Lovely Guimarães (Watercolor) as of July 31, 2020

This watercolor is based on a photo that I took last July in Portugal.  (My reference is posted here July 24). Today I continued putting in the basic colors of the buildings. There is going to be a fair amount of detail, so I want to make the basic decisions first.  To be continued. . . .

Lovely Guimarães (Watercolor) as of July 30, 2020

Today I returned to this project, a watercolor inspired by a photo that I took last summer in Guimarães, Portugal. (My photo reference is posted here July 24.)  I was eager to try out some colors in my new watercolor set that arrived today.  For years, have been very happily using a small watercolor travel set (Winsor-Newton Cotman). I was nearly out of yellow and green, so planned to reorder just those two colors, but individual colors are so expensive that buying a new set actually made more sense. I have been doing just fine with the 14 colors in my travel set, but now I have 45. That won't necessarily make my paintings better, but it is might make painting easier and more fun. Today I started by added pinks and yellows  to the windows, reflecting the buildings across the street,  I worked on a few of the buildings, but spent a lot of time on the road, trying to make it behave, and to make the perspective work. To be continued. . . .

Lovely Guimarães (Watercolor) as of July 29, 2020

This is my watercolor of Guimarães, Portugal, based on a photo that I took during last summer's visit to Portugal.  (My reference is posted here July 24.) After three days of sketching to get the composition in place, I finally started adding color. To be continued. . .

Lovely Guimarães (Sketch for Painting) as of July 28, 2020

Today I continuing working on this sketch for a painting, based on a photo that I took in Portugal last summer. See my painting reference posted here July 24.  Today I worked on the perspective. I am doing the work in pencil because I don't want to make major mistakes with the watercolor.  My drawing is more precise than the painting is going to be. But I wanted to get the perspective right. I hope to start painting tomorrow.

Lovely Guimarães (Sketch for Painting) as of July 27, 2020

I am getting ready to start another watercolor painting. This is going to be based on a photo that I took on a lovely street in Guimarães, Portugal, last July.  My photo reference is posted here on July 25.  Today I continued with my sketch. I am trying to get the perspective right, and struggling to make all those buildings go downhill. It is hard to fix mistakes in watercolor, so I want to get the placement right before I start to paint. 

Lovely Guimarães (Sketch for Painting) as of July 26, 2020

Today I started sketching in the composition for a watercolor, based on a photo that I took in Portugal last July.  (See my post of July 25 to see my photo reference.)  I was having trouble with the perspective.  I turned the painting and the photo reference upside-down, and that helped.

Lovely Guimarães (Reference for Painting)

I am getting ready to start another watercolor, this time based on a photo that I took on a busy street in Guimaraes.  For the past few days, I have been working on transforming the photo in a painting reference. I used some of Painter's digital magic to remove a number of parked cars and unsuspecting pedestrians (posted here July 23 and 24). The final step was to get the square image into a rectangular format.  So again I used Painter to add space to the top and bottom of the image. Then I used cut-and-paste and digital pastel to add the missing information (sky, building, cobblestone). Finally, I printed the image and am ready to start the painting tomorrow.

Lovely Guimarães (Posterized Photo)

I am planning to start another watercolor, a scene of a street in Guimarães, Portugal.  This is going to be based on a photo that I took last summer, posted here on July 22.  Yesterday, I used Painter to modify the original photo, removing the all the cars.  Just for fun, I decided to try adding Painter's posterizing effect. I liked the result, and am posting it today.

Lovely Guimarães (Digitally Modified Photo)

This is a digitally altered version of the photo that I posted here yesterday, a view of a busy street in Guimarães, Portugal. I took the original photo last July, from the passenger's seat of Mauro's car. We were looking for a parking place, and it wasn't easy to find one.  But you don't see any cars in this version. I want to use this photo as a painting reference for a watercolor. So yesterday,  I used my Painter program in my computer to remove all the cars (using a combination of cut-and-paste and digital pastel). This gives me a better idea of the composition, and something that I can work from more easily.  (And now, there's lots of parking!) I was having fun with this and decided to create a posterized version, which I plan to post here tomorrow.

Lovely Guimaraes (Photo)

I am planning to start another watercolor painting, so today I looked through some of my photos from last year's trip to Portugal.  I took this photo on a street in Guimaraes, a beautiful city about an hour north of Porto. There was nothing special about this particular street; we were driving and looking for a place to park Mauro's car and walk to the town center. I took this picture from the passenger's seat.  I love the subtle pastel colors and especially the rose, peach, and yellow reflections in the windows.  After I found this photo, I created a little digital preview to see what the composition might look like without the cars, and I plan to post that tomorrow.

Porto Hillside Near San Luis Bridge (Watercolor)

This morning I worked on this project. Last July, during a visit to Porto, I took a walk over the San Luis Bridge with Mauro Maschkvich, who took the photograph that inspired this painting. I have really enjoyed working on this because it brings back such lovely memories of that trip.   It has been fun wandering through this scene in my imagination.Today I adjusted a few colors and added some little details.  Now I am ready to call it finished, although no doubt I will find little mistakes to fix. But there are more scenes of Portugal to paint. . . 

Porto Hillside Near San Luis Bridge (Watercolor) as of July 20, 2020

I continued to work on this project today.  This painting was inspired by a photo taken by Mauro Maschkvich during our walk over the San Luis Bridge last July. Today I worked on the hillside in the distance, trying to even out the color. Then I made a lot of small corrections and added some small details. I thought I could finish today, but I realized that I was rushing. It is better to slow down and make better decisions, so I decided I wanted one more day to add a few details, modify a few colors, and check for mistakes. 

Porto Hillside Near the San Luis Bridge (Watercolor) as of July 19, 2020

Today I returned to this project. This painting was inspired by a photo taken by Mauro Maschkvich during our walk over the San Luis Bridge in Porto last July. Today I worked on the hillside across the river (Vila Nova de Gaia), and also added detail to the houses on the Porto side.  This painting is nearing the finish line.  

Porto Hillside Near San Luis Bridge (Watercolor) as of July 18, 2020

This morning, I continued work on this painting, based on a photo taken by Mauro Maschkvich during our walk across the San Luis Bridge last summer.  Today I added some detail to the windows on the "Porto" side of the painting, and then added some colors and shapes to the opposite side of the river, which is Vila Nova de Gaia. The larger buildings on that side are port houses. 

Porto Hillside Near San Luis Bridge (Watercolor) as of July 17, 2020

I returned to this project this morning.  This painting was inspired by a photo taken by Mauro Maschkvich last summer during our walk over the San Luis Bridge in Porto.  Today I adjusted the colors of the sky and water. I added some details to the houses on the hillside - windows and tile roofs -  and added some trees and buildings to the other side of the river (Vila Nova de Gaia, where the port houses are located).  

Porto Hillside Near San Luis Bridge (Watercolor) as of July 16, 2020

This morning I continued work on this watercolor, a painting inspired by a photo taken by Mauro Maschkvich during our walk over the San Luis Bridge in Porto last summer. First, I worked on the vines, and blue shadow to tie the shapes together. Then I added a bit of definition to the stairs. Finally, I began painting the overcast sky.

Porto Hillside Near San Luis Bridge (Watercolor) as of July 15, 2020

This morning I continued working on this project. This painting is inspired by a photo taken by Mauro Maschkvich last July during our walk over the San Luis Bridge in Porto (see post for July 6). Today I added detail to the roof in the foreground, and also concentrated on the stone walls and vines on the right side of the picture.

Porto Hillside Near San Luis Bridge (Watercolor) as of July 14, 2020

I worked on this project again this morning.  Last summer, I took a walk over the San Luis Bridge in Porto with Mauro Maschkvich, whose photo of this scene inspired this painting.  I adapted his photo to use as a painting reference (posted here July 6).  Today I began by lifting some color from the walls and vines to add more light and to suggest texture. I made other small changes, but the big decision I made was in how to handle the foreground.  In my photo reference, in the foreground there is an abandoned building with no roof, and ivy growing over the interior walls.  It is a very interesting view, but I thought it would be too confusing in this painting. Suddenly I had the idea of just painting the roof back on that building! It fit perfectly and I liked the idea because I love the clay rooftops of Portugal. To be continued. . . .

Porto Hillside Near the San Luis Bridge (Watercolor) as of July 13, 2020

I returned to this project this morning. This painting was inspired by a photo taken by Mauro Maschkvich during our stroll across the San Luis Bridge in Porto last summer.  Today I worked mainly on the wall and the vines, but did a little bit of work on those orange tile roofs.

Porto Hillside Near San Luis Bridge (Watercolor) as of July 12, 2020

I worked on this project today. This watercolor is inspired by a photo taken by Mauro Maschkvich last summer during a walk of the San Luis Bridge in Porto. Today I did some work on the houses, but most of my time was spent on the wall and all those vines. To be continued. . . .

Porto Hillside Near San Luis Bridge (Watercolor) as of July 11, 2020

Today I returned to this project, inspired by a photo taken by Mauro Maschkvich during our walk over the San Luis Bridge in Porto last summer.  I reworked the color of that little yellow-orange building, and then started adding detail to the buildings and stone walls. 

Porto Hillside Near San Luis Bridge (Watercolor) as of July 10, 2020

I worked on this painting again today.  My inspiration is a photo taken by Mauro Maschkvich last July during our walk over the San Luis Bridge.  Today I began by changing the color of the peach-colored house.  I struggled to get the color right and am admitting here that I "cheated" by using some opaque white acrylic paint on that house so I could cover up the previous color and begin again.  After that I began to relax and have fun, feeling like I was wandering through this complicated landscape.  I added some boats docked on the Douro River, and some of the big "Port houses" on the opposite bank (Vila Nova de Gaia), and continued work on the many, many vine-covered walls on the Porto side.

Porto Hillside Near San Luis Bridge (Watercolor) as of July 9, 2020

This morning I continued work on this watercolor, based a lovely memory of Portugal from my trip last summer, a walk over the San Luis Bridge in Porto with Mauro Maschkvich, whose photo inspired this painting.

Porto Hillside Near San Luis Bridge (Watercolor) as of July 8, 2020

With this painting, I am returning to my "Watercolors of Portugal" series, drawing from photos from last summer's visit, as well as previous trips. One of the highlights of my last trip was a walk over the San Luis Bridge in Porto. A photo taken by Mauro Maschkvich during that walk is the inspiration for this painting. I modified the photo on the computer to turn it into a painting reference, posted here July 6.  Yesterday's post shows my sketch of the composition for this painting. Today I finally started painting.

Porto Hillside from San Luis Bridge (Composition for Painting)

I am getting ready to paint a watercolor from my trip to Portugal last summer, continuing a series "Watercolors of Portugal".  Last night and this morning, working from my photo reference (posted here yesterday), I sketched in the composition, using pencil on watercolor paper.  Tomorrow I hope to start painting.

Porto from Bridge (Digitally Modified Photo for Painting Reference)

I am planning to return to my "Watercolors of Portugal" series.  There is plenty of material in the photos from last year's trip, as well as from the trip before that.  Last summer, I walked over the San Luis Bridge (still amazed that I did that) and was rewarded with this view of the houses on the hills in Porto. The original version of this photo, taken by Mauro Maschkvich, will be the inspiration for my next painting. To turn the original photo into a painting reference, I used my Painter software to remove some graffiti on the hillside walls, a few skyscrapers in the distance, as well as an image of myself, in a bright pink windbreaker, transfixed by the view.

Picnic Cake (photo with Prisma filter)

Two days ago, I finished the drawing that will be an illustration for "Grandma Aptaker's Picnic Cake" in our food blog, Seasoning for Every Palate.  Yesterday, I baked this cake using Grandma's recipe (delicious!).  I took a picture and added a Prisma filter.  I plan to use this photo for the blog post as well.

Reposting: Fourth of July

Reposting this little animation that I created on my iPad several years ago.  Sending this out to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday, and a safe and happy holiday for pets, too!

Picnic Cake (Recipe Illustration)

This is the final version of my recipe illustration for Grandma Aptaker's Picnic Cake.  Today I used Painter to clean up the image and add a border. I plan to post this soon, along with the recipe, on our food blog, Seasoning for Every Palate. But first, I think I will bake a cake. . . .

Picnic Cake (Recipe Illustration) as of July 2, 2020

This is the project I have been working on, an illustration for a recipe to be published in our food blog, Seasoning for Every Palate . Today, I added the changes that I tried yesterday on the computer.  Then I finished applying color with conte and sharpies.  I would pronounce this finished, but I am still planning to make corrections on the computer.  Now, I need to bake that cake. . . .

Picnic Cake (Digital Trial Run)

I have been working on this recipe illustration for our food blog, Seasoning for Every Palate  For several days,  I have been thinking of added to the background of the drawing, but wasn't sure how the composition and color scheme would work. So before making changes on the actual drawing, today I used Painter to do a digital trial run. What you see here is a hybrid image, a photo of my drawing with proposed  background changes and other details sketched in on the computer with Painter's digital pastel.  This was definitely worth doing. I decided that I like the changes, so tomorrow will make the changes on the actual drawing.