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Tag Archives | watercolour painting

Beaming Beth – a smiling child portrait in watercolour

Beaming Beth – a smiling child portrait in watercolour

Beautiful Beth was a little more of a challenge to paint than her sister Anna, as her big smile gives me another detail to paint – her teeth!

They can be difficult to paint, as I found with one of my self-portraits – giving myself a denture-like set of gnashers that was tricky to correct.

I think I pulled it off here – with watercolour it’s not too difficult to add the gentlest suggestion of shadow – assuming the shape is convincing enough.

She looks happy – so I’m happy!

Beth - smiling child portrait in watercolour by Debra Wenlock

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Watercolour child portrait – Anna

Watercolour child portrait – Anna

After a few days break in daily painting and daily posting I’m back with a watercolour portrait of Anna.

Watercolour seems to be the perfect choice when it comes to painting children.

It’s really important to keep the painting as simple as possible when portraying youth… no unnecessary lines or shadows and a minimal number of layers of paint – the skin must appear to glow.

I had a great subject and hope that I have successfully captured her character!

Anna - watercolour child portrait by Debra Wenlock

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Amazing Face – Here’s… Grace!

Another Amazing Face!

I’m giving Grace a little guidance with her art studies at the moment and am so pleased that she agreed to pose for my daily face project.

I took the opportunity to make a couple of contrasting portraits. One in colourful acrylic, the other a soft watercolour, inspired by the soft texture & colours of Grace’s fur headband!

Amazing Grace by Debra Wenlock Grace Face, Watercolour Portrait by Debra Wenlock

 

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Selfie Portrait from Life

Selfie Portrait from Life – Wax Crayon and Watercolour

This self portrait sketch had a time limit… loosely though, I can’t be too hard on myself… within an hour. I think I managed it in 40, maybe 45, minutes. Sitting on a cushion on the floor in front of the mirror wasn’t the most comfortable and helped speed things up rather well!

Selfie Portrait Wax & Watercolour Debra Wenlock

Hmmm –  I hadn’t really considered before that being slightly uncomfortable motivates getting finished quickly. I do find that I paint  more swiftly and with sharper focus when I stand… and I absolutely love to paint on the floor, which invariably leads to sore back, sore knees, paint on the rug…
There’s a mini secret here that I wasn’t even looking for – if I get stuck or slow up – move, change position, get out of the comfort zone.

Working with wax crayons and watercolour is one of my favorite mediums. I sketch with the crayons, often choosing contrasting colours that burst gleefully through the fluid paint as it is applied fairly loosely over the initial drawing.

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Daily Faces for January

Daily Faces

After a month of sticking to my commitment to post a painting every day for the whole of Advent and creating a collection of paintings of animals and birds that I loved working on, I set myself another task…

In lieu of New Year’s Resolutions I decided that I would choose something that I’d like to be painting, and stick to doing that every day for at least a month, far more productive potentially than invariably short-lived resolutions.
As I’m intrigued by faces and love portraiture it’s going to be faces… Again, I don’t want to restrict myself at all and would like this project to evolve at it’s own pace. I have already put out a call for volunteers as it would be great to meet some new faces along the way.
So if you are feeling bold, I’d love to see some of your facial expressions – send me your mug-shot… inspire me!

I do know that I don’t want to get too serious or to be taking formal commissions – for this project at least – let me show you what I can do. I’d like to have some freedom for fun as well as looking for likenesses and mess about with different media.

To set the tone a little with my first couple of paintings, I threw vanity to the wind and painted myself – complete with flying hat and goggles.

Self Portrait with flying hat & goggles, acrylic painting by Debra WenlockWatercolour Self Portrait with flying hat & goggles, Debra Wenlock

 

 

 

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My Advent Art Adventure! Spaniel Puppy Painting

Advent Art Adventure

It has been my dream to become a more productive and prolific artist, but as someone who has sometimes added detail upon detail to my paintings and spent days and occasionally weeks on one painting it wasn’t going to happen without a change of pace, scale and a challenge.

I’ve already started with an intention to create a small painting every day, but I haven’t been organised enough so far to share them. So today (eventually) I am commiting to add a small painting here every day for Advent. Mostly they will be of animals, and that theme may continue, but I’ll see what happens!

Spaniel Puppy Painting

Here’s my first painting for advent – 1st December 2013.

I met this Spaniel pup at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum’s hill climb event in June, so I’m pleased to be  painting a fellow motorsport enthusiast here! This watercolour is the first of two paintings of the same wee dog – just irresistible.

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Spaniel Puppy watercolour by Debra Wenlock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“Back to Life”

The title of this post comes with a multiple message… the first refering to my recent return to life drawing /painting and a chance to share some of my latest nudes! Drawing from a live model is one of those disciplines that I have come back to over and over since art school as the best way to hone drawing and observation skills. It also naturally imposes a time limit, which forces focus and concentration.

Skye - nude painting in watercolour - Debra Wenlock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Secondly, this post marks a return, or more truthfully, a start to regular sharing of my artwork here – my previous posts being sporadic at best. I am not commiting to always saying a lot, depending on how chatty I’m feeling, but I am determined that I will show more of what I’m creating. My website will hopefully be transforming too, from its static old self to a place where there’s always something new and fresh to see most days – AND also with a growing opportunity to buy immediately if you see something you fancy.
I’d love to get more of my colourful paintings out into the world – so here I go!Emer - nude watercolour painting by Debra Wenlock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thirdly – a great excuse to listen to one of my favourite Soul II Soul Tracks – “Back to Life”

 

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Wisteria Hysteria

Last week the wisteria plant that has been growing up the side and over our back door for many many years without so much as a bud, had eventually decided to flower! We had almost given up on this ever happening – thinking that growing it in a pot had been to blame for the lack of blooms. Really interesting too that this isn’t the usual violet coloured flower, but creamy with a bluey-purple centre – very sweet, as is the blue sky above, which is also a rare enough sight around here!
Wisteria & Blue Sky photograph by Debra Wenlock

 

 

 

 

 

Some things are worth waiting for aren’t they! It’s also one little think to make me think that maybe it wasn’t the end of the world that our house sale fell through last winter.

Now I’m wondering whether this plant is up to moving with us – but then it is rather well attached to the house and it’s roots probably do go on down through the bottom of the pot.

And – it’s an excuse to post my “Wisteria Hysteria” watercolour painting here and to think about painting some more of my own flowers this spring!

Started with a bit of sponge painting… a sweep of watery blue over a dampened ground – followed, when dry, by some gentle touches of the sponge and some splodgy dabs of pinks, purples yellow and green – wisteria, laburnum and folliage all in one! Branches flowed on from the tip of my dagger brush and then finally, when dry again, some shadow and edge defining inky deeps of dark bottle green and aubergine painted wet into wet.
Wisteria Hysteria - watercolour painting by Debra Wenlock

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