Eclectic Studio - Tammy Morrison-Koenig

Thank you for stopping by for another step-by-step tutorial on how I drew this African girl in a turban.  I am not a traditionalist when it comes to drawing. I don't use any fancy tools or grids, gosh I don't even use a pencil, actually using a pencil or eraser has become a hindrance instead of a help. I start and finish all of my work in pen and upside down. Most of us have read or should have Betty Edwards Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain on their to-read list, well one of the most valuable lessons she teaches is flipping your work upside down. You trick your eyes into actually seeing what is in front of you and not what you think you see. Your mind is much better at picking up spatial changes, angles, and values much better when your mind doesn't label an object.   As you see from the following example I keep my lines loose and flowing and I develop the overall shapes and form of my subject.  At this stage, I am not worried about the details just the of the ...

8*10 wrapped canvas Acrylic pouring is an exciting, unpredictable painting technique that doesn't involve brushes and can provide you with finished paintings or interesting backgrounds for additional techniques such as this one. Here is another revamped failed pour painting that after the addition of ink and watercolor it transformed it into something spectacular. Carefully places accents help to acentuate the.hair and weathered face of this individual.  I also tried really hard not to cover all of the beautiful background instead using the texture to my advantage. I LOVE this painting, it has everything I look for in a self-critic of my work, contrast, color, spontaneity, interest, lost and found edges. I hope this inspires you to try something new. If you found this of interest remember sharing is caring. 

I have been experimenting with a new technique of acrylic pouring with mixed results. This little 8*10 painting is one of those pours that didn't quite turn out the way I hoped, so when it dried instead of repouring it, I decided to use it as a background for another painting. I drew inspiration from the complimentary muted turquoises and rusty tones to dictate the overall theme of the painting. As there were not a lot of "pre-loaded images" to work within this pour so I had to carve out the images and work with the texture of the background. The muted blues/greys and texture also reminded me of washed out plaster of the Mediterranean so running with that I emphasized the oranges, pinks, and greens. With all the visual interest the background you don't have to worry about covering all the underpainting, just add enough detail develop your vision.

This painting was started by using a messy background that was accomplished by using inks, acrylics, heavy body gel medium and stencils for texture. You can see the texture of the gel medium being utilized in the fish and some raised letters and symbols hidden in the background. I used some drywall tape and randomly smooshed some medium into the holes and it worked to give me some texture and direction in the painting, I like this method of intuitive painting because it does not force the work, it just allows it to develop naturally. When I was working on this I had to make a few adjustments as I went. The biggest challenge was connecting the human and fish form This is where I added the tongue with the fishing line - problem solved. For added interest, you can also find some charcoal pencil mark making and a fun foam fish stamp that I pulled from my collection. 16* 20  acrylic on stretched canvas  Hope you enjoy and remember sharing is caring.

My dd and I have been busy printing gift tags, Christmas cards and background papers on our handmade Gelli plate. If you haven't had a chance to experiment with this type of monoprinting, you should! There is no right or wrong way, just ways that work out better than others. If you don't like something it is very easily covered up to create another dimension. We cut our own stamps (texture plates), basic stencils and used found objects to print a multitude of papers. This is one of my not so good prints that I turned into an inspirational mixed media piece. Gelli print, acrylic paint, oil pastel, ink, collage.  I love the way the paper does a lot of the work for you.

I am posting both of these today because I have come down with the flu and don't know if I will be back for the next few days. :( UUG. They are both 4.75 inch square and were created with micron pens on cotton. Hope you enjoy. Im going back to lay down.

This painting practically painted its self. Using a value study as an underpainting to your watercolor is an easy way to paint any subject. This portrait used water-soluble markers to apply washes of color. by using color left on your water pen you can bounce some softer transitions this is also another way to control your hard and soft edges in a painting.  After applying the first washes of darks I went back in with a few washes of color to bring this lady to life. The best part is that the shading was already taken care of for you. I hope you take this opportunity to practice a variety of painting techniques. Hope you enjoy. Merry Christmas everyone.

Just a quick demo on how I painted this sailboat at sunset. Colors used: Indian Yellow, Napthol Red, Alizarin Crimson, Royal Blue, Burnt Sienna and Brillant Orange and permenant ink First draw out your image and mask off your sun spot - dry. I chose to use ink as a base to this painting applying it both directly and using it as a wash to add some shadows. Next wet the entire sky area. Working around your sun spot start by adding a graduated wash of indian yellow from the bottom to about 3/4 the way up, then add in alizarin crimson, and at the top work in a band of royal blue letting it run down a little. DRY The sky is not holding the weight I need it to so I wen over it again using the same colors and technique. This time adding a band of brilliant orange along the bottom. Looking better but still not quite there. So lets dry and move on to another area so that I can come back and judge the values. The sails were added using a mix of BS, brilliant orange and indian yellow. D...

One of my students have asked me to post the demo that I did for a workshop on portraits from last week. This is a 2 hour painting (including dry time) using a limited pallette of quin gold, aliz crimson, Ultramarine blue, Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber.  Stage 1: Mask out any highlights or if you are really confident you can paint around them. Due to the small size of this little man I masked. Stage 2 Sunshine : Wet your paper into the hairline, background, even the whites of the eyes. Wait until the sheen is gone from the paper and start dropping in your mid mix of quin gold. I love this color for 2 reasons. 1 it lifts easy, which comes in handy when laying down your road map  and 2 it adds your sunshine.   DRY Stage 3 I added a little BS and BU just to place a few darks in the eyes and hair. DRY Then mix up a light mix of aliz crimson. This is a high power, staining color and should be used with care. It is way easier to add color ...

Wow it has been a long time since I have done one of these little tutorials/ paint alongs. Yesterday I thought I would paint up a little girl. I had no real person in mind, I just started with a basic line drawing getting her perspectives down and picking out my pallett of hmmm.... lets see... quin gold, perm red and cobalt blue, opera and i will toss a little burnt umber in at the end. Lets start by wetting her face and dropping in some color to get a base of where we want to go with this. At this point I will be working with only my yellow and red remember to work around your lights. Still working wet in wet and building up light layers of my yellow and reds all the time thinking about where the sun will hit her face. You will see I added just a dab of burnt umber to place the eyes. Dont forget to leave the highlights. Continue building up your layers of sunshine, but now it is time to start thinking about how and where your facial structures recede. The eye sockets ...

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. I put together this mini demo on how I work in pencil to achieve the different textures on this monkey drawing. 5 * 7 inch chimpanzee in graphite on copy paper aprox 4 hours. I wish I would have done him on better paper, but i have stuck him in a frame and he hangs proudly on my wall. :) Start with a basic line drawing blocking on major shapes and patterns. Work around your subject comparing one area against the next, varying your pencil strokes to represent the changes in textures you are drawing. The hair would be done in long, wispy strokes and the face would be done in more of a confined circular stroke, avoiding harsh lines but varying value. Final touches are then added and or subtracted from your subject.

I really haven't been in the mood for anything this past week. And it has really been hard to get anything started let alone get anything completed. So when I saw this weeks WDE (weekly drawing event) and the challenge that went with it, I thought this would be just the escape that I needed. This is a small painting of an emerging hibiscus using only a 3 secondary color triad. For this painting, I chose Magenta, Brilliant orange and Cobalt turquoise. These are colors I seldom use so I thought I would try it out. Pretty flowers always make me feel better. :) Hope you enjoy 4.25 * 4.75 in watercolor on 140lb CP

A little something I started yesterday 16 * 20 acrylic on stretched canvas. So far so good but I am a little stuck, to much open space in the middle ground, may add a sheep or two or maybe make it into a golf course. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Happy Painting Tammy

I think im going to do a series of these as I love the mystery of masks and I would love to go to New Orleans during Mardi Gras. So here are the first stages of the one that I am working on now. Have a great day and Happy Painting!!  The finished painting can be found here. http://tampster1.blogspot.ca/2011/02/mask-in-earths.html

I haven't posted a WIP is a long time so I thought I would stop by and show you this mountain bluebird painting I have been working on in between sewing projects. :) 9 * 12inch canvas board. Here are the first intial stages mostly just blocking in the large masses of color. starting to define the shape a bit more on the leaves and feather pattern Almost done! Went back in to reshape his head , eye and bottom breast a little. Added more shading under his body to tail feathers. I realized after photographing the last shot something was off - the lighting didnt match. So .... will be going back in today to try and give the tree more of a rounded shape by moving the shadows to the right side of the tree (hehehe oops... )and maybe pump up the highlights on some of the leaves. :)Till next time Happy Painting! 9 * 12 acrylic on canvas board signed and dated on both front and back Donated to Canadian Artists for the Poor

So every once in a while I google myself - just to make sure I am not having anything negative associated with my paintings and I came across this article in the World News!!!!!!!. http://article.wn.com/view/2011/01/08/A_splash_of_watercolour_in_a_dull_month/ If you scroll to the bottom of the article smack dab in the middle is a link to my you tube 2009 video of my paintings. You cant even imagine how excited I am! :) I am very honored and privilaged to whomever came by and admired my work enough to give me a feature spot. *** big hugs **** Thank you!

I have been experimenting lately with toned grounds. A toned background is a background that has been painted in a flat wash of color. This is done for 2 reasons, it seems to take away the intimidation of starting with a blank white canvas and it adds continuity to the painting as the undercoat will show through in spots. Some colors work better than others as a toned background. For this painting I use I started off by toning this little 2.5 * 2.5 inch canvas with cad. red and then applied my color dashes of color. For something so tiny it sure hold a lot of impact. The red under painting that is showing through seems to highlight the greens of the trees and the fields.

Another painting started .. i just love the expression on this teens face.. it represents that genre very well.(man i sound old all of a sudden) LOL Anyways just a simple pallette Skin tones - raw sienna, alizarin crimson, and ultramarine blue. Work slow .. develop your warms .. thin washes wet on wet and **let dry in between*** When you are waiting for the initial skin tones to dry move onto another area that does NOT touch and adjacent area that you have worked on. For the jacket I used just a simple wash of UMB and Burnt Sienna. Cobalt blue for a bounce of stronger color in the white shadows. Keep developing your skin tones. dampen a small area at a time, drop in your color and walk away. For the hat I used a light wash of perm. rose.. dry and then cobalt blue. Enhance the shadows and the stiching on the hat with a mix alizarin crimson and UMB that you have been using on the face. This will help to tie everythig together. I also used perm rose and cobalt underwashes on the s...