Random Project of the Week - Bobcat study

This 9" X 6" study is painted in acrylics on watercolor paper.  Thanks to John McKay for letting me use his bobcat photo as reference.  I was immediately inspired when I came across John's photo - I loved the pose and the fall leaves on the ground.  The only thing missing, I thought, was an autumn sunrise.

Random Project of the Week - Fun blue heron painting

 The idea for this sort of pop art style acrylic painting came to me back in August.  I was asked to create a piece of art that would go with a blue and gray room with shabby chic decor.  I chose a blue and gray bird (of course!) that is native to the area - a Great Blue Heron - and I used large, loose brush strokes throughout the piece.  I think the hint of orange on the heron complements the blue so well.

Below are the marker thumbnail sketches I drew a few months ago.

Random Project of the Week - Tiger study (with new paints!)

I can't remember the last time I painted a tiger. It might have been a decade ago... 😲 Anyway, I used a reference photo I took at a zoo a few years ago to paint this 5" X 5" acrylic study. I used Golden Fluid Acrylics, a paint I'd never used before. Although I had heard these paints are opaque and have a great consistency, I was still surprised when I tried them myself. Looks like I might be switching to Golden in the future!

Random Project of the Week - Two bird sketches

I drew a couple birds this past week - a Great Blue Heron in colored pencil and a Bohemian Waxwing in watercolor, both outlined in pen. I discovered that I really like the look of loose outlines done with a small brown Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen, and it's fun to do, too!

 

Random Project of the Week - Flycatcher watercolor

I just finished this painting of one of my favorite birds, the Alder Flycatcher. It is done in watercolors on cotton watercolor paper. This was my second attempt. The first piece ended up in the trash can soon after I started it, which actually doesn't happen very often when I paint. It took me a little while to bring myself to try again.

Random Project of the Week - Backlit birds studies

I've been using my little 5" X 7" canvas boards for acrylic studies. The Veery study on the left was done yesterday and the Osprey was done last year. I didn't realize until I put them together that I chose to paint a backlit bird both times. Now I'm gonna have to make a backlit birds series!

Random Project of the Week - Bostons digital illustration

Playing with digital art again this week. Guess what I drew...more Boston Terrier cartoons! 😁

In this illustration I tried to show the diversity within the Boston Terrier breed. I included most of the different colors, color patterns, shapes, and sizes.

As is often the case, this started as a little sketch in my sketchbook from a few months ago (July of last year, actually).

Dorie with my original sketch

Update: This cartoon is now available on t-shirts and as a sticker! Go to my website, gscartwork.com, to buy yours!

Random Project of the Week - Cool sheep digital painting

I got a new art tool last week - a graphics tablet! At first it was a little difficult for me to use, especially for the outlines (I'm used to a mouse!), but I started to have fun when I got to the shading part of things. I did a quick and simple sheep cartoon for my first tablet digital painting, copying a pencil sketch I drew earlier.

Only a Katahdin owner would understand. 😉

Random Project of the Week - One-of-a-kind clock

A few months ago I opened my sketch book and randomly sketched out a clock decorated with different species of birds. I thought it would be fun to make, but it needed to be more unique. Later it came to me - I would make the birds into the numbers!

I created the bird numbers digitally, printed them out, cut them out by hand, sent them through the sticker maker, then stuck them to the clock body. The clock body is a wooden circular sign I found at the craft store which I hung from the "wrong" side so that the back, which I painted teal and white, is facing out. The frame hides the clock mechanism perfectly. It couldn't have worked out better!

Random Project of the Week - Robin cartoon

I painted this American Robin singing its cheery song for the first day of spring. I used Sennelier La Petite Aquarelle watercolors and Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pens on Bee Paper.

Random Project of the Week - Shoebill cartoon

My first piece of art of 2019! This painting is the result of one of my evening sketching sessions. The creature is a very strange (and awesome) bird called a Shoebill. These birds already look cartoonish, so I guess I really didn't do much to it to make it a cartoon...

I used Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pens, watercolors, and acrylics on 100% cotton watercolor paper by Bee Paper. I haven't used this paper much, mainly because I haven't created much art that is worthy of this higher quality paper, but last year I did make my first watercolor swatch chart with it.


 

Don't pay attention to the order in which I swatched the colors... 😳

Random Project of the Week - New watercolor set = new paintings

I painted these pieces last week with my new set of Sennelier La Petite Aquarelle watercolors along with my Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pens. The butterfly is a Viceroy and the bird is a Ring-necked Pheasant.

I know I just bought the pocket set of Winsor and Newton Cotman watercolors, but I decided that I wanted more colors, so I went with this set of 24 half pans by Sennelier after seeing some good reviews online. I have enjoyed using them for these random projects and in my new watercolor journal...although, being a watercolor newbie, I can't say I'm very good at it yet!

Ring-necked Pheasant reference photo by Sue Wetmore used with permission. Thanks, Sue!

Random Project of the Week - Peregrine watercolor

I used my cheap watercolor pan set for this Peregrine Falcon painting as it was meant to be a test piece to help me practice the composition before I created the "real" piece. Of course, I never got around to creating the "real" piece, so all I have to show is this study done on printer paper.

Random Project of the Week - Hummingbird watercolor

My first piece of art of 2018 - a painting of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird!
I bought myself a whole bunch of presents recently and one of them was a pocket set of Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolors. I tested them out the day they arrived and I thought they performed very nicely.

Random Project of the Week - Maximilian sunflower

I got the idea for this Escheresque drawing a couple weeks ago and I finally put it on paper last week. The drawing goes from an outline on the left to a shaded graphite drawing in the middle to a full-color marker drawing with shadows on the right. It was fun experimenting with transitions between mediums, color, and detail.

Random Project of the Week - Pink Floydian painting

Here's the long story behind this Project of the Week: I invited my brother to paint with me on one of my cheap, warped canvases one day, and we decided to paint a raven with the moon in the background in a loose style. After maybe a couple of hours and making a rather large mess our finished product was... not what I had envisioned. In fact, the painting was plain awful. It wasn't my brother's fault; he did what I told him to do. My color choices and design, the craft paint, everything was just bad. I decided to cover the whole canvas in black paint so we would never see that terrifying painting again (that was very satisfying!), but then I had to figure out what to do with a large black canvas. A few weeks later (Or months? I don't remember - time flies!) I thought of something with a black background that would be fun to paint - The Dark Side of the Moon album art. And this is what I came up with!

Random Project of the Week - Artwork with lettering

Last week's random project was a painting/collage with lettering. I actually didn't create this piece last week, but I did apply the varnish to it a few days ago. I used the definition of the word "hobby" to remind myself that my hobbies are supposed to be fun and make me happy instead of being frustrating because I can't do them perfectly or because they become competitive.

 

For the sheet music I copied a page out of a book using the copy machine then aged the normally bright white copy paper using paint and water and by tearing one edge. Gluing it to the canvas didn't go quite as planned, though; I couldn't seem to flatten out all the wrinkles. It...was my first time...

This was my second painting with lettering and I would like to do more in the future. Below is my first painting with lettering I made a few months ago.