with my idea and am happy to give these cards to the coaches.

Watercolor Rose of Sharon Flower

July 23, 2014 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

I’ve been working on this watercolor flower – a Rose of Sharon, I believe – since last week. I was walking by it, after my run, and took a bunch of photos. It’s funny how you notice things when you are walking or running, that you wouldn’t notice when driving by. It was a “stop and smell the roses” moment. That’s one of things I like about running. It’s a time to think and notice the things around you.

I’m happy with how the flower came out. Especially when I reviewed the stages the painting went through:

Progress on my portrait painting lessons

July 20, 2014 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Halfway through my first lesson and I’ve learned a lot so far! Here are the key things:

Skin color is a mixture of many colors. You don’t pick a tube and say this will be the color. For the demonstration I’m following, I started out using a Yellow, a Rose and Cobalt Blue.
Work wet with light washes. I first painted a wash of the yellow and then added the rose to it. In certain spots I dropped in the Blue.
One of the most important things I learned was – soften the edges! Whenever I added a “shadow area” I would soften the edges. This was one of my main mistakes in the past. I would paint a shadow area, not soften the edges and the result would be blotchy looking skin.
Painting skin is a gradual build up of colors. Before, I would paint the face a solid and then try to add in the shadows.

I am excited about my progress so far! Watching TV last night, I was noticing the shadows that make up the face.

My “lesson” is from “Realistic Watercolor Portraits: How to Paint a Variety of Ages and Skin Tones,” by Suzanna Winton. I picked one of her demonstrations and I’m following along, trying to recreate it.

Here are my steps:
His face looks like a rainbow.

The “crevices” aren’t black shadows.

Even the lips have soft edges and are made up of different colors.

Thank you to all my followers!

July 8, 2014 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Last week I decided to try my hand at lettering. I love the look of painted words in a watercolor. I kept painting “thank you.” I think I was hopefully anticipating one more follower which would bring me to 100. A goal I couldn’t even fathom when I started. Since last week, several new followers have pushed me past this goal. So, I want to thank all of my followers! Your feedback is an amazing source of motivation to me!

Watercolor Shell

July 6, 2014 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Any advice for me?… I struggled with getting the shell to pop and look 3D, as opposed to smooshed in the sand. I know some of my problems were because: I painted this from a real shell and the background was made up. I used colors in the sand that I should have used in the shell. Since I didn’t want the shell to blend in, I used brown paint and it became a dark muddy mess. I sat down to paint at several different points and the shadows were probably changing.

Why is it that “struggled” is one of the most common words I write?! lol. Oh well, you paint and you learn. 🙂 Not sure I want to attempt a redo on this one. Hoping to hear your comments!