30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 7 - Lobster

Just because I'm doing animals it doesn't mean it also has to be a pet. Right now I am visiting family up in Maine, and a Maine trip wouldn't be right without having lobster for dinner at some point. I had no qualms about sketching the poor thing before his demise.

For this painting I used watercolors, my Elegant Writer pen which bleeds to a nice blue grey, and a black brush pen. 

You can check out the other paintings for the challenge here on Leslie Saeta's blog:

https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

Tonight I also did a sketch for the Wet Canvas Scavenger Hunt which I have been neglecting. We are given 26 items to sketch in whatever medium we wish. We post them as we do them. This sketch counts for a door, a corner of a room, a lamp, a comfortable place to sit, a pillow, and some books. It is a fun way to get in practice sketching all sorts of items you would probably never draw. 

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 6 - Budweiser

I needed a change of pace after doing several dogs and cats in a row for the 30 in 30 Challenge. My friend, Laurie Schlageter sent me a photo of her pet, Budweiser. I asked her if that's his name because he likes to drink Budweiser, and she said no, he's just a wiseguy. So I still don't know how he got his name.

Anyway, I am presently in Maine visiting family. After the drive up here and catching up a bit with everyone, I didn't have much time for painting, and I wanted something to be ready to post on the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" blog tomorrow. Most of the dogs and cats have been taking a long time to do, so I thought doing a bird might be faster. It was, but I'm not too happy with the texture of his feathers. I'll have to think about how to do them better before I try the next bird for the challenge.


On the trip up I did some sketching in a tiny book that I made with my sketch group the other night. It has just copy paper in it, so I couldn't do much with it. I showed it with my hand holding it so you can see the size. These were all done on the Cross Sound Ferry going from Orient Point on the eastern end of Long Island to New London, Connecticut. The ride is about an hour and a half so there is plenty of time to do some sketching.

Remember you can see the other paintings for the challenge here:

https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

30 in 30 Challenge - Louie (SOLD)

My friend, Rhea has 3 cats and loves animals. I painted her friend's dog the other day, and Rhea wanted me to do one of her cats. I picked Louie. Her cats usually hide from humans. (I have revised this post because Rhea told me this was actually Louie...not Maggie like I originally posted.)

Animals with dark fur are so hard to do! It is hard to get the depth of color without the whole animal looking dark. I'll show you below some of my steps in this painting of Louie.

After drawing out Louie I masked out some of the white areas, especially his whiskers. Then I covered most of her fur with pale washes of sepia and indigo trying to get the color darker near the whiskers so they will show.

I kept adding layers of sepia and indigo, a little darker in some areas.

I started adding texture to the fur using a burnt umber watercolor pencil and a General's sketch and wash pencil. The lines were somewhat blended with water.

I continued layering the pencils and then more sepia and indigo watercolor until the entire body was covered.

I used some orange for her eyes (which is the color Rhea said they were) and dark pupils with a mix of sepia, indigo and ultramarine. Some of the whiskers I went over with white gel pen to make them stand out more. I did leave some of the pencil marks without wetting them at the end for texture. The original photo didn't show her paw on the right or her tail on the left, but I thought the painting needed it.

Don't forget you can look here to see the other works that were painted today.

https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

30 in 30 Challenge - Day 4 - Maggie as Santa

My Day 4 painting for Leslie Saeta's "30 Paintings in 30 Days" is of Maggie. She belongs to my friend, LuAnn who sent me the festive reference photo for this painting. Isn't she cute? The reference photo was hard to work from. First of all there is Maggie's dark fur. Then there was the fact that from the position that LuAnn took the photo, Maggie's legs were foreshortened and looked odd. I looked online for photos of dogs in similar positions to try and work out the legs and painted them that way, but they still look odd to me, so I cropped it. I like it better that way.  I used watercolors and touches of ink in her fur to get some texture.

Here is my final plein air done in 2016 down by the water in Yaphank.

30 in 30 Challenge - Day 3 - Bown

Today is Day 3 of the "30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge." For today I used a reference from my friend, Mythili Nayar who lives in India. She is one of my internet artist friends that I was lucky enough to meet when she visited NY while her husband was working here one year. We spent a few days together doing things in NYC. I believe from her comment when she sent the reference that Bown is no longer alive, so I hope this is a good memory for her. This is 5 x 7 and done with watercolors, watercolor pencils and a bit of gouache. I had posted this on the 30 in 30 blog and realized I hadn't included any of Bown's whiskers...so I remedied that for my blog.

Here is a link in case you want to view the challenge paintings by the other artists on Leslie Saeta's blog: https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

Here is another painting I did in 2016. This was done at the Blue Point Dock.

30 in 30 Challenge - Day 2 - Max I (SOLD)

Today I painted a King Charles spaniel that belongs to a friend's friend. Tema's dog, Max is so cute! I used one of Rhea's photos that she took when visiting them in California. In addition to regular watercolors I used watercolor pencils and touches of white ink for his whiskers. Because I am working small (5x7) using masking or painting around the whiskers just wouldn't work.

I still have a few sketches from 2016 that weren't posted yet. This was done at Starbucks week when I met with sketching friends recently.

"30 in 30" Challenge - Rory

Happy New Year!!! I hope 2017 brings you peace, joy, love, contentment, and good health. Our world still needs a lot of healing and understanding, and I hope that the art that we create will help make people feel better about their lives and the world we are living in.

Today marks Day 1 of Leslie Saeta's "30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge." This is my third time participating in this challenge. I decided to use the theme of animals since I rarely paint them. This would be the perfect time to get in a lot of practice. I sent out a call to my Facebook family and friends asking them to submit photos of animals/pets that I could use as references. Now, as you can imagine, I have many cat and dog references to paint from, and I'm hoping for some pets/animals that are a change from those too. If you have a pet photo that you would like me to use, please email me. 

This first painting was done from a photo on my niece, Caity's Facebook page that was posted right after she adopted Rory, her cat.

Here is a link to Leslie Saeta's blog where her painting and the paintings of the other participating artists can be found. https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog There are a lot of great paintings there.