Teach To Learn

What's the old saying?, "If you want to learn about a subject, teach it."

I certainly found that to be true this last Wednesday afternoon. Sally Murphy, a wonderful watercolor and multi-medium artist, leads our art group in a teaching session once a month. (Click on her name to see some of her watercolors.) Our very talented art group meets at the Mount Juliet Senior Center every week and has a wonderful time together drawing and painting in oils, acrylics and watercolor.

For the month of October, knowing that I have a passion for painting faces, Sally asked me to teach a session on painting portraits. So I accepted the challenge and hoped for the best. I decided to focus on a very important facet of portrait painting - the facial features. So I taught a few basics on how to paint the eyes, nose and mouth in watercolor. Preparing for it and teaching it was great fun and true to the saying, lo and behold, I learned stuff!  Hopefully, others did too!

If you're interested in learning how to draw the facial features (skillful drawing is the first step in painting) here is a website tutorial that I shared with the class by Stanislav Prokopenko that I know you will find very helpful: www.proko.com

Thanks, Sally, for the opportunity. Here are a few pictures she took during the session.

Julianna

I was very fortunate to attend the Kanuga Watermedia Workshop in April with my friend and fellow artist, Vickie Majors. We were blown away by the wonderful talent in both teachers and students that we found there. I am a big fan of Ted Nuttall, and was overjoyed to be a part of his class. He is an amazing artist and taught us many things. "Julianna" is the fruit of my labor from the workshop.

This year Mother's Day fell on the same day as our 40th wedding anniversary. I had a wonderful day celebrating both. Here are a few snapshots to commemorate the day. The phone calls, time spent with friends and family and the beautiful flowers and gifts were all wonderful.

Family Portraits

Wyatt

Roger & Francis Oakley

Here are a couple of family portraitures that were especially enjoyable to paint. The first one is of my aunt (now deceased) and my uncle who was presented with the portrait on his 80th birthday. The second is of my cousin's grandson whose adorable smile won my heart in an instant. Anytime I am commissioned to paint a piece it comes with a little pressure, for the simple reason that I want to do my best work for that person. But I thoroughly enjoy the process and I always count it an honor. Plus, it makes me feel great that someone enjoys my work.

"Red Colander" Watercolor by Deborah Carman
Contact me for available prints.

Time with Mom

"Time with Mom"

This is my latest piece - it was commissioned by my friend and fellow artist, Vickie Majors. I painted it from a photograph taken by Carla Contreras. I thought it portrayed a lovely treasured moment between Vickie and her Mom.

Holiday Portraits - December, 2011

  

Holiday Portraits:  With Christmas around the corner and the close of the 2011 year quickly approaching, I set about painting a little 5 x 7 of each of our ten grandchildren as Christmas gifts for their parents.

Fortunately, I was able to find photographs that were suitable and even "crop-combined" (new word I just created!) a few together, so I ended up painting only seven pictures in all.

Time was bearing down on me and I was equally occupied with some final specialty orders of "Barbie" furniture and our church Christmas Program so I was glad when I put that last stroke of paint down on the final painting!

I decided to have the art shop cut a nice 5 x 7 opening in an 11 x 14 mat for each to unify them and make a pretty display. Here they all are in a single post. Now that I think about it I should have taken a picture of them in the mats as well as without. O well, maybe next time...

Gallery of Faces - Portrait #4

Morning Smile

It's been a while since I posted something for my Gallery of Faces project.

Here's a little 5 x 7 piece I started a while back and put away for a while. I pulled it out this morning and finished it by adding some darks to her hair, shadows in and around her face, a few strokes to bring out the ruffles in her gown, and finally some "pink" to her cheeks.

It's a watercolor I adapted and painted from a magazine photograph. I especially liked the "smile" she had on her face.

Gallery of Faces - Portrait #3

Dayna

Gallery of Faces - Portrait of Cassandra

Gallery of Faces - Portrait #2

Cassandra

For this watercolor portraiture I used a reference photo that I had on hand and used it to place features, coloring and shadows.

Once I laid in the basics I continued to make this lovely dark complexioned little girl my own by adding creative detail in her hair, ribbon and clothing and then I named her Cassandra.

I like the way it turned out.

This 5 x 7 original will be for sale soon in my Etsy Shop at: www.deborahcarmanstudio.etsy.com.

Gallery of Faces

Joey

Starting today and with my newly completed painting of my grandson, Joey, I decided to challenge myself with the goal of creating a "Gallery of Faces."

I hope to learn a lot from this challenge including the further development of my skills as a portrait artist. I confess I'm excited at the thought of it. I consider myself a "forever student" in the field of art and have always been intrigued by the face and how to paint it. I especially love how the fresh look of watercolor captures those beautiful facial features.

So here is my plan:  I will paint a "face" each week and post a picture of it on this blog. I'll take a few months to complete the task. My medium will be watercolor. I will most likely paint on paper and will probably keep to the 5x7 size in most cases. And I'll leave the option open whether to use pen, watercolor pencil and/or ink in addition to watercolor.

 So there you have it. My Gallery of Faces is now official.  Be sure to comment and/or critique. I would love to hear from you.

P.S. If you have a "face" that you'd like to see in watercolor, click on "Commission a Watercolor Portrait," just to the right, for details on how to make that happen.