My youngest child Berit married her sweetheart Brian earlier this month. I gifted them with a watercolor portrait. Brian and Berit, ink and watercolor on 140 lb cold press watercolor paper, 9x12 This is the reference photo. Here's a very early stage of the painting. And me with the finished, framed piece:)
When I create a watercolor painting, sometimes the paper buckles and warps, depending how much water I use in the painting. This post shows how I flatten those warped paintings. Here you can see how my small paintings warped. Start with a flat board or surface. I'm using a clean piece of paper, too, because … Continue reading Flattening watercolor paintings 6.16.2022
I've started a series of self portraits using the blind contour method of drawing. Blind contour drawing is a technique that some suggest improves hand-eye coordination and hones observation skills. But I use it for the results I get. It's my favorite drawing method. In blind contour drawing, the artist looks only at the subject … Continue reading blind contour self-portraits 2.24.2022
Earlier this year I bought a book titled Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design. Notan, a Japanese term, involves the concept of dark and light; black and white; positive and negative. It's a small book of 80 pages, but it's jam packed with great information. As a life-long student, I was pretty excited to discover … Continue reading notan, part one 9.10.2020
Untitled, watercolor, 11x15 on Arches paper
This is the last of my pieces that were "in progress" at the beginning of 2020. And I've finished it! And all the others that were in progress! There are probably plenty of artists who have a group of unfinished works they're working on, but my small pile of works in progress were a constant … Continue reading berit in color 2.27.2020
A couple summers ago, I took a watercolor class where I learned that I could make a variety of colors by mixing only primary colors together: blue, yellow and red. All my long life, I've used pre-mixed colors in my paintings, and even though I mixed those premixed colors together to get other colors, it … Continue reading watercolor charts 2.6.2020
As part of my ongoing 2020 goal to finish all my WIP (work in process) paintings, I completed my oldest WIP! Yay me! I started this painting back in 2016. Before I had any watercolor instruction. The paper I used isn't even watercolor paper. And the paper's been taped to the board for so long … Continue reading elly and buckley watercolor 1.30.2020
Here's a process post about a recent self portrait. I started with a 14x17 inch piece of 98 pound Canson XL mix media paper. With a pencil, I drew a blind contour self portrait, then went over the pencil lines with a black china marker. Using oil pastel, I added color. And then I added … Continue reading self portrait with lavender hair 9.26.2019
Here's a painting a finished last month. It's a watercolor portrait of my second child, daughter Elly Anne. I start with a photo that includes a lot of shadow, or light and dark, then print it out in b/w and color to 8.5x11. I use the b/w copy to trace the image and shadow areas … Continue reading elly, watercolored 8.15.2019
Rachel Imsland, Artist 