Eclectic Studio - Tammy Morrison-Koenig

My wonderful husband stuck a cheap watercolor set in my stocking this year. More for a travel kit than for any serious work but it made me realize how easy working with the right supplies can make your job, especially in watercolors. An inexpensive paper has no real absorbancy and your colors don't flow or mingle like they should. Considering this, the painting style and application of paint to the surface has to reflect these limitations. These few paintings were done in a direct painting style as this paper did not accept washes or glazes well. These are a few of my attempts, hope you enjoy.

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 then to take it away. Wet his little face again a

I needed something that gave me a break from all the Christmas chaos so i threw some paint and this is what i came up with. He is 4.5 * 4.5 inch on 140lb CP SOLD Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year. Hope you enjoy.