Watercolor Sketch Portrait

The other night I wanted to do an exercise in loosening up.  Sometimes I have a tendency to tighten up my paintings when I know they are for a commission, or are going to be for sale.  I want them to be perfect, and there is always a time crunch, so I don't want to make a mistake and have to start over.  But in thinking this way, I can lose some life, spontaneity or some happy accidents in the artwork.  Plus, when you are working with really expensive watercolor paper, you don't want to ruin it.  Also, I usually need to work on smaller paper, so it will fit in my scanner.  Working small automatically makes me slow down and be more detailed.

So this night, I decided to just do a loose sketch on some inexpensive larger (14in x 17in) sketch paper.   Not for sale or a commission, just for fun.  Although I started this out simply as a pencil sketch, and this paper is not meant for watercolor, I ended up adding watercolor anyway.  It was a lot of fun, and accomplished my goal of loosening up!

  

From London to Paris -Fashion Illustration

I've had these paintings in my mind and on the back burner for some time.  I finally got the chance to paint them.  I wanted to link some fashionable ladies with a soft focus minimal city scape in the background.  It was hard to narrow down which cities and which fashions I would do first.  

This London City Girl Print wears a mini plaid raincoat with tall black boots.  She's got a pop of yellow in her ensemble to keep her cheerful in all weather. And she has a bit of a 1960's retro feel.

This Paris City Girl Print is effortlessly elegant and chic in her polka dot black blouse, navy skirt, and french twist.  Are those roses bound to decorate her home or office?

I don't know what city will be next.  Could it be Tokyo, Rome, or New York?