Hairy Guy, watercolor, 12x9" ©Diane Mannion
Venice Portrait Studio
Painted from life at the Venice Portrait Studio. This handsome model chose the title... Hairy Guy. Told the story of a little girl who looked at him with her big, curious eyes said he was a hairy guy because he had hair on his head, on his face, and in his nose and ears! HA!
Played with new brushes and paper here. One of my self-induced treats for driving back and forth to Bradenton last week were pit-stops at Art and Frame in Sarasota to pet the brushes and indulge in purchasing art supplies. I don't buy jewelry, take cruises, or play golf... art supplies are my vice.
And lately, watercolor has been an obsession. For over thirty years as an illustrator I only used the world's finest brushes, Winsor and Newton Series 7 Kolinsky red sables. But lately, our country has banned the import of sable hairs... not that they kill baby sables to collect the hairs, I'm sure they're treated kindly to produce more hair! Probably just trimmed now and then like poodles. (So this country bans sable hairs but lets in ebola... go figure. Have always wanted to stay away from politics in this blog but couldn't resist.)
Back to brushes... purchased Escoda (made in Spain) synthetic sables, #10 and #14 Ultimo, and #12 Prado. Love the look and feel of these fine quality brushes. Have only tried the #10 Ultimo which I used on this painting and totally happy with it! Holds lots of paint, works well loose and also comes to a fine point for more details. Bravo.
Have always loved Arches and still do but tried a new 100% cotton brand for this painting... 9x12" block of cold press... FLUID 100. Wow... made in the USA. Wonderful paper! Used it for this painting and happy with the texture and lift-ability. Bravo, again.
And BRAVO for my 1000th blog post... 1000 paintings archived!!!
5 comments:
Congratulations, Diane!
I so love the Fluid watercolor paper!
"Hairy Guy" is good-looking and also has a sense of humor. I'll bet you had an interesting session. The detailing of his face and hair seems just right... enough to catch his personality without looking like a photo.
Thank you, Susan! This model was talking or falling asleep... tough but fun session! All in all, a pretty good model that held his pose perfectly. And only so much can be done in less than two hours! Always a good exercise for drawing skills.
Thank you, Martine, I love playing with new art supplies.
Thank you for your comment, Linda!
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