St. Sebastian

About a year and a half ago i went to the De Young Museum to see paintings by the Venetian masters. There is no substitute for bearing witness to these paintings in person.  My favorite artist was Titian who left me in complete awe of his compositions and technique. Last Thursday evening before dinner I quickly sketched on watercolor paper a copy of Titian's St. Sebastian.  After dinner I completed the watercolor and here is the result.

Yours Truly

When my older daughter recognized that this drawing was a self portrait of yours truly then I knew I had at least captured a believable likeness.

Redon and Rodin

I was at the Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford and walked into a class that were copying drawings by Odilon Redon inspired by Gustav Flaubert's "The Temptation of St. Anthony".  So I decided to pull up a stool and do a sketch of one of the drawings too.  There were captions associated with each drawing from the book.  This drawing from 1896 had the caption "Death:  It is I who make you serious; let us embrace each other."

Afterwards I went to the Rodin sculpture garden outside and sketched one of the figures in charcoal.

A day at the beach

I loved the light and shadows in a watercolor painting I found on the Internet (I need to start remembering the original artists of these compositions).  Here is my rendition of this scene on hot press watercolor paper.

A Meeting in the Woods

I found this painting on the web to practice sketching.  I like the way the artist directs the viewer towards the two soldiers at center through the perspective and values of the individuals and trees in the forest.

The Painters Honeymoon

I found this painting by Lord Frederick Leighton called The Painters Honeymoon at the Art Renewal Center museum.  You see their complete bliss together as the painter sketches and his wife casually looks on.  The magnificent light and rendering of her dress illuminates her face and the room.  Just as the fruit in the window has grown to maturity so has their love which also portends to bear fruit.  Below is a quick watercolor rendering of this painting.

Villa Palma

I wanted to do a landscape watercolor painting but was too lazy to go out.  I discovered a site that recommended using Google Street View as a source of subjects for compositions.  So after playing around with GSV I discovered Villa Palma in Italy and decided to do a watercolor sketch on hot press watercolor paper.  I have always used cold press paper and found the switch to hot press a little unsettling at first.  The paint drys fast on hot press making it more difficult to do wet-in-wet.  You have to carefully think through your strokes as you work the composition.  The color does seem a bit more saturated on hot press paper.  Below is the watercolor sketch followed by the reference photo.