Good News and Good Painting

Hello! Sorry for the gap in posting. But I'm back this week with good news: One, I'm over halfway done with painting. And two, Honors gave me the funding to print 50 copies of my book! So hurray!

On to the process photos. This particular page is the second page in a spread about this painting in the National Gallery, which I saw when I visited it with Chris over our spring break. The painting is of Parliament. It was a significant moment for me, as I explained to Chris: I had probably seen this painting in books a million times before and passed it over, but now I had stood where Monet stood and had seen Parliament in real life, and now I was seeing this painting... it stuck with me.

So, the following is my interpretation of the painting, and what it meant to me. I liked this page, because I got to experiment with using watercolors like Monet used oils-- not that I'm likening myself to him talent-wise-- and I got to play with a lot more color than I normally do. So I hope you like seeing it as much as I liked painting it. (I won't caption them all-- I think you can just follow the progression.)

Chris is saying in that speech bubble: "We'll have to come back here someday."

Notre Dame

Before I get started, happy birthday to my mom! Without her, none of this-- my semester abroad, my artistic talent, this project, and my existence (heehee)-- would ever have happened. So thanks and happy birthday, Mom!

I've finished another four pages for this week, but I thought I'd show the process on one of them.

My reference photo: Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris. Gorgeous.

Laying down light washes of color.

Filling in the secondary areas of color.

Adding some detail and shading with watercolor pencil and tiny brushes.

Getting darker with my shading.

The final page: completely painted, with pen outlines for the cathedral and text boxes.

It's amazing how something that takes so much time to make takes next to no time to post on a blog. Hehe. I think next time when I do one of these process posts, I'm going to include time stamps for all the pictures, so you know how long it takes for me to complete a page. But until then, I hope you enjoyed our little trip to Paris.

Happy February!

So, it's been a little while since I last updated, so I thought I'd check in. Since my last post, I've finished ten pages. That means only 40 more to go!

I also turned in a funding application to the Honors Department for a grant that would give me money enough to print and bind a whole bunch of books, so keep your fingers crossed!

Now, onto some more process photos. Since you already know the drill, I'm not going to caption them. But here they are, for your viewing pleasure.

Hope you enjoyed these! More to come as I keep on keepin' on.