Charlotte Skyline in Progress (First Layer of Paint)

A couple weeks ago I posted about starting a Charlotte skyline acrylic painting for my sister-in-law, and the process that went into measuring and drawing out the skyline onto the three 22"x28" canvases. I've been working hard on the painting now, and today I'd like to show the step-by-step photos of how I began the layers of acrylic paint.

I had to purchase some more paints for this endeavor (and have since purchased even more, when I started running out of colors I didn't expect to run out of). First, I laid out all the colors I thought I'd use - setting them out on another table, since the three canvases side by side already take up my entire large table that I use in my art studio.

I put down the colors of the sky first, blending colors together as I went to create a looser, atmospheric look. These are the colors I chose for the sky, followed by what my palette (a paper plate) looked like after I was finished brushing the colors onto the sky.

And here is the dark, sunset sky, after that first layer of paint. It was extra shiny while it was still wet.

Once the sky was in place, I started painting in the buildings. I planned to go back and add lots of details (and color) later, so I wasn't concerned with getting the buildings exactly the right color yet. I just wanted them all blocked off with about the right color (or at least the right shade), so that I could tell the buildings apart from each other and have a good foundation to work with.

Now the first layer of acrylic is complete! All of the canvas is covered with at least a bit of paint - even the tops, bottoms, and sides of the canvas (which will be visible if they are hung directly as-is on the wall).

I will post again soon with some more pictures of the next step in this process. :)

Women Art Show at the Carr Center

Exciting news - I recently had a watercolor painting accepted for the 7th annual Women Art Show at the Carr Center in Detroit, MI!

This year's theme is "Nevertheless She Persisted" and will feature artwork by 55 women artists, including my painting "Bandaged Duality," which was created as part of my honors thesis series at EMU back in 2009-2010.

The exhibition lasts from March 3 - March 31, 2018, with a panel/opening reception Saturday, March 3 from 6-10 pm, at the Carr Center (1505 Woodward Ave., Detroit.) For more information, check out the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/348196222327031/

The 22"x30" watercolor painting (which is 26"x33.5" framed) will be for sale for $449.

If you're in the Metro-Detroit area during March, definitely come check it out! :)

Custom Name Paintings (Athena)

Besides the two paintings I made for friends who got married last year, I also made a single-name custom artwork for my cousin, who gave birth to a baby girl named Athena in December. I created this painting with a fun purple and metallic gold color scheme, to play up the royal/goddess origins of her baby's name.

As with my other paintings, I first traced the name onto paper and then taped the paper to my work table.

For this one, I chose to keep the letters white (the color of the paper), so I painted around the outlines I'd traced. I used highly pigmented purple and metallic gold inks in addition to purple, pink and yellow watercolor paint for this piece.

The above pictures were taken while the painting was still wet. Once it was dry, there were some interesting abstract watermarks that remained on the paper, giving it an authentic, artistic look.

Here is the finished painting, in a gray frame:

On the back of the painting, I wrote:

If you would like to order a custom name painting like this to gift to someone in your life, you can check out this Etsy listing in my shop!

Custom Name Paintings (Couples)

In 2017, I created three name paintings as wedding and baby shower gifts. The two that I'm featuring in today's blog post were for old friends who were getting married - Vikram & Laura, who got married in June, and Kerri & Matthew, who got married in October. For each of these couples, I created a unique watercolor painting of their names, which I then framed and gifted to them to hang in their new homes together. :)

I forgot to take step-by-step photos of the above painting as I was creating it, but I did take a few for the next name painting I did, just to show off the process.

First, I traced the names onto the paper and then taped the 8x10 watercolor paper to the table (to keep it flat while the paper was subjected to lots of water).

Then I started building up layers of color in the background and for the names, even splattering different colors onto the paper to give it an artistic look.

Here is the final painting:

If you would like to order a custom name painting like this to gift to someone in your life, you can check out this Etsy listing in my shop. I can do these paintings in any color combination you can imagine - in fact, for an exciting purple and metallic gold color scheme, check back in a few days for another new blog post, featuring a painting I made for my cousin's new baby! :)

New Listings on Etsy

I finally got around to listing some of my recent colored pencil drawings (the Stronger Together series) on Etsy, where they are available for purchase.

You can check out the listings here:

• Race Bouquet (Stronger Together)
• Gender Bouquet (Stronger Together)
• Sexuality Bouquet (Stronger Together)
• Class Bouquet (Stronger Together)
• Religion Bouquet (Stronger Together)
• Ability Bouquet (Stronger Together)

Each are for sale for $399, including custom frame.

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I also added a listing for an old watercolor painting of mine titled "Rose-Lily Hybrid". I created this as a class assignment at Eastern Michigan University back in 2009, and then had it framed and gifted it to my grandma (for either Christmas or her birthday - I don't remember which anymore). She hung it in her living room for several years, before moving it to her bedroom in my parents' house when she moved there in 2014. When she passed away this past July, my parents decided they longer had a place for this painting, so it has recently come back into my possession.

It is for sale for $249, including custom frame. You can check out that Etsy listing here.

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I am holding back some of my other recent works for now (such as the 22x30 colored pencil drawings "30 Days" and "28 Years" to submit to local art exhibition opportunities), so they are not yet listed on Etsy - but they may be at a future time, so make sure to check my Etsy store frequently! :)

Charlotte Skyline In Progress (Planning & Sketching)

My sister-in-law, who lives in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina, recently commissioned me to create a massive acrylic painting of the Charlotte skyline for her apartment. When finished, the entire skyline will take up three side-by-side canvases, each 22"x28" in size. She wanted a minimalist color scheme (blacks/whites/grays with earth tones and some gold/yellow) and wanted it to be more or less true to the actual Charlotte skyline.

The first step I had to tackle was lots of planning. I found a picture of the skyline online, traced the main, important lines I wanted to make sure to get proportionally accurate (i.e. the shapes of the buildings), and took lots of measurements of these shapes. Then, I figured out what my scale factor would be to scale my 8.5"x11" print-outs up to the right 22"x28" canvas size, and did a lot of math with my collected measurements to get a new set of data points. Next, I plotted these points and lines onto the canvases using a yardstick to help me measure, so that I would have a complete sketch of the skyline across all three canvases.

Today's blog post will show the step-by-step photos of how I sketched out the skyline, once I had all my initial measurements finished and my scale factor math complete.

Here are the three canvases, still in the plastic wrappers from Dick Blick art supplies. You can see the printouts I made for each canvas, which has 1/3 of the skyline. The color picture, a black and white version with the sky deleted (to help me see the edges of the building better), and the pencil tracing I made of those buildings, which I scribbled measurements all over. There is also a stapled packet for each canvas that lists all the scale factor measurements of what points I need to plot on the paintings.

I started with the far left canvas.

Then I moved on to the middle canvas, making sure to line up the buildings and other markings that bridged the gap between the first two canvases.

Finally, I sketched the buildings onto the right canvas.

Only once all of that planning and sketching were complete could I start putting paint to canvas. Check back soon for another blog post featuring step-by-step pictures of starting the acrylic paint.

Heaven Spot Webisode: Those Who Stand By

As I mentioned in a previous post, my colored pencil drawings were recently featured in an episode of a web series produced by the group Heaven Spot, which has the goal of focusing on local under-the-radar metro-Detroit artists.

The Salon Night that they hosted at Young Fenix Loft in Detroit last month included some very entertaining and thought-provoking pieces, including a environmentally-conscious contemporary movement routine, a wonderful live guitarist and bassist duo, and a moving preview of a scene from the upcoming play For Colored Girls. I was honored to be invited to be a part of it. I brought my six "Stronger Together" colored pencil drawings to the event, displaying them on a table near the stage, and got the chance to talk to some people about the meaning behind my works after the performances.

The night ended with a viewing of Heaven Spot's second episode, "Those Who Stand By," which spliced together a few different interviews, stories, dance practices, and music performances with occasional shots of my and Mariel Collins' colored pencil drawings, which Heaven Spot filmed during the GRRRLS Like Us exhibition at the Canton Village Theater back in November 2017. If you'd like to watch the fifteen-minute video, you can find it here on Heaven Spot's website.

I was also interviewed about my drawings (though they didn't end up using any of the interview in the webisode). You can see a snippet of the interview here, on the site for the Facebook event.

It's always exciting to be invited to participate in these things, share my artwork with people, and connect with like-minded metro-Detroiters! :)

Mark's (Second) Custom Bouquet Painting

In December, I had the pleasure of creating a second bouquet for someone who'd purchased a custom wedding bouquet painting over the summer as a gift for his wife. Mark and his wife loved the bride's bouquet so much that he commissioned me to create another one - this time of the bridesmaid's bouquet - to be displayed in their home next to the first painting.

(Check out the first painting I did for Mark in this blog post.)

The bridesmaid's bouquet was more colorful than the bride's bouquet (as they often are), with lots of pretty orange/coral/pink shades. I tried to make the style as similar to the first painting as possible, since they were to be hung together, while also being true to the more colorful flowers in this bouquet.

I started by tracing the provided photo onto 8"x10" watercolor paper.

Then I added some light initial washes of color, just to block out where the different shapes were.

I started going in with smaller brushes to add in details, and building up layers of color:

Then, as a final step, I used white acrylic paint to lighten up some areas of the bouquet.

Here's the final painting (on the left) with the photo provided (on the right) for comparison.

I love making these paintings! Not only does it give me a chance to play with watercolors and see lots of beautiful bouquets, but it makes me happy to know that people love giving and receiving these custom watercolors as thoughtful, romantic gifts. :)

Order your own custom watercolor bouquet at this listing in my Etsy shop.