Family Beach Walk Painting Father Children Watercolor Art

"Family Beach Walk"

© 2013 Barbara Rosenzweig, Watercolor Painting

11x14 matted to 16x20 $52
8x10 matted to 11x14 $37
sold matted for standard size frames

 

I love getting commissions for portraits at the beach! This painting was created from cherished family photos. Since I totally enjoy painting beach scenes, this was a delight to do. Colorful clothes, shadows across the water and sand, reflections in the water, never-ending waves, along with a beautiful sky, perfectly captures this family's wonderful memory of a meaningful vacation!

 

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Watercolor Child Portrait Process in Progress

Oops! I got so absorbed in painting today, that I forgot to take a photo during much of the process!

 

To see the earliest stages of this painting

http://barbararosenzweig.blogspot.com/2013/08/new-adventure-watercolor-painting.html, http://barbararosenzweig.blogspot.com/2013/08/child-watercolor-painting-process-boy.html,

http://barbararosenzweig.blogspot.com/2013/08/child-portrait-watercolor-painting.html

 

 

 

Today, I worked on layering more color on the stone to give it depth, darkened the inside of the fountain, and started the scrollwork under it. In creating the copper on the rim of the fountain, I started with a pale coppery color and will build it up later.

 

When I paint, I try not to go into an area that is still wet, since it can make what's called "blossoms." Sometimes you want this type of unpredictable pattern, but for most of my painting here, I want to control the flow of the paint. So while the paint is drying in one area, I'll work on another.

 

Now for the hair. The initial yellow was just to give me a sense of where the hair was and approximate color. What I did now was to lighten the yellow by using a moistened brush and lifting and blotting the color until it was a very pale yellow. Next, I mixed light shades of brown to start giving some texture to the hair. It is not done yet, but I will leave it for now.

 

Next, the arms. Using rose, yellow and a bit of blue, I laid in the colors at the sides of the arms to start giving a roundness to them. Not done yet.

 

Looking at the tiles, I saw that they still needed toning down so that they will not be the focal point of the painting and pull the eye away from the boy. I used a combination of colors to create a black wash that I put over the tiles, as well as darken the metal grate under the boy's feet.

 

 

 To create the folds on the boy's jeans, I focused on created the shapes of dark and light colors. That's enough for one day!

 

 

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Child Portrait Watercolor Painting Process and Techniques - Continued

Now we're well into the UGLY stage!
I keep my reference photo handy to check to see if the shapes and placements are accurate.

 

I started to put the scrollwork under the fountain and tone down the bright tiles with a wash of gray.

 

Continuing more of the stonework, I shape up the bowl of the fountain, put the right step in, and add more greens to the stone. For this, I use the technique called "scumbling." After I fill my brush with paint, I wick off excess water on a paper towel, and then hold the brush on its side as I drag it across the paper. I let the 300 lb. thick rag Arches watercolor paper do the rest. You can see the results on the stone steps.

 

 

 

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Child Watercolor Painting Process "Boy Reaching" - Continued

CAUTION !!!
You are about to see a painting in its adolescent stage! Beware! You will be seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly! View at your own risk! Hope that you enjoy seeing this daunting process.

 

 

Once I decided on the portion of the photo that would be most effective for this painting, I lightly sketched in the important details. Now I take the plunge and put paintbrush to paper.

 

I started by lightly painting in the background and the boy to get a sense of the colors I would be using. Next, I started on the tile floor. Here, I used richer colors that will eventually be toned down.

 

 

Still in the preliminary process, I start to refine the hair, shirt, pants, and sneakers, as well as lay in some turquoise for the beginning of the copper patina on the drinking fountain.



 

Here's where it starts getting UGLY! I'm laying in colors for the stone wall with its green algae.

 

As you might have guessed by now, I am very slow and deliberate in my painting process. It takes me a long time to complete a watercolor to my satisfaction. At this point, I am nowhere near being done. Once all of the colors are "in," the refining begins. There must be "dark darks" and very "light lights" to make the painting have depth. Once these "values" are established, I can attend to the most difficult and time-consuming part, adding all of the minute details.

 

Can't wait to hear from you!

 

 

Linked to Watercolors by Barbara Etsy Shop, Watercolors By Barbara Website, Fine Art America, IShouldBeMoppingTheFloor, BoogieboardCottage, Alphabe-Thursday, Join the Party {Linky}  Fall into Fall, and Pink Saturday, Five Days Five Ways, Friday Flair Linky Party, Friday Favs, Fancy These Friday’s, Friday Link Party, Saturday Show & Tell

 

 

New Adventure Watercolor Painting Process "Boy Reaching"

Thanks so much for sending in photos! I can still accept a few more for this New Adventure Series.

As promised, I am using photos that were sent in to create a series of special childhood memories. The photo should show your child or grandchild looking away from the camera and into the new place they've found to play in and explore.

My end of the bargain is to share the entire process with you! There is absolutely NO obligation to buy.

Here is the first of the photos. As you can see, the little boy is absolutely adorable! Even though he is too short to take a drink from the fountain, he has fun reaching up into it!

Once I saw the potential for a painting in this series, I cropped the photo to make it a more interesting composition and focus on the child.

 

 

The next step is to start a drawing that includes all of the essential details. As you can see, the lines are very light, so that they don't show through the transparent watercolors too much.

 

 

I look forward to sharing the next stages in this process with you! If you have any questions at all about this process, I'd love to answer them.

 

Linked to Watercolors by Barbara Etsy Shop, Watercolors By Barbara Website, Fine Art America, IShouldBeMoppingTheFloor, BoogieboardCottage, Alphabe-Thursday, Join the Party {Linky}  Fall into Fall, and Pink Saturday, Five Days Five Ways, Friday Flair Linky Party, Friday Favs, Fancy These Friday’s, Friday Link Party, Saturday Show & Tell



 

Beach Girl Friends Seashore Painting

"Beach Girls"

What could be better than girls having fun together at the beach, especially if they are best friends, sisters, twins! Here, they are delightedly looking at the seagulls, toes tickled by the foamy surf! 

This watercolor painting turned out to be an accidental commission. When I was at an Art Fair, I spotted absolutely adorable twins. I asked their mother if I could take a photo of her children. I was so brazen about asking because I love to paint kids! She agreed and I told her that I would send her an email of the finished painting. ...and the end of the story is that she loved it, wanted the original, as well as matted fine art prints for other family members!

When I looked at the photo, I decided to set the scene at the powder white sands and emerald waters of a Florida beach. It's so much fun to let your imagination soar and not stick to the reality of a photo!

 

I started with a sketch of the twins, but moved them apart. Next came the sky and beginnings of the water, surf, hair and skin.

Adding waves, refining clouds, deepening the color of the water, putting in the shadows of the blouses came next.

When I started to paint the skirt stripes, I decided that the original colors in the photo were too close to the colors in the water. I wanted drama and fun! I started with pale purple and a hot pink, but felt that deep purple and bright red would work better. The wave on the back right was really starting to bother me. I think that I mostly paint from my gut, not my head. But I just couldn't let go of the fact that I hated that wave, even if I could balance it with others on the left side of the painting. I tried to stop thinking about that wave by adding the three seagulls that the girls were looking at.

 'Couldn't stand it anymore. Out went that wave! I felt much better and then worked on making the emerald waters darker at the horizon to give it depth, refining the hair and skin color, correcting the left leg of the right girl, adding the purple hair clip, deepening the colors of the stripes, darkening the shadows of the clothing, and creating the children's reflections. Done!

I spent so much time on this painting, that I have come to love those little girls. As you might have guessed, I have no grandchildren yet! I had a hard time parting with it, but knew that the family would cherish it. I do have 15 fine art prints that I've made and one will be framed for my home!

I hope that you've enjoyed "listening in" on the decisions I made during my creative process. I'd love to hear from you!!

Size

Art Print 8x10 /mat 11x14 $37.00 USD Art Print 11x14 /mat 16x20 $52.00 USD

 Linked to Watercolors by Barbara Etsy Shop, Watercolors By Barbara Website, Fine Art America, Alphabe-Thursday, Fall into Fall, and Pink Saturday   

NEW TECHNOLOGY - Video for the Blog

Sorry to be away for so long! I'm continuing to paint, but also trying to learn how to create videos for this blog and my website. I'd love to feature watercolor tutorials and paintings in progress. Isn't it about time that I came into the modern age!

Here's my first attempt at an introduction to my paintings. Crude beginning, but I have to start somewhere! Just click on the arrow at the bottom left of the video.

Yes, you are right. I do have to replace this soon, filming when the sun is not in my eyes and my hair is styled better!

Suggestions? Please let me know if it "works" on your computer.

Linked to Watercolors by Barbara Etsy Shop, Watercolors By Barbara Website, Pink Saturday

BOY INTO THE SURF

Boy into the Surf

by Barbara Rosenzweig

 My exuberant scene shows the pure childish delight at being on the beach. I tried to capture his sense of freedom and absolute joy! It will brighten up any child's room or a home at the shore! This is the perfect companion piece to "Girl into the Surf!"

Girl into the Surf

Time Does Fly When You're Past Young
 "A great collection of life. Time does fly for all of us when you're past young," says Curator Anne Quinn from hatsbyanne1942.



Acceptable happiness

The Curator from MindAndHandsTogether hopes that you will enjoy her creative collection!

STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER!

                            Many sizes of Fine Art Reproductions Available

Curator and owner of Signoraluna hopes that you enjoy her wonderfully colorful gallery! She included my Limited Edition fine art reproduction "Strawberries & Silver Shakers" (11x14 - $27)  in this visually gorgeous collection.