Lion Watercolor Sold

Sold! My Door Knocker Lion.  I painted these heavily saturated watercolors on a super heavy, smooth watercolor paper which insured this gorgeous lay-down.  Once finished, I drew my lion in first lightly in pencil, then went over it in pen; not that I would ever make any mistakes, but ya never know! ;). It probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because if you DO make any mistakes on this type of paper, there’s no erasing anyway!  

My lion painting was inspired by Narnia, the show we put on.  I was in charge of sets and also played in the orchestra for the shows.  I wish I could find the files but I’d have to dig deep to find the Wardrobe I painted.  It was lovely and sported a door-knocker lion as well as all kinds of lovely things in fake, painterly bas relief.

Here’s a closeup.  I couldn’t have been happier with the way this turned out.

And another... when you use super nice (expensive) watercolor paper, this is the kind of gradation of colors you can expect.  Since this was inspired by Narnia, I used highlights on this painting the same way I did in the show.

I’m so glad this painting sold to someone I love very much.  May she get as much enjoyment out of him as I have. 

Newest Animal Painting

Each Christmas I step back from all my other work and give myself a creative break.  This year I chose to do my baby, Lupino, and spent this entire month on him. Here’s a little sneak peek cutaway... the big reveal comes when I edit my 100-some photos. I chose to name him Lupus Regem, Latin for wolf king, as he looks like a wolf and is very regal. He also weighs in at just over 16 pounds!

Note the generous use of gold, blue and red; these are symbols of his royalty.  The Latin name gives a nod to the years I spent teaching our kids Latin and how much it has enriched our everyday lives. My plan is to reveal the mystery and walk you step by step through my process for this piece, so we’ll call this the first installment!

And remember, the first step toward your own painting is if you like my art.  I can paint pretty much anything you ask.  (Whew! That’s quite a claim, huh? Now I’m in trouble!)

I digress, but it does remind me of a time someone said, ‘Can you paint a ship on the ocean, and paint like Rembrandt?’  I said, ‘Sure, I can do that.’  After moaning and ‘why on earth did I say that-ing’ for about two weeks I got down to work and painted a GORGEOUS ship which I loved!  My patrons loved it as did everyone that saw it, in fact I had to paint a partner for it and sold that as well after it did a local tour of its own.

So, what’s the moral of the story?  Well, for me it means I should NEVER say I can paint like Rembrandt!  I think I’ll stick to painting like myself!