That Moment When...

That moment when your son looks at something you painted and says, "Mom, that's so cool! I want one."

The Golden Snitch
Watercolor painted on a page from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Today my son popped by for a visit. When he saw this little watercolor, he lit up and told me he loved it and he wanted one. 
Feeling like a Rock Star, not gonna lie.


Hours and hours of happy memories spent with him sharing that magical world as he was growing up. I can't wait to paint some dementors, a hippogriff and a patronus or two. 

I had so much fun bringing one of my favorite little bits of the Harry Potter world and games of quidditch to life. 
I started with a little color study I did once upon a time in golds. 
Whenever I take the time to work out a color test, I always log the colors so that if I like the effect created I can go back and create them again if I ever want to.  Really glad I did that a few months ago in this case.  It was just what I needed as a reference.  This is the drawing on the page before I started adding any color.

Starting to add layers of yellows and amber to build up the golden tones.

 
And done! A little bit of magic flitting around the art studio. 
 

                   

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                                 (¸.•´ (¸.•´        Chaunine Joy

Wishing You All A Happy Saturday!

Headed into the art studio now...

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                                 (¸.•´ (¸.•´        Chaunine Joy

Learning to Use Watercolors With Miss Cleo

Concept sketch and final painting of Cleo the Goldfish from Pinocchio.

One of my favorite characters in Pinocchio is sweet little Cleo the goldfish swimming in her bowl in Geppetto's workshop. She is a forgotten Disney Princess if you ask me.
She was an easy choice when I was looking for something fun and colorful to paint and learn a little more about working with watercolor paints. I am still in the process of learning how to work with watercolor and how each new layer affects the layers I put down before. A few of the highlights that I add at the very end are white acrylic paint or white gesso.


Here you see the pen and ink outline I did of her before I started to add layers of color.  I started by first adding the soft pale yellows as a base to start building up layers of color and eventually end up with her beautiful, glowing, golden color.


Newman, true to form is as close as he can get to the artwork I am working on.  He would be sitting on it if I would let him get away with it. He is supervising me as I paint and thinking that Cleo would probably be pretty tasty.

 
Overall I'm really pleased with how this cute water-baby with her flirty eyelashes turned out.

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                                 (¸.•´ (¸.•´        Chaunine Joy

Singing Jack-O-Lantern - Haunted Mansion Holiday - Nightmare Before Christmas

One of the singing pummpkins from the Haunted Mansion
Nightmare Before Christmas Holiday at Disneyland.

When two of my favorite things, The Haunted Mansion and the Nightmare Before Christmas come together, it's a beautiful thing.
I'm working on my watercolor painting skills. In the past I've used watercolor pencils quit a bit which gives me a lot of control on where the color goes when I'm working on a piece,but I love the glow that you get when you work with watercolors in the more traditional sense.   

I started with this concept sketch of some of the singing jack-o-lanterns to get a feel for what I wanted to do. I just love the blues and whites of the snow in contrast with the orange and yellow glow of the pumpkins.  That color combination is one of my very favorite combinations to work with in acrylic.  I was excited to start experimenting with watercolors and see what they could do.

¸¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪   There's children throwing snowballs, instead of throwing heads   ¸¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪
¸¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪   They're busy building toys and absolutely no one's dead   ¸¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪

In the end I'm really happy with the way the colors came out and already onto my next piece of Cleo from Pinocchio.

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                ¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨) 

                                 (¸.•´ (¸.•´        Chaunine Joy