Swim art

Swimming. A Creative Muse

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Swim Meet
The competitive swim season ended a few weeks ago. With only a week left in summer, we will probably visit the town pool only once or twice more. The pool and swimming has been a source of creative inspiration for me for the past few years.

This summer I designed fabrics in the swimming/pool theme:
Pool themed fabric designs - Swimming Laps, Pool Tiles, Goggles. Fabrics for all the swimmers!
Click
here for more info on the fabrics.

and did two paintings:
Watercolor Swim Race by Eileen McKenna.
Swim meet warm ups. Painting swimming pools in watercolor.

Here are other swim inspired pieces from previous years:

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The last item in the slideshow (the “Vets” cards with goggles) was the first time I added ink to a watercolor. It was a turning point for me and has become something I do often.

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Painting swimmers

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Swimming Laps watercolor painting

A few years ago, inspired by the swimmers during warm ups at a swim meet, I created the watercolor painting above. I loved the perspective of the painting, but always wanted to create another version with richer more saturated colors. And I did – see my steps below.

I taped off the edges of my paper with thick painter’s tape, to create a white border. I marked where the swimming lane lines would be with a pencil and ruler.

I painted the swimmers first, so I could add blue paint (water) over parts of them, so those parts would look like they were underwater.

Process for painting swimming pool in watercolor

When the swimmers were completely dry I painted the blue pool water. I tried to keep the blue in the lane line areas lighter.

Process for painting swimming pool in watercolor

Once dry, I painted the swimming lines using a flat brush, red watercolor paint and white gouache.

Swimming Laps. Painting swimming pools in watercolor.

Next, I added more blue to darken the water in areas. I also added white gouache around the swimmers for splash.

swim art | painting swimmers | pool art print | swimming art print
The richer colors make such a difference. Makes me want to dive right in! The perfect painting for the swimmer in your life. Create one or order a print on canvas (pictured above), paper, acrylic, and more on Zazzle – click here to visit my Zazzle shop.

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