Sunday, August 29, 2010

PORTRAIT 5 - LUCKY NUMBERS (WIP)

From a photo taken at River Downs racetrack on Jerry's birthday, I singled out Jenny and Chris for this one.  I did the light sketch on tracing paper and then went over the tracing outlines with black marker so it would easy to trace onto the watercolor paper.



Traced it, trying to fix Chris' mouth that got too wonky in the first sketch, and make any minor adjustments while looking at the photo again.

I'm calling it Lucky Numbers (you can see all the numbers of the seats behind the two of them in a field of black - which should work well in the painting).  I like Jenny's cool shades, too.  Chris had on a black and grey shirt and Jenny had a tee-shirt on with Curious George on it.  Think I'll change that and give her a color that pops a bit more...we'll see.




Again, the test is to keep it light - don't lose all the lights - let the brush dance over the features, not smoosh them into oblivion.  If it works, this will be Portrait 5?  (This is on 1/2 sheet Arches 140# cold press watercolor paper.)

8 comments:

Deb Léger said...

Looking good, Rhonda!

Vicki Greene said...

Wow a half sheet. I like what you have done so far.

Carol King said...

Your portraits are all really good. Sorry I haven't commented on all of your latest posts, I'm just getting around to reading them all. I really like the work you've been doing.

And to answer your question about looking at other artists' work, I think it's good to do that. You may be inspired, but you would then take that inspiration and make it your own.

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks, Deb, Vicki (1/2 sheet isn't very big, Vicki, when you see what some watercolor artists are doing), and Carol (no need to apologize, Carol - life does take us away from art and summer is that time of year, I know).

I tried to post this yesterday but the computer kicked me out (Jerry's desktop is about ready to give up the ghost, I think).

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Good luck with your No: 5 portrait Rhonda. Very brave to do a WIP for us.

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks, Joan. Not sure it's brave, maybe just foolish?

Liana Yarckin said...

i like the humor here and the painting is coming out nicely. can't wait to see the end result.

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks, Liana (what a beautiful name!), for commenting. Stay tuned, I hope I can get this one right. (I love your apples, pears and peaches painting - so light and lively!)