Eclectic Studio - Tammy Morrison-Koenig

Every once in a while I get a chance to stop by my favorite artists site and participate in their weekly drawing event. You try and complete a painting in 2 hours from 16 reference images provided by a different host every week. This week I managed to get 2 done during nap. I guess when you are on a roll it just flows out of you, it also helps that I havent unpacked my travel painting bin from holidays,;) oops, so I had all supplies ready and at hand. mini 2.75 * 2.75 inch acrylic on stretched canvas 5 * 7 watercolor on 140lb CP arches

SOLD The little Namibian girl I painted up the other day looks like she needed a little company ;) so I would paint her up a friend. I just love this little guys expression of sucking in his bottom lip. 2.5 * 3.5 in Watercolor on 140lb CP paper $20.00 plus shipping

I haven't done a watercolor portrait in a few months so I thought I would stick with the mini theme I have been dabbling with and try out an artist trading card format 2.5 * 3.5 inch for this little girl. Hope you enjoy :) Watercolor on 140lb CP paper

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!

Well i thought I would try something new with this watercolor pour of a wren sitting on a fence. Inspired by my favorite site - wet canvas - they were hosting pour challenges for the past few months and I have finally gotten around to trying this technique. Not going to win any prizes but i think this may be something i try again.

Well this is as far as I made it with my Christmas gifts this year.:( I all of a sudden got INCREDIBLY busy 5 days before Christmas with a commission for 8 mini paintings on top of all the regular festivities. But we made it through. Wishing everyone a Safe and Happy Holiday.

I've been using up the scraps of watercolor paper that has been laying around my studio.. with Christmas coming up you never know what Santa is going to bring me. ;)They are all about 5 * 7 in size Hope you enjoy

10 3/8 * 12 3/4 inch watercolor and ink

Full Sheet 22 * 30 in Mixed Media acrylic over a watercolor underpainting on 140 lb CP This is my first full sheet painting and it couldn't have been completed at a better time as I have just found out that my mentor/ teacher and friend has lost her battle with Cancer. I am hoping that she finds peace now. So I am dedicating this painting in her memory.

When this doodle was done my husband asked if it was a family portrait.. LOL I guess it is right down to mommy's scowl.. HMMM Definatly my subconcious playing with me.

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

5 * 7 Watercolor on Strathmore aquarius synthetic paper

12 * 7 inch watercolor on Strathmore aquarius synthetic paper This was an an excersise taken from the watercolorist guide to exceptional color- an invaluable book in my collection.

Frog and flies. 7.25 * 9.5 in Watercolor on Strathmore Aquarius paper and my new set of Hobiens. :) A happy little garden painting I have managed to fit in.

3.5 * 5.75 inch Inspired by this miniature painting I did of this street scene I thought I would tackle a 1/2 sheet version. Starting with the largest color masses I started to block in some local color, deepened the shadow side of the pillars and places the first wash of neutrals in the middle line of windows. and this is where I am right now. Popped in some more color in to the 2 remaining flags, some reflective shapes in the main cars window and added a little crimson to indicate where my darkest darks will be on the cars. This serves a 2 fold purpose. It will serve as a mapping system if my pencil lines get smudged, it also gives we a constant under painting color, which will add continuity once the subsequent glazes are applied. The rich darks are starting to get placed now. Keep in mind that this is just the initial glazes. It will become allot darker in the future. A little more work done on the foreground shadows and the reflections have been started on the cars. The

Hi everyone, Its been a bit since I posted last. Been kinda down dealing with all the snow we have been getting. From 25 to -2 and blizzard conditions in 24 hours. EEk. But my garden survived and is thriving.. now i just want the sun to peek out again. Anyways, here is a small painting I did for the WDE over at wetcanvas. I was drawn to this photo for the twisting winding shapes and the textures on the yellow bulbous masses. Now to try and capture that. After I drew out the general shapes and masked out the yellow bulbs I started an under painting with some gambouge for the sunshine and turquoise for the shadows with a little rose madder thrown in for good measure. ;) Next I came back with glazes of sap green for overall continuity. And some more glazes of turquoise and gamouge.. making sure the layers are dry. After the masking was remove I came back in and stippled in some lemon yellow, gambouge, lt red and orange. ** special note, take care not to cover the entire white space

  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