Tropical Paradise

Won't this be a welcome sight for Grandpa in the winter?  Sweet 9 year old (almost 10) "S" painted this masterpiece as a Christmas gift for him.   Didn't she do a marvelous job?   Since, "I don't even know if Grandpa uses a computer!"   :)   Here's her story pre-Christmas!

Mom and "S" found a photo landscape to use for "S" to paint, so we went with that photo as inspiration.  In our first session, we started with the sky and its multiple colors...pinks, blues...

And mixtures of whites..

"Fly off the page"...

Also, I taught "S" some techniques for those clouds.....

The first wrap! Excellent beginning!

Session 2:   Today we worked on the sea, and her favorite colors (some of mine too)....Here she is filling in my outline for the deeper part of the sea...

And now the lighter shade for the shallow area...and blending the 2...

Next "S" added in the base color to the islands.

And then she dotted and blended the green foliage in after....

We could start to see the painting take shape now...very nice!

I penciled in some palms for her paint in next.  She was great with the detailing!  A very steady hand.

Oh "S"!  I'm loving it!!!!!  See you next time to add the foreground in!

Session 3:  Foreground

I just realized when I downloaded the photos how PERFECT "S"'s shirt was today for painting!  She coordinates with her painting perfectly!  LOVE it!   Today "S" spent lots of time painting lines, lots of lines!   She would follow my pencil sketches with a variety of green and yellow hues to create the magnificent palms!

I use dots a lot when painting with kids to give them a guide of where /how thick to paint.  You can see them here, along with the pencil sketches that "S" would follow.

Next up, the palm trunks.

I asked "S" if she was comfortable painting in my pencil sketches, or preferred a paint outline.  In this case, she wanted an outline, so I added it in and she filled in the trunks.

And...no surprise here!  More lines for those palms!  So much detailing today so lots of time!  But I had fun 

chatting with you "S"!  You're great company!

Concentration and....

Happy painter!  Love this shot! 

And now the roof of a hut.   "S" used downward lines to fill in the roof, and 

3 different neutral shades of paint.

And...complete!  

 The 9 year old artist with her amazing painting!  "S", I just love it!  Thanks for fun painting dates!  I can't wait to hear what Grandpa thinks!

One Painting in Two

Meet "E" and "M", a brother and sister team who were going to paint on two canvases to create a beautiful piece to hang in their parent's room.   I love that their mom said, "I just want to wake up and see my kid's artwork in the mornings."   What a perfect, happy way to start the day.   She had found two small canvases to use for the project and we decided to paint them with one concept, carrying over from one canvas to another.   I LOVE the final result!  Subtle and beautiful!

"E" came over first and was super easy to talk to and very smiley!   For some reason though, every time I clicked the camera I caught him in concentration mode.   These pictures just don't do justice for his fun personality!   I told him he looked like a serious artist in his pictures, to which he would give a little laugh!

We used multiple colors and shades for the background we were creating and I had him use both short horizontal and vertical strokes with a brush to begin the background.

Almost filled in...."E" looks like he's holding back that awesome smile!

We had a good base and nice, wet paint to work with....so now I gave him a credit card to use to add a rougher texture, like palette painting.

Very serious!

The effects were looking great!

Then darker shades....

Now some blending with a brush again...

There's that great smile!  He is so sweet!  After taking the second picture he kissed his hand and threw it out for a "waa-laa"!     Cracks me up!

Great base for the painting "E"!

For session 2, I met older sister "M", who is equally as sweet and wonderful to work with.  I had pencil sketched some branches for her to paint over so that is where we began!

Happy!

She was so concentrated and careful on her painting!

"E" looks very thoughtful here.  He came along today to hang out and support the process.   It was great to see him again!

Now we started adding in flowers.  "M" had 3 different shades to use to fill in the 

flower blossoms on the tree.

This was looking STUNNING already!  

Great picture of "M" and the painting where we left it today!  Awesome work so far!

Now it was time for "M"s 2nd and final session.  We were going to add more fullness to the branches.  I had added pencil sketches in again for her to paint so that's where we started!

You can see her additions at the top....

Now the middle branches...

And here we added another flower.....

Flower detailing....

 And COMPLETE!

"M" and "E" AWESOME JOB!   You are such great kids and painted a gorgeous masterpiece!  Enjoy it! 

 I hope mom does every morning!