Bringing Home All The Fun!

Join me in Ireland this September, on a sketchbook tour! I'll teach you watercolor sketching techniques & you'll be bringing home fantastic memories & new skills. #art #travel #Ireland #sketchbook #watercolour

A video posted by Roxanne Steed (@roxannesteed) on Feb 18, 2016 at 8:08am PST

I've been enjoying a bit of fun on Instagram (just look for roxannesteed on there. I had never tried taking those little video shorts - oh my goodness, now that is a cute little blast of fun.  Hoping to share it here with you. Just working on some sketches, planning our trip to Ireland this September 11th through the 18th.  For specific details of our trip, you'll want to check out this link.  

Can a place be exciting, mysterious, beautiful, charming, restorative, and intriguing? Well, it is all of these things on Valentia Island and the surrounding areas that we go painting and exploring. I've been back many times now, I'm starting to feel like a local. Our host Barbara Mastaglio lives there part of the year, and takes us places that "the regular tourists" don't get to see or experience.  I do hope you'll join us. For all levels of sketching experience- I'll teach you techniques to use, and you'll be bringing home all the fun - memories you'll treasure forever. 

Commissioned Paintings - Giving Your Buyers Some Choices

Commissioned pieces are so much fun for me! Helping someone commemorate a special time in their life is truly a delight...and I don't take it for granted that I'm very lucky to be able to do that and share in that joy!

When I got the call to take on this project, my new collector had a wonderful reference photo from her travels. I knew I would be able to have some real creative fun with this! First was to take her photo and play with some possible focal points. By changing up the values and color of certain items; flowers, walls, cast shadows - the photo could be interpreted a bit differently.  I made 2 different color studies (smaller, but to scale) and photographed them along the way as I painted. That way if I went too far and didn't like the changes...I already had a version of where I coulda/shoulda stopped! 

Here's an example- before I added the cast shadow joining the two buildings, I had this area with no shadow down the center walk-path. 

 

The second painting I'll have the focal point on the right side of the painting. First I'll have it be on a small grouping of white flowers that happened to be in the original painting. 

 Then, I decided to carry the design of the white flowers up to the turquoise-blue door on the right, for a bit more impact, like this:

Now, that my buyer has had time to peruse some ideas, she has pulled together her favorite parts. This is what I enjoy about a commission - making it a collaboration. So they understand the choices along the way, each party taking the time to enjoy the process.  

Now, I'm off to work on scaling up this drawing:

 

onto my freshly gessoed panel. 

If you follow along on my blog, you'll get to see what my clients have selected .....oooh- this is going to be fun! (I love this part!).

 

I'll be leading a sketchbook workshop in Ireland this September. Mark your calendars for September 11-18, 2016. Bring back a personal treasure that you'll be sure to enjoy! I'll be updating info here on my website, shortly!