Poppies Single Watercolor Painting on Etsy

Newly listed on Etsy

Poppies Single

Original Watercolor 8" x 10" on Arches 300lb. watercolor paper

Now available on Etsy at ChristySheelerArtist

$250 plus shipping

Copyright 2016 Christy Sheeler Artist All Rights Reserved.

Christy Sheeler Artist at Society6

Another avenue for my watercolor artwork

It brings me much excitement and joy to share my artwork is uploaded and available to purchase online.

Christy Sheeler Artist on Society6:  A great selection of art design items!!!

My originals are available for purchase on Etsy ChristySheelerArtist now.  This one, titled Poppy Single hasn't been added to the Etsy shop yet...but soon.
In time, I'll have my own website and ready to have them purchased there.

How great would it be to have my art on a tote bag, an iphone case, a coffee cup...

Well, that is reality as of today!

This will be a project in the making...my work is cut out for me.  If there is a painting you've seen here and would really love to have available on the Society6 site, please comment or send me an email!  

                                      

                        Coffee Mug                          Mobile Device Cases                        Throw Pillows



                                           

                     Tote Bag                                        Rug 3 sizes                                  Fine Art Prints  




I am absolutely in LOVE with this Poppy Single artwork, as you can tell... it's the one I chose to take on this adventure.  So, now there are many more to come...

Thank you for visiting today!

You never know when I'll have something new I can't wait to share!!!

Have a fabulous weekend!

-Christy

Watercolor Poppies Complete Art Process

Overview of Poppies Watercolors Series

The inspiration for these paintings began with a neighbor's garden!  Lynn has one of the most green thumbs on our block.  As I've shared before, I keep a close eye tuned to the gardens throughout our little town.  Many a trip, toting one of my kids somewhere and back again, means I can spot the local views for inspiration.  In the past, Lynn has been great with me taking photos of her sunflowers as well.  I remember years ago...photos gone with a hard drive crash...taking some photos of magnolias she was growing in her living room.  Last summer, I visited Lynn's garden when the early evening sun brought out their beautiful glow of oranges and yellows.    The petals are like tissue paper, so delicate and thin.  For my artist's eye, these are just too lovely to resist!  I've looked forward to painting them and found they were worth the wait.  There are a total of four paintings in this series.  I'll be showing photographs from the stages of completion but not always from the same painting.

As I've shared in passing a photo on my phone of my current works in progress, many people have commented that poppies are their favorite as well.  With photos sorted and favorites chosen, I began the process with the value sketches.  The composition is very important in the planning stages.  I must admit I broke some composition rules in two of these paintings.  I did not place the focal poppy where it ought to be BUT I believe I was able to pull it off.  This should not be my regular habit; the unusual composition appeals to me.  My art critic husband is strongly drawn to the more traditional compositions.

I did not want to do the value studies/composition planning!  Like brushing teeth...it doesn't take that long and it's painless, but it sure prevents future problems.  I have been aware that these little quick sketches are important.  I wanted to get right to the painting sooner.  It wasn't torturous and I will begin implementing this in my process on a regular basis.  It's really not THAT bad.

I have been making my sketches directly on tracing paper.  Maybe I ought to be sketching on drawing paper in the sketch book first.  What thought do you have?  I suppose a sketchbook is a longer lasting record and easier to flip through later.  Well, I made the sketches on tracing paper.  I had purchased a thicker tracing paper and this was my chance to try it out.  I think I prefer the thinner weight.  Is it because it's what I am familiar with, that's undecided.  

Sketches are transferred with graphite paper onto the 300 lb. watercolor paper.  This saves the paper from multiple eraser marks and pencil lines indented in the paper.  If you have not made your own graphite paper before, you should give it a try.  You only need a few items and you most likely have them on hand now.  Comment and let me know, I would do a how-to demo to show how it's done.

Watercolor Poppies Studio Update

The photography set up

The watercolor poppies are completed!  I'll share more details in Thursday's post...

This is just a quick shot of one of the steps taken after a painting is finished.

The paintings spent a few days in the flattening process.  My method is dampening the back of the paper, layering in towels and weighting down with heavy books.

The next step, they needed to be signed.  One of them had such a dark background, the black pen would not have been easily visible.  This is the only time I use white paint.  ONLY.  

That's just my personal standard.  I like how it turned out and might change how I sign paintings from this point forward.

-Christy

Photographs of watercolor paintings in progress! #photographingartwork #watercolorpoppies #watercolorpainting #preppingforprints #artworkforetsy #christysheelerartist

A photo posted by Christy Sheeler (@christysheeler.artist) on Feb 22, 2016 at 1:19pm PST

12 Tips for Making an Art Video

Have you ever learned something totally outside of anything you thought possible?  Sharing my art studio adventures is quite a challenge.  My mind is so full of new information and at times it feels overwhelming.  My 2015 goals have been reviewed.  With a new list of goals for 2016 (some carried over from 2015) I've got my work cut out for me!  I'm not very organized in my methods for tackling these goals.

I'd say spontaneous and sporadic would describe my method... Are you ready for the run down on how this all came to take place in the art studio.  Hang on!

A snapshot from the video Watercolor Background for Poppies.

My Pinterest boards read like this:  Artist Inspiration, Photography, Christy Sheeler Art Studio, Logo and Business Card Design, Blog Tips, Etsy Website Online Selling...and the newest board is Video Tips.  That one is just an itty bitty board, but it will grow as I search out the stuff I need to know.

Why a video?  

In the past, I've taught some beginner watercolor lessons locally.  It was SO much fun!  I was incredibly nervous at the start!!  Once I got the feel for what to teach and how to teach, it was so rewarding.  I've taken a break for now to get my own art flowing again... but I was amazed by the interest to watch me paint.  There's a curiosity and I guess I do relate; I enjoy watching others paint as well.

Poppies Work In Progress 2.11.16

A glimpse of poppies, work in progress

Currently, there are four paintings in various stages of completion.  Today, I'm showing the most recent progress of number 4.  Sorry... right now, that's its title.  It's definitely an unusual composition.  I didn't want to mess with the original photo layout.  I took a risk and broke some rules with this one.  The petals themselves have given me a challenge but it's still coming along.

"Through the dancing poppies stole  A breeze most softly lulling to my soul."  John Keats

There are layers of color built up in the background.  It appears green at a glance, but I've been adding blues and violets.  Sometimes, that bold color gets a little lost once it dries.  In the back of my mind, I'm considering cropping this for a better composition.  That decision will be a tough one.  I'll wait to see what the end piece looks like.  There are certain areas that I enjoy more than others.  Two of the three centers are very close to being complete.  The poppy on the far left has more to be done in defining the petals, shadows, and center.  The fine details around the center still need attention.  Salt crystals still lay on the paper's surface where I wanted more unusual texture.  The salt will be brushed away before I can continue to work the background.

"But pleasures are like poppies spread, You seize the flower, its bloom is shed; Or like the snow falls in the river, A moment whitethen melts for ever."  Robert Burns

I'm keeping this post a bit shorter so I can get back to the painting sooner.  The photo below shows my favorite area...lovely places of pale orange against I may choose this type of composition for Giclee prints.

Begin Again & Try New Things in Watercolor: Poppies

Beautiful Red Poppies

The past few weeks have been spent easing back into the art process with reference photos of poppies.  Winter here continues and I am content to be inside, comfortable and warm.  Even so, I do feel a bit of cabin fever.  The Gurney's seed catalog came this week.  In a few months it will be time to start planning the garden.  So while winter carries on, I'm focusing on garden beauties.  Their petals are as delicate as tissue paper, sunlight defines each bit of crinkle in the petals.

Light - dews- breezes - bloom - and freshness; not one of which has yet been perfected on the canvas of any painter in the world.    - John Constable

In all my nearly 30 years with art (ouch, that's a while!), there are several things I have avoided doing.  Skipping over a step in the planning and executing process is not the best habit to start.  In college, I avoided Art History 101.  I was able to take several other classes like photography and drawing.  Without the Art History, I could not move on to take pottery or painting.  Foolish me!

Advice to that college student me:  Go for it anyway!

Well, the other thing I've avoided is the thumbnail sketch.  It's not a sketch of a thumbnail.  It's just a small sketch (think business card size) with the basic composition, shapes and values.  I've dreaded it and gotten by all these years without it.  But I've wondered how following through and doing it could help me improve my work.