The progression of an Eight Fold painting

I thought I'd take you through the progression of one of the paintings in the Eight Fold series.
I start off with a design, I draw out the design and to keep track of the design I outline different sections in colored pencil. In this case I tried to keep pretty close to the colored pencil colors but I don't always.

Then I draw out the design on my watercolor block.

Then the colors come.

And the final piece.

LVIII

watercolor

9x9in.

2014

Series: Eight Fold

Master Studies Update

Alright, once again it's time to update the progress of the master studies. You can see the previous posts here and here. I only had one study in the last week, I did however finally take a picture of the image I've been working off.

And here is my latest study.

Side by side like that I feel like I've improved.

Show prep

I've started framing pieces for my upcoming show, it's going pretty well and I'm loving how things have been coming together, how the frames and the mating are working together. I've found myself thinking back to the last time I did this, for my first solo show, I was trying to get pieces finished, scrambling to get things framed... in not very great frames. It's so much different this time, I've had the pieces done for ages, I've got all my frames and I'm working my way through framing them. I'm so excited for it to come together.

IX
watercolor
9x9in
2013
Series: Eight Fold

Master Studies continued

I have one more master study to share, though I have gotten a bit busy with other things. Hopefully I'll have some more in the future.

I tried to size this one more along the lines of the picture I was drawing from. I think on the whole this one might have been better than the others to date but I think there's still plenty of room for improvement.

It's coming!

So about a year ago I applied (I'm not sure that's the right word but I can't think of a better one) for a solo show, and I got that opportunity but the show was set for a year off and it's seemed so far off in the future. Now we're less than a month away from the start of the show and it's starting to feel more and more like a reality.
Today it gets that much more real, the frames arrived and I'm so excited, they weren't what I had originally hoped to get but I'm really excited about them now that I've seen them. I'm excited to make this happen, to have a show that's all my own, it's been a while. I'm excited for everyone who's always saying they want to see my art, here's something they can easily see!
This is happening, more to come!

Pictures of pictures

So there are so many things I've learned and adjusted to in the years since I've graduated, one of those things is to take better pictures of my work and to crop and edit them. I usually use IrfanView and crop the images I take of my pictures. I've recently learned a new trick on a different editing program. I use natural light to take my pictures, sometimes this is great and other times the light is not as great (cloudy days etc.), with this new editing trick (which I haven't actually gotten around to using much yet) it can make the colors more like they are in real life so that's cool.
Before:

 After:

LII

watercolor

18x18in

2014

Series: Eight Fold

It can make a real difference, though sadly I'm not sure if you can really tell with these two. There might be an edit but for now if you can't see it, just trust me that this can be pretty cool.

This post brought to you by the letter O

And O is for Ox gall.

 So Ox gall is something that I use for my watercolors, it was recommended to me by a teacher, to keep the pigments well distributed, I've tried to look back in my archives for pictures of what it can look like if you don't use ox gall I wasn't taking great pictures of things back then either (I've come a long way on many fronts). Ox gall is in fact what it says it is, for more info on the subject google it.
When I use the ox gall I just add a few drops before I add the water to the well I'm using. It lasts forever. This bottle above lasted me for years, I would still be using it if I hadn't dropped it one day, cracked the lid, spilled half and then the cracked lid let it evaporate. Don't do that.

This is the ox gall I'm using now. The first bottle I used was clear, this isn't, I'm not really sure why but it seems to work just as well so yes. Now you know about ox gall. A random art supply.