Preparation for Picture Hillsboro 2018-2019

Event coming up in my hometown. So did some paintings, the theme is "Picture Hillsboro"

This is coming off of September/October Plein Air @ Washington County. That was an energizing event where I went outdoors during the peak of summer mixed with autumn beauty in my home-range of Washington County, Oregon.  I completed 6 paintings at that time (to come), exhibited 4, and sold 2!

A success in my book!

Without further ado, here are the paintings. All are approx 8x10, they fit 8x10 frames. Matted some of the painting gets covered up. Nothing custom framing wouldn't hurt.

 Old Orenco Mercantile, 

Realistic Colors

M Graham Watercolors on Arches

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 Old Orenco Mercantile,

Technicolor Dream

M Graham Watercolors on FLUID Brand Cellulose Paper

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 Orenco Woods Nature Park

M Graham Watercolor on Arches Cold Press

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 Orenco Woods Nature Park

M Graham Watercolors on FLUID Cellulose Paper

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Old Library @ 2nd and Lincoln

M Graham Watercolors on FLUID Cellulose Paper 

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Max Arch @ Baseline

M Graham Watercolors on FLUID Cellulose Paper

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Week 12 Watercolor Postcard Challenge

Week 12 Watercolor Postcards

Train at Nagamori Take 2 

Japanese Breakfast

15 Minute Figure Paintings March

15 Minute Figure Sketching

Trying to experiment with figure drawing and paintings came across a good set of exercises to try from deviantart. 

Thank-you:

mjranum-stock.deviantart.com

Week 11: Watercolor Postcards Challenge

Week 11 Watercolor Postcards Painting a Day Challenge

 Inn at Jigokudani, Nagano, Japan

 Traveling Tiel Visits Peru

Macchu Picchu, Alpaca

 Traveling tiel Visits a Russian Cathedral

 Tiel becomes a Raja in India

 Road in Inazawa, Aichi, Japan

 Bridge at Arashiyama, Kyoto, Japan

Week 10 Daily Postcard Challenge Paintings

Experimenting with ambiguous figures and lots of watercolor glazing

Tiel a Paris Painter

Painting Flower Shapes

From my Maxking fluid Cockatoo series

Masking Fluid Used to create an ink surrounded deer.
I think I like the black on white better. 

A botched painting which used masking fluid, seen on the birds chest
and used in the crest area. 

Major Mitchell Cockatoo Warm

Major Mitchell Cockatoo Cool

Week 9 Daily Postcard Challenge Paintings A st

Cockatieliana

Oktobertiel
Deutsch Tiel

A Japanese Kappa in a Mystical Red Orb 

Loose sketched kappa in Ink

Road Next to Ajisai-dera, Inazawa-si, Aichi, Japan

Mexitiel

Gang Gang Cockatoo, Example of where masking fluid can leave
harsh edges. I didn't alter them. 

Experiments with Masking Fluid

Experiments and Uses for Masking Fluid in Watercolor

Painting Major Mitchell's Cockatoos

What I learned:

-Apply masking fluid where you want there to remain a clean crisp white line

-Make sure your masking fluid dries all the way, as well as the paint and paper around it, which can affect its removal 

-Once you have a little ball of masking fluid, you can use this to help pull off easily and cleanly other remaining masking fluid, it's highly attracted to itself

-the lines will be harsh, so plan for how you want to soften them if you would like

-Using self mixed greys, browns, and neutrals on your pallette is probably better than shading with black except for areas which are truly perceivable as black

This is a Naked One

I used the same self-made template and added some black shadowing,
though if I do this again I will probably try to mix a warmer pink-grey to use for the shading instead.

Black added over the masking fluid white. All the white areas
remained white thanks to masking fluid. I like the crisp clean lines they give,
though they can be jarrinh

Stay tuned and there may be a tutorial on how to make a bird like this (and maybe with a template for you to trace.) I'm not sure about the aesthetics but I certainly enjoyed this painting exercise.