In my previous post I mentioned that I was working on a pink Rose in oil. Today I finished this painting. It needed longer then  I thought, because I really needed to get a feeling for the oil colours again. But with each brushstroke I was getting more confidence.

Currently I am working on another Rose in oil. It is a creamy white Rose. The german name is Rose Elfe, which means in english: Rose Fairy.

Here is a photo of my working process.

As you can see I  covered my white canvas with a lemon yellow underwash in acrylic. I chose acrylic because it dries very fast.

I am right handed and so I started in the left corner. I do not work in layers. It is totally different to my watercolors.  I paint in a direct way using opaque and transparent colours. I apply my colours just where I see them and then blend them together. It also allows me to soften my edges immediately. But this doesn't mean that I never have to go back to some areas. Often I see things later where I need to add another layer or to darken areas or to lighten then or to change the colours a bit. But it gives you a good suggestion about how I work with oils. I am using only Walnut oil and Walnut Alkyd Medium from M. Graham - no turpentine - nothing else.

"So many dreams"
medium: watercolor, 140 Lb coldpressed paper,
size: around 10"x12"
copyright: Doris Joa

I finally finished the Girl portrait painting.

You may remember the WIP in the previous post. Since this WIP I started 4 times over with this painting. There were areas which didn't work so as I wanted to have them.

A great help for me was to photograph stages of my working process. I then turned them in black/white photos in photoshop and compared it to my referenzphoto, which I also made black and white. This helps extremely to see the values.

This is the finished portrait of the beautiful young girl. I still had to do the necklace and also some colours on her body - that was it.

I am very pleased with this painting, it is excactly what I wanted to acchieve. Her mother was very impressed about the painting and the girl itself loves it, too! What can I ask for more?

I am also working on my Roses painting. I have worked more on the leaves and also on the roses and the whole look of the painting will change again when I add more of the background at the top and when the roses are finished. That is always an exciting moment to see the painting developing.

I am pleased with the painting as it is - but I am not so really happy. I wanted to have the leaves more light and yellow to create more warmth and sunshine there.  So I tried to wash the colours out but it was not possible. It looks good as it is but I am more angry about myself that I was not carefully enough. Another lesson learned. But I will go on and see how the painting develops and I hope it will be that what I am looking for with this Roses.

Deutsch: Das ist das fertige Portrait von dem jungen hübschen Mädchen. Zu malen hatte ich lediglich die Halskette und noch einige Hauttöne auf ihrem Körper. Das war alles.

Ich bin sehr zufrieden mit diesem Bild, es ist genau das was ich wollte. Die Mutter war sehr beeindruckt über das Bild und auch das Mädchen mag das Bild sehr. Was will ich mehr?

Des weiteren habe ich an meinem Rosenbild gearbeitet. Ich arbeitete mehr an den Blättern und auch an den Rosen und der ganze Look des Bildes wird sich wieder ändern, wenn ich mehr Hintergrund hinzugefügt habe und auch wenn die Rosen fertig sind. Diesen Moment finde ich immer sehr aufregend, wenn man sieht, wie sich ein Bild entwickelt.

Ich bin zufrieden mit dem Bild, so wie es bis jetzt ist - aber nicht so richtig glücklich. Ich wollte die Blätter eigentlich heller und mehr gelb haben, um mehr Wärme und Sonnenschein zu suggerieren.  Also versuchte ich die Farben wieder auszuwaschen, aber es war nicht möglich. Es sieht gut aus, so wie es jetzt ist, aber ich ärgere mich mehr über mich selber, weil ich nicht vorsichtig genug war. Wieder eine Lektion gelernt. Aber ich werde an diesem Bild weitermalen und sehen, wie es sich entwickelt und ich hoffe, es wird so sein, wie ich es mir vorstelle mit diesen Rosen.

As I promised here is a new step of my current Roses painting.

I have started with some leaves to get a better feeling for the roses. The roses are looking so different on the white paper and to have them  surrounded with the leaves makes it easier to go on. And it is better to see how the colours work on them.

The colours on the leaves and stems were created with some indian yellow, aureolin, burnt sienna, sap green and helio turquoise. This is only the beginning. I may not forget to add also some of the roses colour (permanent rose and alizarin crimson mixed with phthalo blue) to the leaves.

I will show the next step very soon.

I am sorry,  the photo of the girl in watercolor which I posted yesterday was very bad, so here is also a better one.

I too have now a gadget in my right sidebar where you can join this site. This means you can become a friend/follower of this site and I hope you will join.

Deutsch: Wie ich versprochen habe zeige ich hier einen weiteren Schritt meines Rosenbildes.

Begonnen habe ich nun mit einigen Blättern, um ein besseres Gefühl für die Rosen zu bekommen. Die Rosen sehen so unterschiedlich aus auf weißem Papier, aber wenn sie umgeben sind von einigen Blättern ist es einfacher fortzufahren. Man sieht dann besser, wie die Farben wirken.

Für die Farben auf den Blättern benutzte ich Indian Yellow, Aureolin, Burnt Sienna, Sap Green und Helio Turquoise. Das ist jedoch nur erst der Anfang. Ich darf nicht vergessen, auch die Farben der Rosen (Permanent Rose und Alizarin Crimson gemischt mit Phthalo Blue) zu den Blättern hinzuzufügen.

Den nächsten Schritt werde ich sehr bald zeigen.

Es tut mir leid, jedoch war das Foto von dem gemalten Mädchen in Aquarell, was ich gestern zeigte, sehr schlecht, so hier ist ein besseres.

In meiner rechten Sidebar ist nun ein "gadget", mit dem Sie meiner Seite hier beitreten können, d.h., Sie werden ein Freund/Follower und ich hoffe, Sie schließen sich an.

Today I have worked on this small portrait study. This girl is really beautiful and I wanted to capture this in my painting. It is only a small painting (around 8x10 inch) and painted with watercolors.

My colours were half opaque and half transparent and I think this works very well. In the black hair I used a mix of ivory black, burnt umber and winsor blue (green shade). For the warmer areas I added also some burnt sienna.

I plan to do a figurative painting of this young girl but wanted to get a feeling for her and for my palette, before I start.  This study was good practice for me.  When I was mostly finished I photographed the painting, loaded it in photoshop and made a black-white copy and compared it to a black-white copy of the ref.pic. This helped me enormously to see the values and where I was wrong in the face. I still need to work a bit on it then I will call it finished.

And now I must go on with my Roses and I hope to share tomorrow a new step of them.

One note: I have decided to close my Rosesblog. This doesn't mean that I will stop with painting Roses - oh no, how could I??? - but I will show all now here in this blog. This will help me to be more up to date with my postings and for my Readers it is the same.

Deutsch: Heute arbeitete ich an dieser kleinen Portrait Studie. Dieses Mädchen ist wirklich sehr hübsch und das wollte ich auch in meinem Bild einfangen. Es ist nur ein kleines Bild (ca. 20x24 cm ) and gemalt in Aquarell.

Meine Farben waren zur Hälfte deckend und zur Hälfte transparent und ich denke, damit lässt es sich gut arbeiten. Das dunkle Haar malte ich mit einer Mischung von Ivory Black, Burnt Umber und Winsor Blue (green shade). Für die wärmeren Bereich fügte ich Burnt Sienna hinzu.

Ich plane ein figuratives Gemälde mit diesem jungen Mädchen, aber ich wollte zuerst ein Gefühl für sie und auch für meine Farbpalette bekommen, bevor ich damit anfange. Diese Studie war wirklich eine gute Übung. Als ich fast fertig war fotografierte ich das Bild, lud es in Photoshop und machte eine schwarz-weiß Kopie von dem Bild und verglich es mit einer schwarz-weiß-Kopie des Referenzfotos. Das half mir enorm, die Farbtöne richtig zu sehen und auch ob ich im Gesicht was falsch gemacht hatte.  Ich muss noch ein wenig an dem Bild arbeiten, dann wird es wohl fertig sein.

Und nun zurück zu meinem Rosenbild und ich hoffe, morgen einen weiteren Fortschritt zu zeigen.

Eine kleine Notiz am Rande: Ich habe entschieden meinen Rosenblog zu schließen. Das bedeutet nicht, dass ich aufhören werde, Rosen zu malen - wie  könnte ich??? - aber ich werde künftig alles nur hier in diesem Blog zeigen. Das wird mir helfen, aktueller mit meinen Einträgen zu sein.

This is my latest Figurative Painting. I have started with this painting four times and I was not happy. This is my latest attempt and I am finally happy with it.
Transparent Watercolor, Painted on 140 Lb coldpressed watercolor paper, size: 16"x22"

On my Rosesblog I posted a new Rose painting.

As I said it seems to be my Rose week.

I have painted to more. The first one is painted on Reeves Watercolour board and size is 6x9 inch.

The other one is painted on hotpressed Crescent Watercolour Board and size is 6x6 inch. I really can still not say which surface I prefer for my watercolors. A long time I was a fan of the hotpressed paper, but for some reasons I also like the coldpressed paper and the boards and also the Aquabord.

The third painting is a Glowing Hibiscus, also painted on Crescent Watercolour Board, size is 4x4 inch.

Click here for purchase Information

This painting was done just for fun. I loved the pose and the light and HAD to paint this immediately. Photo was done by myself and the model is my best girl friend.

It is painted with transparent watercolors on Textured Claybord (Aquabord), size is 8"x10".

I have decided for a title: "With the sunshine in her hair" fits perfect to this watercolor painting.

I am sorry. I wanted to show some photos about my newest oil painting, but unfortunately it didn't work. I had to paint all over, I was not really happy with the composition and so I have to start fresh again.
In the meantime I have just painted a small watercolor, again on Aquabord (Textured Claybord) from Ampersand.
If you have not paint on Aquabord yet, you simply should give it a try. It would be interesting to hear how you like it. It is so easy to remove paint and to get highlights back when neccessary. It is always good when we have not to worry about such things while painting and to know how we can easily fix areas.
This small painting is titled "The Pink Hat". I think it is clear why. LOL
Size is 8"x10".

For the skin tones I have used Raw Sienna, Scarlet Lake, Phthalo Blue, a bit of the hat-colour (like Alizarin Crimson, Purple Magenta).

This is my latest head study. Size is around 7"x10,5" and I have worked on cold-pressed watercolor paper.
I am playing with skin colours. In this painting and also in my previous post "Friends" I have used Raw Sienna, Scarlet Lake and Phthalo Blue.
On my palette are also Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna, also Alizarin Crimson, Paynes Grey Bluish, Phthalo Green and Translucent Orange.
I love the Raw Sienna colour. It is a wonderful yellow, it glows and is not too strong.
Scarlet Lake and Raw Sienna are a wonderful mix for the skin, especially for kids and teens faces. Instead of Scarlet Lake you can use Brown Madder from Winsor and Newton, when you paint adults and especially men.

As you will know skin reflects all colours around, so it is not easy to give a good recipe only for the skin. This three colours are only the base (a yellow, a red and a blue) and when painting the skin you should also use the colours which you will use for other subjects around your figure/face. With this you are always on the safe side. I too try to remember all this things for my own work and with each painting it will be easier.

I love the texture of coldpressed paper, it is easy to apply your washes and also to remove colours with a sponge if neccessary.

In the past issues of International Artist magazine the artist Warren Chang has started a '7 Part Series - Pursuing an artist's life behind the easel'. Although this artist paints in oil he gives wonderful tips no matter in which medium you work.
I especially loved his explaining about "Understanding light and shadow". Warren Chang has published this article on his website, if you don't get the International artist Magazine. Please click here.
When the link doesn't work, please type the address below:

http://www.warrenchang.com/A6.html

I hope he will also publish the article of the Issue 59. He still has some other articles on his website if you want to read more from him.