Artist Barbara Rosenzweig's Blog: Art, Gardening, Photography, and Ramblings

Friday, December 11, 2015

Rainbow Animal Watercolor Painting Series

I've been so excited with my new rainbow animal watercolor paintings that I forgot to give you updates along the way! I'll try to make up for that. Once I finished painting the Rainbow Zebra Fantasy, I started right away on a giraffe. It was so much fun letting the colors beautifully mingle one right into the other in each patch on the giraffe's body! ...and I just loved its eyelashes!!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/253108752/colorful-zebra-art-zebra-fantasy-rainbow?ref=shop_home_active_5

Rainbow Zebra Fantasy

https://www.etsy.com/listing/253764164/nursery-wall-art-rainbow-giraffe-art?ref=related-2

Rainbow Giraffe Fantasy

After completing the zebra and giraffe watercolors, I thought that creating an elephant would be a neat challenge. There would be no specific, realistic body patterns to work from this time. Once I had my drawing, I decided to just go for it letting one color blend into the next. The trick here is to avoid making mud, so between laying down each color, I cleaned my brush. What do you think of this magical creation?

https://www.etsy.com/listing/255156978/magical-rainbow-elephant-art-print?ref=related-1

Rainbow Elephant Fantasy

With so much in the news lately about pandas, I thought that it was about time that I created my own! This was a bit different from the other animals since it had long, thick dark fur with some large patches of almost white. To give this panda volume and shape, I used subtle shading of color along the ridge of the back and between its eyes.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/256927202/panda-bear-rainbow-art-print-colorful?ref=related-0

Rainbow Panda Bear Fantasy

The latest in my new series is the hippo. I can't believe how much fun this journey is! Hope that you're enjoying it, too!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/260021673/nursery-wall-art-hippo-art-print?ref=shop_home_active_1

Rainbow Hippo Fantasy

Linked to Watercolors by Barbara Etsy Shop, Watercolors By Barbara Website, Fine Art America, Make it Pretty Monday, IShouldBeMoppingTheFloor, BoogieboardCottage, Alphabe-Thursday, Join the Party {Linky} Fall into Fall, and Pink Saturday, Five Days Five Ways, Friday Favs, Fancy These Friday’s, Friday Link Party, Saturday Show & Tell, The DIY'ers, Anything Blue & Pink Friday

Friday, October 16, 2015

Zebra in Color Watercolor Painting in Progress

As you may have guessed, I love vibrant color! Besides my flower paintings, with rich luscious colors, I created a whole series of Sports Figures using color in a very different way.

Here's an example of this type of painting, my recently completed "Ice Hockey Goalie."

"Ice Hockey Goalie"

fine art print of original watercolor painting

I decided to start of series of paintings using this mingling technique with animals. This is my first attempt, a Zebra! Hope that you enjoy seeing the progress!

Probably the most difficult part so far, besides the drawing, is not getting lost in the stripes. After a while, they seemed to be running together. While working on this, I'm thinking about the next painting. Maybe a giraffe. Any suggestions?

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Beach Boy and Girl, Painting in Progress

I just love painting children on the beach! I guess that there's so much nostalgia involved that it keeps me young, if only in my mind.

Here's a bit of insight into my painting process. For this one, I decided to start with the figures instead of the background. I'll try to capture the warmth of their relationship in this painting.

Below, I've started to rough in the water, surf, and sand. I've used lots of earth tones in the sand to give it character, as well as dragged my almost-dry brush sideways across the paper to take advantage of the heavily textured 300 lb Arches cold press paper.

In order to give more interest to the horizon, I've added a distant shore and, since I want to give the water greater depth, I've painted over some of the surf.

I didn't like the way the water was looking, so I decided to remove it. This is not an easy trick with watercolors, but I'll share some secrets with you. First, wet the brush, then lift and blot as much paint as will come up. Next, use a special short, stiff-bristled brush called a Fabric Dye Brush by Loew Cornell, to lightly scrape the color off. If all else fails because the paint is a staining color, use Mr. Clean Magic Eraser!

Now that I improved the colors in the water, I started to define the waves at the near shore.

Painting completed! I finished the water by making small, close strokes at the horizon and created longer waves nearer the shore. I also worked on the water and boy's beautiful blond curls, added more bright white foam to the surf, lightened the boy's shirt so that it would move more to the foreground in front of the blue water, and defined the feet.

I hope that you enjoy my new watercolor painting!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/251050266/beach-boy-girl-children-child-art-print?ref=shop_home_active_1

Beach Boy and Girl Original Watercolor Painting

Art Prints Available

Friday, July 24, 2015

Tomatoes Watercolor Painting for Kitchen Decor

https://www.etsy.com/listing/236280503/tomato-kitchen-art-vegetable-watercolor?ref=shop_home_feat_1

Tomatoes Watercolor Painting

(Watermark will not appear on your fine art print.)

Can you smell that fresh-off-the-vine wonderful tomato aroma? When I went to the Farmers' Market, I just couldn't help being attracted to these brilliant tomatoes with their glistening, ripe skins and fantastically shaped greens!

To get this wonderful tone, I used "new gamboge," a yellow watercolor paint that when the oranges and reds are applied over it, make it come to life.

I'd love to find out what you'd like to know about this painting.

Linked to Watercolors by Barbara Etsy Shop, Watercolors By Barbara Website, Fine Art America, Make it Pretty Monday, IShouldBeMoppingTheFloor, BoogieboardCottage, Alphabe-Thursday, Join the Party {Linky} Fall into Fall, and Pink Saturday, Five Days Five Ways, Friday Favs, Fancy These Friday’s, Friday Link Party, Saturday Show & Tell, The DIY'ers, Anything Blue & Pink Friday

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Beach Conch Seashell Watercolor Painting

https://www.etsy.com/listing/222395820/conch-beach-shell-art-print-of-original?ref=shop_home_active_2

Fighting Conch Seashell Watercolor Painting

For all of the years I've walked the beaches of Florida and the Caribbean collecting seashells, I never found one with chevron stripes like this one. I had to paint it and share it with you!

Have you ever seen a shell like this Fighting Conch? I'm told that they were once plentiful, but if you found one like this, please let me know where.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Art Demo Video - Alstroemeria Lily Flower Watercolor Painting

I've finally finished my Alstroemeria Lily Flower Watercolor Painting!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/215776678/pink-alstroemeria-lily-flower-painting?

"Pink Alstroemeria Lily Flowers"

As you can see from the blog post below, it looks similar, but certainly a lot of "fine tuning" has taken place. One of the main things that I did was deepen the dark pinks of the shadows and put more golds and yellows into the petals. Whenever dark colors are made even darker next to light ones, like on the far right petals, it makes the flower "pop."

I also properly defined the stems below the flowers. Once they were in, I was able to put shadows and a dark background to give depth and drama.

For the background on the left, I used more layers of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna next to the flower to "push" the flower image forward, also creating greater depth. In the video below, you can see that cross-hatching watercolors can create a rich, deep background that makes the subject of the painting POP! I learned many of my techniques from renowned artists, including Ann Abgott.

If the video below does not function (I've had a lot of trouble with this!), please click on this link. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVpEN6Iw9pM

If you like this, please share this post with family and friends!

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Alstroemeria Pink Flower Watercolor Painting in Progress

I just can't help myself! I've put it off for as long as I can, but I can no longer delay painting these fabulous flowers!

When I first saw Alstroemeria, I thought that they were "fake" silk flowers. It wasn't until I actually touched them that I realized they were indeed real! I have been buying fresh cut Alstroemeria for quite some time now because not only are they beautiful, but they last weeks!

Here is the beginning of my painting of a bouquet of salmon-pink flowers. After I penciled them in, I started to lay in the colors to get the general shapes and experiment with the background.

After weeks, it's finally starting to look like something. I'm trying to get that luminous quality that these flowers are known for.

I still have a long way to go, but I will keep working at it. It's the tiny details that make all the difference! I hope that you enjoy getting a glimpse at my painting in progress. When I finish, I'll post the completed Alstroemeria!