Copy of Homer's "Sailing the Catboat"

For my final project in Watercolor Painting I did a copy of Winslow Homer's "Sailing the Catboat".  I really like how this one turned out, primarily because I love Homer's paintings so much.  He is, in my opinion, the greatest watercolorist ever, and one of my favorite artists.  Also I find that many people in the class paint in a tight, illustrative fashion, and I was trying to do the same and was getting a little frustrated.  But I realized that I prefer to paint watercolors in loose fashion like this, allowing the colors to run and intermix freely, creating a variety of spontaneous effects.  It's strange because my oil paintings tend to be very tight, but I think I will stick with this loose style for my watercolors.

More Watercolors

You guys seem to like watercolors, so here are two more I did for the class.  I'm having trouble photographing the watercolors, so bear with me.  The first one is from a photo I have of Central Park in January.  It's very complex, so I think it turned out pretty well.  But I tend to paint too light, so I have to layer a lot which makes the painting look overworked.  This is especially a problem in the trees.  The second picture is from Point Reyes Station.  It's more successful than the first, but still a long way to go. :(

Workshop Drawings

My drawings have suddenly taken a turn for the better. I think all of these workshops I've been going to have started to pay off. But also I'm noticing a synergy effect between oil painting, watercolor painting, charcoal rendering, and this comic book / manga-style drawing I've recently been studying. It's surprising that things I learn in one medium carry over so much to other mediums. We only have 2 weeks left in this semester, but the fact that I still seem to be on the steep part of the learning curve means I'll probably stay in school for one more semester.

Portrait

This is an oil painting of my rascally nephew. I think he was having a low sugar moment, so he is relatively low-key. I've been wanting to paint this for awhile now, because I really like the sunlight effects. I think it's by far my best painting to date. The sunlight turned out well, but the major breakthrough for me is in the flesh tones. They are a lot more subtle and realistic than in my previous painting. It was nice to have this turn out well, because I had been suffering through a string of rather mediocre paintings.

Family Portrait

This is an oil painting I did of my sister's family. In general I'm pretty happy with it because I've never done a painting of this complexity. I think the likenesses are pretty good, which was my biggest concern. However, as my teacher pointed out, the main issues are with the colors. Everything feels a bit too plastic and cut-out, and the flesh tones are too gray. Also the yellow bench, the blue jeans, and the red wall are actually the three primary colors (or 'Triad' scheme, thank you Adam), which looks kind of strange. I'm going to be modifying this, but I just wanted to post it the way I submitted it.

More Pen & Watercolor

Here are two more, also watercolor over pen. The left one is based on a photo of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. The right one was done on location at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. I'm finding it hard to photograph these watercolors because they are kind of light.

Pen & Watercolor

This one turned out really well. It's based on a photo I have of the Mission in Carmel. It's a technique where we do the initial drawing in pen, then add color on top of it using watercolor. Some artists use this to do travel sketches, one of my favorites being Delacroix's sketches in Algiers. This kind of looks like those, so I was really happy. However, this might have been a fluke, because nothing I've done since has looked as good. :)