Nursery Art: Three 8x10 Woodland Animal Paintings Finished

Last week I showed you the beginnings of painting these three 8"x10" woodland creatures for the nursery; today's post is all about finishing them up and hanging them on the wall!

Here are the three watercolors, still taped to the gatorboard - freshly finished, and still a little wet!

You'll remember from last week's post how I used a wet-on-wet technique to get those little white spots all over the feathers and fur of these creatures, to give them a little texture. I used that same technique to finish off the head and body of this first owl. The texture on the feathers and the little legs were created with wet-on-dry (which is why the brushstrokes are visible).

For the fox, I used the white-splotchy technique only on the lighter yellow areas, and the light orange body. For the head and tail, I kept it nice and dark. I achieved this color with a mix of brown, yellow, and red. I did go in and add a bit more pigment in some places while it was partially dry, but I did this with extra pigment, not less pigment, so the end result was darker areas (the areas still wet in the image below) rather than lighter splotches.

I added some wet-on-dry brushstrokes to this owl's wings and legs as well, plus some for its light colored belly.

Here are all three finished paintings, once they were dry, trimmed to size, and framed:

I really love how these guys turned out, and I think they fill out the space perfectly!

Next week I'll show off more photos of the nursery - the larger quotation paintings finally hanging up on the wall, and all of the furniture in place. (When I finished these paintings and took these pictures, there was only a couple bookcases, a yellow storage ottoman, window curtains, and a rocking chair in the room. It was September, and we didn't yet have our crib or changing table.)

Nursery Art: Three 8x10 Woodland Animal Paintings in Progress

As I was putting together our baby registry, I found a lot of great woodland themed items that I wanted for our nursery - a Harry Potter owl crib mobile, an owl humidifier, a fox night light, etc. So I decided our nursery would have a "light" woodland theme - among the yellow ombre wall stripes and the green somewhat-floral area rug and the wood colored furniture, there would be just hints of woodland creatures among the decor as well.

There was a space on one of the walls that was just screaming for a bit of (small) artwork - a space between the window and the closet that was just the perfect amount of room for a few 8"x10" paintings. So I found some cartoonish owls and a fox that I liked, traced those designs onto watercolor paper, and made them my own!

Below are the three paintings in progress, taped down in the order I planned to eventually hang them on the wall - with one owl on either end, and the fox in the middle. I worked on all three paintings concurrently.

I started with some lighter colors first - the pale yellow and pale orange areas, as well as the green of the far right owl's eyes. I selected areas that weren't touching, so that the paint wouldn't bleed into the next section while they dried.

I used a wet-on-wet technique to blend a sort of ombre effect on the first owl's wings, as well as to add texture to all three paintings (though especially the fox and the owl with the green eyes). I painted a section, waited a couple minutes for it to partially dry, and then, while it was still somewhat wet, used a wet brush to dot the pigment, which left behind white circles when it dried.

Once those areas were dry, I started adding more details to the already dry areas (such as some dry-on-wet brushstrokes on the owl's feathers), as well as working on adjacent areas. I painted the owls' bellies, beaks, and pupils, using shades of orange and brown to match the rest of our nursery decor. I also painted the paler orange areas of the fox - the belly and little blushing cheeks.

I used the same wet-on-wet technique I used in the first round to add texture to the bellies of all three animals.

There was only a bit left to do - the head and body of the first owl and the head of the second owl (both of which would be a darker brown), the head and tail of the fox (which would be a darker orange-red), and the dark black pupils of the fox. I did all of these in the third round through the paintings.

Check back next week to see how I finished off these cute little creatures, as well as to see how they looked framed and hanging in our nursery!

Nursery Art: 22x30 Laini Taylor Quotation Watercolor Finished

Last week I showed the process of painting the pattern in the background of this 22"x30" watercolor, completed for our nursery back in September of last year. Today, I'll show you the photos of the letters being painted, as well as what the finished product looked like.

As with the first quotation painting, I used a mix of dark green and black watercolor pigments to get this nice, dark, rich color for the letters, because I wanted them to stand out from the busy background.

Once it was dry, I unstapled it from the gatorboard, and then trimmed the edges off so it would fit into the size frame I wanted. I custom ordered the frames - white metal, no mat, and no-glare acrylic on top, to protect the painting and make sure the quotations were still easily readable underneath, not obstructed by glare.

Here are the two finished quotation paintings, leaning up against our yellow nursery wall, waiting to be hung up! (And a dog thrown in for scale reference!)

I also painting three smaller watercolors for the nursery - a fox and two owls, to go with our subtle "woodland" theme. Next week's blog post will be all about those paintings!

Nursery Art: 22x30 Laini Taylor Quotation Watercolor in Progress

Back in September, I created two large 22"x30" watercolor paintings of quotations for our nursery. The first was a quote by J.K. Rowling; the second was this quote by Laini Taylor: "You don't know yet what you're capable of, but I'm willing to bet it's extraordinary." Today's post is all about the process of starting to paint this second quote.

As with the first quote, I started by stretching the paper. I soaked the watercolor paper in the bathtub, stapled it to gatorboard to keep it flat while I painted, and then added a yellow wash of color. Even though it was very bright yellow, it was much paler when it dried, due to how saturated the paper was. It doesn't add much, but it does add a bit of dimension to the background, so that the "white space" leftover when I paint the pattern isn't actually completely white.

Here is the paper after that first yellow wash of color:

Then I started to paint the pattern. Because I wanted it to match the first painting, I used the same three pigments: bright cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, and a brownish-orange for a bit of dimension. This pattern was more complicated than the first, so it took me a lot longer. It was also not as cleanly divided into rows, so I followed the pattern a bit more organically as I went, instead of going straight up and down.

I was nearing 5 months pregnant at this point, and starting to be somewhat uncomfortable sitting too long - my back would start to hurt if I spent more than an hour or so leaned over this painting. All told, it took five days to complete the pattern, working about an hour each day.

Here is what I completed in that first hour:

And the second hour:

By the end of the third hour:

By the end of the fourth hour:

And finally, the pattern was complete!

All that was left now was to paint the letters of the quotation - which I'll show pictures of in next week's post. :)