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.

Lady at the piano

I found this oil painting on the Internet by Theodore Robinson and liked the composition so I decided to give it a go in watercolor.

Rinaldo and Armida

One of the best ways to improve your drawing skills is to practice by copying works of great artists.  I've been having fun with my new Lamy fountain pen and decided to sketch this famous painting by Nicolas Poussin.  In this painting, Rinaldo is a soldier during the first crusades who is held as a lovesick prisoner of Armida until his comrades remind him of his mission.

Pas de deux

I saw a photo of two San Francisco ballet dancers and tried to capture some of their energy and grace in this sketch

Still life composition

Last weekend I arranged some fruit and a tea cup on our kitchen counter playing around with different positions.  I had trouble deciding where to focus the composition so I started with a pencil sketch and did some thumbnail drawings.  I wanted the apple and banana to be the main subject.  Today I completed a watercolor painting of this still life composition.  I think the apple should be a warmer red and the teacup a more turquoise color..

Before cars there were sewing machines

My wife purchased this sewing machine made over half a century ago by Toyota.

The Countess of Rocksavage

John Singer Sargent painted some amazing portraits.  Here is a drawing of the Countess of Rocksavage which is one of my favorites.  Of course it is nothing like the original.