Painting for a Beekeeper

I painted this for a friend’s mother who’s planning to keep bees this year. Watercolor on Arches CP, 12″ x 17″

I’m experimenting with image processing in case I ever want to produce prints. A big dilemma is the texture of the watercolor paper, which shows up in both photographs and scanned images and makes the final image seem much less clean. The tutorials I read recommended the Smart Blur filter in Photoshop, but I’m still getting the hang of it – especially with a painting like this which has little splatters and lots of texture. This one in particular still seems a little dark… back to the ol’ Photoshop I guess..

 

Wine Grapes – An Exercise in Negative Painting

Hmm, title? - watercolor on Fabriano Artistico CP - 18" x 12"

Whenever I experiment with a new technique, it turns into a full-fledged painting. What a style-spaz.

In the News – InkGeek / ArtGeek Version

» 50 best blogs for watercolor artists (via Web Design Schools Guide)

» The Lost Art of Letter Writing (via The Guardian)

» Reading, Writing and Revelation (via Ode Magazine)

» I’m utterly infatuated with the watercolor-calligraphy hybrid on this wedding invitation. I think I want to get married just for the crafting possibilities.

» The New York Times came out with their 100 Notable Books of 2010. Yummy reading.

» Um, On the off chance that you someday need to know how different types of paper affect the waterproof-ness of waterproof inks, read this thread!

» General Inquiry: Has anyone ever bought a fountain pen from Etsy? They’re always so beautiful; I just want to read a review first…

» Also, look at this beautiful watercolor!*

» Russell Black is a watercolor artist based out of Utah. I love the way his bright, blocky style works with the softness of watercolor.

Russell Black

» I’ve been seeing Marion Bolognesi linked a lot around the internet over the past week. (I wonder what caused the sudden jump on the hip-meter?) I first caught her work a few months ago; she’s got that great fashion-vibe.. and super technique when it comes to facial features.

Marion Bolognesi

* Can you tell I spent a few hours on Etsy yesterday? As a rule, I rarely let myself browse Etsy because I can easily waste an entire day browsing instead of oh, say, actually creating something. But it’s good to indulge every once in a while, and thus the linkage love.

Sigh, I should open up a shop myself one of these days… it can’t hurt to try, right?

Dreadlocks

"Nude with Dreadlocks" - Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico CP - 12" x 18"

Good muses make good paintings.

Exercise in Washes

"Exercise in Washes" - Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico CP - 9" x 12"

I don’t have much to say about this.. just wanted to post