Mermaids On My Mind

Last April, I discussed some concept sketches that I had done for a client who wanted me to do a painting of her two daughters as mermaids.  I realize now that I never posted the final decision that my client made nor the final painting that was created for her. Sorry about that!! As always, life seems to get in the way of my good intentions.

Here is the final painting that was created for her.

Perhaps it's because of my work on this painting, but it seems as if I'm stuck on mermaids right now. Here are a few more mermaid pieces that I've created since then...

 

'Mermaid with the Golden Tail'

watercolor

 

 

 

Mermaid Necklace

                                                 
             Handpainted polymer Mermaid Barrettes

Do you ever find yourself getting stuck on a theme? What concept or theme have you gotten attached to? Children? Portraits? Landscapes?

Hope that your week is going swimmingly...  ;)

Burlesketch Drawings

Hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Here are some paintings and sketches that were done during my burlesketch sessions.
Enjoy!!

            This particular night we had an artist participating who wanted to do a painting of the pose.
Typically the poses are only 15 to 20 min long so we all had to sort of improvise and figure out ways to make the most of having only one 2 hour pose instead. I first did a quick sketch of the model so that I could get a feel for the pose.

                        After the initial sketch I then did a mixed media painting using whatever I had in my backpack. ( I didn't really have many painting tools in my backpack since I wasn't anticipating having to do a longer pose) This piece was done using pencil, ink, watercolor pencils, watercolors and colored pencils.

    The next week we were back to our 15-20 minute poses . I like working quickly though, it gives the piece a bit of urgency and also keeps the lines fluid.

Creative Concepts and Sketches

Some days it seems like my creative well is dry as a bone and then some days I can't seem to keep up with all of the ideas pouring in. I currently have over 30 sketches that I've made for future paintings. I also have another 20 sketches done for random jewelry pieces. Often I do these sketches at work, but it's pretty much whenever I feel the need to jot an idea down. I'm so very grateful to have this many ideas floating about, but it's sort of overwhelming at times! 

The first sketches that I am going to be creating the final paintings for were done almost a year ago and are my versions of the Four Seasons. 

 Since we're in summer right now, I've decided to start Summer first. I had a lot of fun working on a quick color study with watercolors. 

When you are creating something, do you do mock ups? Or put together a practice run? Or do you just jump in headfirst? I have to be honest that with me it sort of depends on the piece. I always will do a quick pencil or pen sketch, but as for the color studies, it sort of depends on how detailed the piece is. In these small seasonal pieces, there are so many components that I feel compelled to play around with the color a bit. For simpler compositions I will often just jump immediately to canvas. 

Here are a few sneak peeks of some other upcoming projects that I will be working on in the future...

Hope that everyone has an amazing week!!