Eclectic Studio - Tammy Morrison-Koenig

  This is one of my most helpful tips - create color cards. I have about 100 of these tiny 5*7 reference cards that show different color mixes under different circumstances. Some for people, landscapes, floral etc. This one represents some caucasian skin tone color mixes. There are alot of people out there that use Cadmium red in their mixes but i find that it doesnt lend it self to glazing well and it is a pretty strong color. If I use it it is usually right at the end for detailing.

This is what happens when a painting paints itself. I started this little piece by wetting my paper and just dropping in some color. reserving some lights - as the darks I can always paint in later. Let it dry. Now it is just rotating your picture until you see pattern you like and start "carving" the image out. This painting started out as a 6*6 and ended up beign an art card size. I will probaby use the extra in either a scrap booking page or a collage.

Just doodling and this what I came up with- I thought it was done after the first shot but it needed atmosphere to go along with mood. So i added some bushes in the front, and yet it was still missing something- so i went back in added the fence and deepened the shadows a little. Im thinking the shadow behind him is a little off it should be taller abd skinnier and sitting more off to the right a little - but oh well. One of the joys of watercolor is it is very hard to correct mistakes. These little paintings start out with a few simple Random brush strokes on a comination of wet/dry paper, I let them dry and them find pattern with in what was and work with it. That way your brain has the chance to switch over to the left and paint "what you see.. not what you think you see" Thank you Betty Edwards ;) These are my versions thumbnails.

When i started painting i was overwhelmed with the amount of tube color out there. But I soon came to find the best color mixes are the ones you make yourselves. Greens are a prime example of this. One day I was bored and pulled out every watercolor in my paint box and do a simple color chart. This color chart is very valuable when it comes to seeing the saturation, opacity, staining quality, and any special notes or qualities that the color may have. But out of this rainbow I only use the first 11 colors on a regular basis, adding an exotic color every once in a while just to switch it up a bit. A palette is such a personal choice and not all people will be drawn to using certain colors, I use palette because of its simplicity. A warm and cool of each color and neutral mixer (burnt sienna). I am looking at switching my warm red from napthol (grumbacher) red to more of a transparent. When I was working on March of the clowns I found that this red was NOT a good glazier as it seemed to

Love to hear what you think?

6.5" * 8.25 Watercolor on 140lb $220 USD For Sale Matted and Mounted Im such a techno weenie. I do have a WIP for this painting somewhere around here, I started it last winter i just dont know how to bump and archived post.

HI all, I would like to introduce you to my youngest boy - i couldnt resist trying to capture the toothless grin that he is famous for. This started out ok with the line drawing and the diox purple underpainting - but now it has got to the ugly stage and i am forcing myself to work through it. His skin tones were painted using rose madder and yellow ochre. Way to yellow for him so i am going to add a layer or 2 of perm rose just to try and tone it out a bit. If there are any portrait artists out there I could really use some help trying to correct these issues. The next installment of Xander is here. It is starting to pop, I started this session by masking out his eyes and a few highlights in his hair before i proceeded to start adding a large wash of his skin tones focusing on transitions between the yellows and reds. After a few layers to build up tone, I went back in with a very light wash of cobalt blue and started "carving out" some shadows. Still looking p

In this mini demo, I decided to test out some colors from the bottom of the paint tub. Using 3 colors 1 red, 1 yellow, and 1 blue and all the mixes that fall in between, no reference and painted with my left hand( I a righty) These quick 15 min studies show how color really influence the overall feel of a painting. From top to bottom RED- perm rose BLUE - Phalo and YELLOW- lemon all of these colors are quite cool in temp and very staining. Feels like late day - very hazy not a bad little color study Painting 2 RED - Crimson BLUE- turquoise YELLOW- Cad Med- Feels like mid day storm approaching. Dont like the painting its self and if i was to do another one i would add more contrast in the sky, reserving some whites while adding more yellow-orange. Also would strengthen the RED - VanDyke YELLOW- Burnt Sienna Ans BLUE- Ultramarine Really love this painting-stong contrast, which makes it feel moody. Gives a definate time of day, and the composition isnt to bad either.

Well I have been meaning to paint this for a while now, as you can see it is a little intimidting. In this watercolor demo I started with a detailed line drawing and then started bouncing around adding some local color to the clown faces with a wash of yellow ochre and cad red. After that dries i start placing some shadows using a thin wash of cobalt. The darks of the eyes are a mix of cad red, hunter green deep and paynes grey. Worked a little on the upper portion of the painting today. Really like the oranges against the blue. Just makes that litle portion sing. This painting reminds me of "paint by number" and with all the little variations i almost have to treat it that way. Day 4 and aprox 15 hours into it.. hmm i may be able to get this done by the end of the year. ;) This time around i worked a little adding my oranges (grumbacher red and gamboge) deeper values were made by adding a little burnt sienna. This will be heightened even more later on in the painting when

First of all I would like to apologize for this being a little backwards :( Wedding in 4 days and not alot of time to fix this. But I hope you can follow along. Pretty happy with the way this has come along time to put in the final details and darks in the wings.. sign it and call it a day. please excuse the photography,the last image is the only one i take the time to try to get as close to real colors as possible. Working on the front wing you will notice that it is slightly brighter and rosier - a few washes of perm rose maybe one of cobalt in the center followed by a few more of perm rose finish off by a few of raw sienna and add some glow with a little lemon yellow. I save lemon yellow and any cads until the last - they dont seem to play well with others. ;) going to go back now and fix that horribly bright background using a fairlay rick mix of paynes grey, this is quite transparent so all those pretty colors you mimicked in your background will still show through. Now doesnt t