Eclectic Studio - Tammy Morrison-Koenig

I chose to use a grisaille technique for the painting of this old man in watercolor. Grisaille is an old technique oil painters used to develop a monochromatic value study, kinda like a road map for your painting. This later served as a base for the addition of  transparent layers of color. For this painting, I chose to use a limited palette of dioxazine purple, Naples yellow,  alizarin crimson for the face with a pop or 2 of transparent orange and green gold at the end. **This is not a palette I would choose again and here's why. Naples yellow doesn't pack any punch and is opaque. This is not a great mix when you need to cover or mute the purple. Diox purple is also strong stainer, making it difficult to remove pigment. Sometimes this is ok, but didn't really help on this piece. I started this gentleman with an ink sketch that can be found in my Strathmore watercolor 400 series journal. I love the quality of paper in this journal but I wish it wou...

Drawing portraits on kraft toned paper provide a mid-toned base in which to build your portrait upon. One of the drawing sites I visit has a Halloween drawing event going on right now. Each day a different Halloween inspired drawing prompt is posted and you have the opportunity to use this as inspiration for your sketch. The prompt for this day was Winifred Sanderson from Hocus Pocus and skulls.  This gentleman is full of personality and life. With very little detail or line work, you are still able to give life to a 2-dimensional piece of paper. Kraft paper is a little thin so you are not able to manipulate the ink like you can on some thicker papers, so you have to be very watchful when laying down your strokes. 

Capturing the essence of a person without overloading on detail is one of the advantages of working with ink within a time limit. As Bob Ross used to say "there are no such things as mistakes, just happy accidents". That is what makes it art instead of a being a copy of a photograph. Here are some 20-minute portrait sketches that I use to capture the mood and moment. Don't look for perfection, look for a reaction from your audience.  Using a quick watercolor washed background this crabby old lady has a little more character than just a using a plain white background. It doesn't have to be perfect or refined to add a little zip.     This dude with a crazy-eyed expression is far from perfect and even with the corrections made along the way it is hard to tell what was an intentional mark and what was not. Don't be intimidated by ink, be confident in your strokes and embrace your mistakes. 

A rt has always played a major part in my life. Whether it be grabbing a sheet of printer paper and pen, some charcoal and wood or if I am really lucky I can find time for a brush and canvas, I have always used art both as a therapy and as a gauge of my mental health. I feel it is very important to find 1 hour a day to focus on your personal well being. I don't consider it selfish or negative. Our lives get so crazy and easily become of control that I find it an essential part of my emotional health and I am very lucky to have someone in my life that recognizes that.   I find 20 minutes hour a day of uninterrupted time when I take lunch. I drive down to the river, and either grab my running shoes and zip around a quick 2.5km trail or I crank up the stereo and grab my travel sketch bag. I take this kit everywhere. It contains the essentials for my style of sketching which is not really fancy, is easy to transport and knows how to get the job done. I emphasize ...

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. 

Happy Groundhog day. For those of you that don't know what the meaning of this day is. It is the mid point of winter. YEAH!!!! And to celebrate we bring the groundhog (an oversized gopher) out of his den (cage) to see if he sees his shadow. If he does it means 6 more weeks of winter and if he doesn't than spring is supose to come early. For this part of the country it is gaurenteed we will have 6 more weeks of winter and it has been a very long winter so far. lol  Finally we are getting some beautiful weather but as the snow disappears the brown lawn emerges. I am in desperate need of COLOR. :D  So I drew out a couple of Macaw parrot profiles and am working them up 2 different ways. This is the first one and he was done with a combination of  tangle patterns and brightly colored watercolors.  So much fun. Hope you enjoy.   

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...

These are a few of the small paintings I have been working on this week. Outcroppings was done mixed media with an ink and watercolor wash and old trees on misty lake is a traditional watercolor. Hope you enjoy. :) Click Here For Auction!

Hi everyone, What a long last 6 months. It has been pretty hectic around here with travels and family and I havent had alot of time to do anything as far as market pieces. So to get back in the swing of things I pulled out my pens and waterbrush and sketched a few 10min studies. The first 2 are done on watercolor paper and the dog was done in my moleskin. A few months ago I purchased a couple of sakura waterbrushes and when combined with both a watersoluable ink pen and a permenant ink pen most of the work for me. Hope you enjoy. :)