Watercolor Sketchbook - Quack's Cafe and Bakery

When I don't feel like working on a big painting, or coming up with concepts, there is nothing I'd rather do than draw people going about their lives. I love this more than studio figure drawing, because I feel like I'm capturing something real. A real happening, not a staged one

 

 

Naked Lunch - Drawings of Jorge and Cris

This past Naked Lunch session was awesome! We had two models, and they went above and beyond rehearsing and planning interactive/acting poses. I enjoyed myself a lot, but was also a bit stressed! The length of the poses were the same (1 minute, 3-minute, and 7-minute) but this time there were two models. So a 1-minute pose was 30 seconds per figure. I had a hard time timing myself, sometimes spending too much time on one figure and neglecting the other. Really, the purpose should be to treat 2 figures as one gesture. Drawing one and than the other is like drawing individual parts instead of the body as a whole.

Here are my best offerings from the session.

I love the intimacy of these poses. Very hard to draw.

 

 Cris is putting her face on and Jorge is getting impatient...

  

 So he just grabs her and goes! I really like the twist of Jorge's pose here.

  

 This pose really showcases Cris' powerful shoulders and legs. I wish I had more time with this one.

  

 I like the story-telling poses, like this one.

  

  

  

 

I am very thankful for the people who put these sessions together, from the coordinators and the models. If it weren't for them I would spend a fortune holding these sessions at home for myself.

for more information on Naked Lunch, check out http://nakedlunchaustin.blogspot.com/

Thanks for visiting my blog!
Tiffanny

"Pony Express" watercolor

Pony Express!

 

"15" x 21.25"

And the process...

See you again soon, thanks for visiting!
Tiffanny

"Johnny's Kite" Watercolor. Dedicated to my Father

 

Has there been something that you loved passionately as a child that you kept on loving until adulthood?

When I was younger, I surely loved my toys and cartoons. (Voltron, He-Man, She-Ra, Jem) I couldn't wait to grow older and make money so I can buy as many toys as I wanted and watch cartoons as much as possible. Now that I am making money, sadly, I dont have the same lust for toys anymore. I even rented season 1 of Voltron on Netflix, only to find that I didn't love it anymore. Maybe, only in a nostalgic way, but you'd have to strap me down to a chair to force me to watch Voltron. Holy crap it's a bad show. I guess what I'm getting at is that your passion for certain things fade as you get older, which brings me to my father.

My dad loved kites as a kid. He designed the best kites, and flew them higher than anyone. He loves the wind. He brags about how long he can keep a kite in the air. When he got older he helped my grandmother with the family business, a printing press. In the Philippines, we had frequent electrical black-outs that were hurting the business tremendously. He designed a windmill and built it to generate electricity for our factory. His ingenuity kept the business going. He still refines and redesigns windmills for fun.

A perpetual wind-chaser, My dad, my husband and I once drove 3 hours looking for a wind farm that he passed by on a trip a while ago. I think what we did was called trespassing, hanging around gigantic windmills in some part of California. We didn't do anything. We just hung out, watching the windmills turn. My dad was like a kid.

My dad's current project now is trying to figure out how to combine kites and windmills because the windspeed at higher altitudes is exponentially larger.

I think it's incredibly neat that a kid who flew kites as a kid, can grow up to be an inventor of windmills, and someday maybe the kite-windmill. I'm sure it is incredibly hard to hold on to a childhood passion and turn it into something wonderful someday. My dad's eyes still glimmers with child-like enthusiasm on windy days.

 Hope you had fun reading about my dad, who I love and respect so much!

Tiffanny

short pose session - Drawings of M.K.

20 minutes

 

10 minutes...

5 minutes...

I love life drawing. I wish I can do it more often, but I'm insanely busy trying to build a watercolor portfolio. I barely sleep anymore.

Hope you visit again!
Tiffanny

"JellyBeans" Watercolor

When I was about 4 or 5, I loved bazooka bubble gum, and my cousin convinced me that in order to make gum, all I had to do was color a piece of paper pink with my crayolas, and sprinkle baby powder on it. I gnawed on a piece of paper with much hopefulness. If only making candy was that easy.

Here are the intermediate steps to creating the painting:

 

 and the sketch:

 

Have a nice day!
Tiffanny

"Birthday Bike" Watercolor

Before I even learned to watercolor, my husband told me that I kind of have this children's book style of drawing. After I've learned to watercolor, my friend Tom tells me that I have children's book looking paintings. I guess that is why I decided on painting something kids may like instead of the sexy ladies I normally draw/paint.

For those interested, these are the process paintings...

  

And the sketch...

 

I hope my painting takes you back to those childhood days when you got just what you wanted for your birthday.

Thanks husband for being a mentor and helping make this painting better with thoughtful critiques!

Tiffanny

Watercolor Sketchbook - Flightpath Cafe and Quack's Cafe PLUS watercolor brush review

I really like hanging out at coffee shops and sketching people around me. Today I used a water brush. It's a brush with a water reservoir that you can squeeze for it to dispense more water into the brush. It is intended to eliminate carrying around water. It has pros and cons. Pro - you don't have to carry around a container of water. It's a lot more convenient for making little sketches in coffee shops, bars, wherever. Good for quick color notes. The Cons - it is hard to control. The synthetic brush hairs don't hold a lot of pigment and water so you are constantly reloading your brush. It's difficult to soften edges with. (Notice all the hard edges and streaks on the walls) If you compare these paintings to another one of mine, done with the same paper and pigments, you will see how much difference a good brush can make. This example of my cat shows ample soft edges and transitions. As my watercolor hero Charles Reid writes in his books, the brush is the most important consideration. You can make great paintings with cheap paper and cheap pigments, but you can't make a good painting with a cheap brush.

  

Even though I didn't like the brush too much. I was happily coloring away at my drawings. It was nice for once not hogging the table with a container of water and being careful not to rock the table too much. Some people like a really sketchy look, which the water brush achieves very well. It all depends on your style.

Tiffanny

"Shiny Red Bicycle" Watercolor

This painting was inspired by Town Lake, Austin, TX
Austin may be considered too hot by some, but I adore the heat. It means I can play at Town Lake! Swimming, Kayaking, Playing water-fetch with your dog, breezy bike rides. It's awesome! A lot better than digging yourself out of the snow. (That was a dig directed at my Ohio/Pennsylvania/Maryland friends!)
Tiffanny