Ethel as a Young Woman

"Ethel as a Young Woman"  (Watercolor)  C. Eastwood, 2013

This one is special for me.  It's my grandmother, Ethel Turner (the original ET!).  My instructor suggested I go ahead and try for a monochromatic sepia-tone since it's an old photo.  I'll probably need to revisit this at some point and try to get the likeness better, but it was fun to work on.  Since I never knew her other than as my sweet (but very old) grandmother, I like to think she'd be pleased that the first picture I've tried is a significantly younger version. 

Shared Sorrow

"Shared Sorrow"  (Watercolor)  C. Eastwood, 2013

This is the second painting I did in class the other day after completing "Blue Eyes."  It's based on a tiny photo that I found in a magazine and it just really captured my imagination.  I call it "Shared Sorrow," and for me it celebrates wonderful friends who come along side for support when the going gets tough.

Blue Eyes

"Blue Eyes"  (Watercolor)  C.Eastwood, 2013

So here we are, week two, and I've decided to focus on the face and work on developing my technique that will hopefully be less rigid but still respect the fact that I'm just not a "loose" painter!  Actually, I'm pretty happy with this one.  And surprisingly enough -- so was the instructor.  Yay!

Exploring Portrait Styles

"Study in Blues"  (Watercolor)  C.Eastwood, 2013

"Girl in Green"  (Watercolor)  C. Eastwood, 2013

Watercolor class has started back up for the Spring and we're picking up where we left off last semester on working with faces.  The challenge was to paint with less detail (in preparation for putting people in street scenes or landscapes). The "Study in Blues" kind of fits what the instructor is looking for, but I wandered off back toward adding in features in "Girl in Green."  (I just couldn't help myself!!)  But considering I haven't touched a watercolor brush for two months, I felt like these were good opening exercises.  More to come!

Still Working on Loose

"Untitled Profile"  (Watercolor)  C. Eastwood

One more exercise in trying to stay loose and using a painting by Charles Reid as a guide.  This one wasn't quite as traumatic to paint, and it went equally quickly.  I'm still trying to learn from this technique and keep the colors purer and more simple.  It's tougher than it looks, and I suspect is going to take quite a while to incorporate into my own natural style.  It's from our last day of class for this semester, so I guess I'm on my own for the time being.  It might be time to take a break from watercolor and move back to a mixed media painting,   I've got one I started and it would be nice to try and finish it before the next watercolor class begins at the end of January.  So many paintings--so little time!  What a lovely problem!!

Loosest Yet

"Untitled"  (Watercolor)  C. Eastwood

"Yay!  Finally!"  No that wasn't my reaction -- it was the reaction of my instructor.  We were copying again, much like we did last semester for the landscape class (this one is based on a painting by Charles Reid, a true master).  I painted this in a little over an hour (which is pretty quick, for me) and, to be completely honest, I spent almost all of that time muttering under my breath.  The style is not easy for me, and the painting felt totally out of control.  But suddenly, at the very end, it just pulled together and was done.  I added some splatters and drips (now that was fun) and voila -- the loosest one yet.  I'm going to have to do some more of these to get a better feel for the process and style, but I like the end result.

Man in a Straw Hat

"Man in a Straw Hat"  (Watercolor)  C. Eastwood

As the semester draws to a close (no pun intended), we've moved on to doing faces.  The idea is to find a looser approach (my "every semester goal" it seems).  This is a start, but still not as loose as I'd like to go. 

But wait -- there's more.  If you want to see loose -- check out the "Loosest Yet" post!