Not sure what to do with this blog

Well, after I got out of the internet class, I had only one visitor...Mr Westerman, and that was after I requested he visit the site to see how one of  his "students" was doing.  He commented in a separate e-mail that it looked good, and he suggested I continue painting.  He did comment that I did not need to make the nostrils black, which when I looked back at the earlier posts to this blog,  made a lot of sense.

However, I get the idea this blog is kind of like the tree falling in the forest.  If there is no one around to hear it fall, did it make a noise?  I thought I had a follower, Alfonso Waldo?, but I can't seem to reach him without signing up for some social site of which I am not familiar.   Therefore, I conclude   I  am posting for my own viewing,  and I not sure if I need to continue this site.

This is not a portrait, obviously.  It's a project I did as part of an activity for the Killeen Civic Art Guild.  We were supposed to do an art piece on alphabet exemplars.  I didn't think of this until just hours before the meeting.  It was not done during the meeting, but at the suggestion of two members, I completed it.  I don't think it came out very well.  I used the wrong type of paper...conte paper.  It was not very user friendly, and it picked up even the smallest smudge.  I made a very minor mistake when putting on the finishing touches, and I had a apparent stain on the paper.  I then had to add a brown wash to the paper to kind of drown out the stain, and it turned out to look dirty to me.  I also added spattered brown wash to complete it. 

Statue at the McNay

This one's of a statue at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX.  I painted it because I liked the way the sun reflected off her wrist and hair.

Pom Pom team's captain

Another 18 x 24.  It is from a football playoff game.  The girl in the white was far more talented than the others, and I tried to capture that in this one.

I worked awhile on this one, a portrait of a museum security man, who took special pride in watching over the painting in the background, a Picasso of a woman by the name of Sylvette.  The man, had actually met the woman while he was working at the museum.

Solace from the War

This  isn't really a portrait, but it is a landscape/figure painting featuring a  young man lost in thought while fishing.  Actually, it's of my son who just returned from Afghanistan, and visited us recently.  He had spent a lot of time fishing  with other relatives when he visited them earlier, and wanted to go fishing with me, in spite of the cloudy, windy weather, and the fact the fish weren't biting much.  It wasn't until I looked at a quick photo I took of him later, that I realized he was probably  just finding solace from a particularly rough deployment in which several soldiers under his leadership  lost their lives.  It reminded me of  the Hemingway short story "Big Two Hearted River" in which the character Nick Adams had just returned from WWI and found solace in fishing that river.   I entered this painting in the Killeen Civic Arts Guild "Just Landscapes" competition, and I believe (I'm not sure) it received an Honorable Mention. 

Study for "Proud Guardian of Sylvette"

This is an attempt at painting one of the security guys at The McNay art museam in San Antonio.  He was in the early 20th century gallery, where there are several Picasso's.  One of the Picasso paintings is of Sylvette, a beautiful woman of whom he painted about 40 portraits in the 1950;s.  This  man was working security one night a couple of years ago, and a beautiful, mature woman came into the gallery, sat down on a bench facing the painting, and  pointed to it, and said "That's me!".  Joeseph, takes obvious  pride in telling that story.  I am working on a larger painting, and needed to do a study.  Yes, I know I made his right ear too big;  I didn't notice it until my wife looked at it and said, "I like it, but his ear is too big."  Joseph also didn't look so grumpy; I'm working on that too.

I'll try to post the finished painting later. 

TX State Senator Wendy Davis

This is not a watercolor, it's a quick portrait using Conte crayon (from France).  It is of TX state senator, the state sentator who tried a one person filibuster to protest against massive spending cuts in the education budget in Texas. 

Below is the watercolor, I tried.  Although it has more nuances in tone, I actually like the Conte better, considering the background of the situation.

Study for Pom Pom painting

This is a watercolor study I did a month or so ago, but didn't get it uploaded.  It is of a captian of a pom pom team from Mesquite, TX.  She was clearly the center of attention due to her superior gymnist/ballet type talents.  This was to see if I could do a decent portrait of her face before trying a larger watercolor figure painting, of which I am now trying my luck.  Size of paper:  8" X 5"; Windsor and Newton half pans.

Portrait of Whisper

I really like this one.  I completely darkened the background to accent the pretty rose color she was wearing.  I just purchased Winsor & Newton Artist quality Permant Rose half pan ($8.50 for one half pan!) but does it have a beautiful glow or what?   This and the earlier portrait of Whisper were painted on 5.5" x 8.5" 70lb sketch book paper.  I think it's time for me to try a little higher grade paper.   If any one who views this blog has any comments I would really appreciate your feedback.

Portrait # 1 of livesit #3

Here's my most recent watercolor portrait.  It's of Whisper, daughter of the woman featured in the last portrait.  I choose to use a bright background and make it look like she had just taken a break from playing the piano.

 

Portrait of Krystal

Krystal agreed to sit for a quick sketch and a few photos.  I worked on it over a week ago, but am just uploading this now due to a busier schedule than usual.    This one was done Winsor and Newton watercolor pans on a  5.5 " by 8.5 " sketch book, the same sketch book I used for the portrait of Anna. Like the Anna portrait, it took about two hours.

More on CTC contest

Turns out there were only about three paintings of the 80 exhibits selected.  However, the first 3 of 4 prizes went to paintings.  First was sort of a painting.  It was really multi-media, but the artist did paint a self portrait and then glazed that to a piece of cardboard.    Second prize was a really good oil painting, a self portrait.  The artist was a fellow student in my oil painting class.  Third prize was glazed pottery.  Then there was "Anna" which came in as an Honorable Mention.  There was another Honorable Mention, a photograph.  So I guess that means I finished tied for  fourth.   All the other 2D exhibits were photographs or charcoal drawings. I saw over 20 paintings , maybe 30, leaning up against the wall in the pick-up room; one of them actually did well in another college show I entered back in November.   Four of the oil paintings in the pick-up room were my own.

I am really happy;  looks like "trying my luck at watercolor portraits" is starting to work. 

Portrait of Anna made into the College Art competition show

I matted and framed the portrait of my friend Anna featured in my March 15 blog.  I entered it into the CTC art competition just to see if it would make it in.  I entered some oil paintings too, one that I really worked hard on recently, and thought those would be accepted as well.  Well, today, I went to check it out, and the oil paintings did not make it, but the portrait of Anna did.  It was the only watercolor featured, and one of about 10 paintings period.  A vast majority of the entries were photographs and pottery. 
I am pleasantly surprised by the addition of Anna to the art exhibit.  It is by far the smallest painting there.  I think I will continue with watercolors. 

Portrait of Anna

This is a watercolor of my friend Anna.  I did a 15 minute sketch of her from life, and also snapped a quick photograph with a gray backdrop.   I used Winsor and Newton  half pan watercolors on a page from a 5.5" X 8.5" sketch book.   I worked on the painting portion about 2 hours. I used ideas about bright colors from Arne Westerman's book.  The window was also borrowed from his book.

 

 

ITNW1437 (Introduction to Internet) last blog

Dr. P:  I read all the student blogs, and noted that Ronald's blog seemed to be up to date.  I think I successfully posted a comment to Ronald's blog.  It seemed I had to go through several password attempts to get there, but I wanted to post one comment to one student blog.  I know it seems like these blogs are sort of in a vacuum.
In late Jan, I was supposed to provide links to two web sites of interest to the topic in my web page.  I posted a link to Arne Westerman's site, but did not post a link to a second site.  That link is for http://www.melstabin.com/index.html .   One of my earlier posts featured my attempt of one of his "how to" projects.

This week's painting required more time than usual.  It's from a photograph in Arne Westerman's book, but not one of his demonstration samples.  Still,its his composition and his model selection, and his use of light was so much better than what I can do on my own.  Still, I'm pleased with my efforts, and the colors are so much brighter from the paint than they are even in Mr. Westerman's book. 

Not sure why I wasn't able to upload two photographs in one blog entry.  Here's the photograph of the painting I did two weeks ago.   . 

Two more watercolors

Here's two Thursday's worth of paintings.  Both are my own from square one.  You will note that the follow-alongs from demonstrations in the Arne Westerman book were a lot better.  That was because Mr. Westerman used his super artistic abilities to compose the original paintings, using his knowledge of composition and design as well as his knowledge of painting.  The two paintings I am posting this week are based some photographs I took at a Copperas Cove TX high school football game.  You can see I need to work on the dynamic composition, but they turned out a little better than I thought they would.  The color is so much better than the photographs, and I have eliminated a lot of the distractors found in most photographs to get to a single focal point:

5th Blog

Here's the watercolor I did while I was in the hospital with my wife on Thursday, 3 Feb 11.   This time I used a how-to type four step instruction from a book I check out of the Casey library at Fort Hood.  The book is
The Figure in Watercolor by Mel Stabin.  I used the example the author called "Thinking" on pages 72-73.  His style was different than Arne Westerman's.

4th Blog

Dr. P.  In reference to the study tips site you wanted us to check out.  This site is very comprehensive.  If one mastered this site, college would be a breeze.  I have information like this  before, while studying for numerous courses.  It is a good reference site.

3rd blog

Here is a photo of the watercolor I completed Thursday in the hospital.  I used 5.5" X 8"5" watercolor paper, and Cottman  Winsor and Newton half pan watercolors.  I used Arne Westerman's step-by-step demonstration on pages 85-87.

Got my "how to" book today

I have already checked out several books from the library about watercolor painting.  One of the books featured several artists as examples.  One artist I liked was Arne Westerman.  I checked him out on the internet and noted he was well respected in the watercolor artist community.  I checked out his own site http://www.arnewesterman.com/ , and decided to buy his book "Paint Watercolors Filled With Life And Energy."  I received it in the mail today, and practiced on one of his portraits while in the hospital with my wife, who is receiving chemotherapy. 

It came out pretty well.  I'll try to figure out how to post a photo of it later. 

First blog

This is my first blog ever.  I have been reluctant to type blogs.  I admit I am starting this one because it is part of a community college class I am taking.   My name is Brian.  I am 53 and am attending Central Texas College in Killeen, TX.  I learned from a Statistics class here at CTC that I am a statistical outlier, way older than the average CTC student.  In fact, I am more than two deviations from the center of the bell curve.  That's how I came up with the name CTCoutlier.

I choose trying to learn watercolor portraits as the topic of this blog, as I am an Art student here at CTC, and am really interested in this topic.  I think I have some artistic ability.  I  have already taken  9 hours of drawing and design classes.  I also took 3 hours of oil painting.  I recently started watercolor painting because I could paint while in the hospital with my wife.  I purchased a Winsor and Newton half pan set that isn't much bigger than a point and shoot camera.  Winsor and Newton is a good brand, and the paint has strong saturation.  Hopes this works.