Daily Creativity: BatRAWR! Rory as Batman

Daily Creativity: BatRAWR! Rory as BatmanDaily Creativity: BatRAWR! Rory as Batman

May I introduces BatRAWR! The world’s cutest detective!

Tonight a friend was hosting a Paint the Night (ish) even online. We all got together to paint or do something creative (some did crafts, some wrote, some designed games), and raise money for MS. You can donate to Janelle’s team by clicking here BTW. So I painted Rory as the caped crusader. Part because I saw Lego Batman this week and loved it, and part because I haven’t painted Rory yet this lent. I drew him, but not painted. I painted in watercolor because I think they look best for this type of piece, Rory as a superhero.

Daily Creativity: Reclining

I first saw this post on tumblr by user flushedskin and knew I wanted to paint something with this as a guide.RecliningSM

I first worked on a study on my ipad and then tonight painting this with watercolors.  I had to modify it a bit since the original photo had a hand and phone in the way, but I think I did all right.  I ended up using my husband posting for me to figure out where the shoulder should be.

I love how soft this looks, like the coloring too.  There is something about the human form that I just love painting.

Daily Creativity: Summer 2013

Summer 2013This summer I painted this watercolor of different people and sizes swimming and having fun.  I love the idea of being comfortable in your skin and enjoying summer.

This is a watercolor painting in tabloid size.  Prints are available if anyone is interested.  I have the original hanging in my studio now.  It makes me smile every time I see it.

Daily Creativity: Ursula

Ursula watercolor paintingI don’t normally do straight paintings of established characters like this.  Just painting someone else’s art makes me feel like I’m copying, but this time I wanted to do a painting of Ursula the Sea Witch because she is just plain awesome.  Not only is she a great villain but she’s a woman in power and control of her life and her body.  Sure she is is evil, but she still has everything else going for her, and she makes a really good role model.  I always liked her songs and liked her attitude.

“Never under estimate the power of BODY LANGUAGE! Ha!”

I hope to one day get a cool Ursula costume going for myself, I just want to make sure that when I do, her tentacles look awesome, not cheap, that’s the big thing holding me back right now.

Ursula doesn’t apologize for anything, she takes up space and fills a room, and if she’s really mad, she just gets bigger.  She’s plain awesome.

Daily Creativity: Dragon Solo

Dragon Solo, Rory dressed as Han Solo
So in continuing with my Rory mashups tonight I give you Dragon Solo, or Rory Solo… either way, it’s Rory as Han Solo, I think he makes a great rogue smuggler.  This was done with water colors (Ink for my signature) and I’m rather pleased how it turned out.

Last week Opopanax posted a picture of her watercolors and I thought it was nifty, so I made a mental note to do the same the next time I painted because I thought it was really nifty.

As you can see I paint with watercolors in tubes, not the solid dry watercolors that most people think of when they think of watercolors.  There isn’t anything wrong with tubes or with solids, it’s a personal preference.  I think I use the tubes because when I learned watercolors (other than the plop water on the crayola set we all did when we were little) it was with tubes.  I was amazed at how much control I had with watercolors and I don’t know if its the kind I use, or just how I was taught (thanks Mrs. Jones).
Watercolor setup

You can also see my brushes, with watercolor you don’t (well I don’t) use a lot of brushes like you might when painting in oils, essentially you just change in size.  I like my bamboo bursh there on the far left.  This is originally for painting in ink, a technique that is used in asian scrolls (I love that too, lots of fun with that) but this is perfect for a good watercolor wash brush.  Next there is that tell tale crayola watercolor brush, the cheapo plastic ones. brushes Yeah, this is my favorite brush for watercolors, it tapers the best and doesn’t lose hairs like so many can.  Some of the more expensive brushes tend to not perform as well and others, are just so darned expensive.  On the far right there is a skinny detail brush, for getting in the cracks and crevices.  In the center, that’s a calligraphy pen.  I got the idea from Aurora Lee, instead of signing with paint I started just inking my signature on these watercolors, I think it comes out much nicer and it reminds me of bamboo ink painting :)