Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Leopard Love


Roaring Leopard, Watercolor


Leopard, Watercolor on Gesso




Hi Everyone!

Hope you had a fun and creative week. I had a pretty great week in that I sold my colorful giraffe painting so that was good. It snowed on Tuesday but I do NOT want to talk about it! I want spring and I want to see all the little shoots coming up in my garden.

I am still fascinated by wild cats. First I did a colorful loose watercolor of a Roaring Leopard who is full of vim and vigor and color. Then I painted another roaring leopard on paper I first coated with gesso. It certainly makes for a very intriguing effect - very textural and more muted.

I am enjoying experimenting with watercolor. I have learnt to love the way it just does its own thing - ebbing and flowing and pooling and dribbling. And sometimes I just have to rein in the temptation to remove sections of paint I have just laid down that don't seem right and instead just let it drip and dry the way it wants to because you can't tell what it is going to look like until it dries. What an infuriating yet fascinating process!

What about you? Do you like working with watercolor or does it bother you that sometimes it has a mind of its own?

Linking up with #PoCoLo:


Post Comment Love

20 comments:

  1. Love your leopard,he is georgus,yery expressive eyes,wonderful.
    the other painting with your little giraffe its to amazing,beautiful colors as well.

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  2. oh my goodness! I'm loving these. The top is so abstract and full of emotion

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  3. Love the dynamic colors! Great leopard artwork, and happy PPF!

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  4. Oh, such vivid and colorful paintings, love the eyes!

    I like when water colors choose their own way.
    Sometimes!

    Snow, oh no. In Finland the spring is early, for once!

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  5. Thank you for the lovely comment on my blog! So glad that I found yours that way - wonderful watercolouring! LOVE the lightness and liveliness in your work!

    Claudia x

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  6. Love that first snarly leopard. He looks like he wants to jump out of the painting. Cool loose style too!

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  7. Love your leos, great work. Valerie

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  8. you captured both the predator and the sweetness of this animal. Personally I prefer the second one-but that's just my nature. I used to stay with someone with Alzheimer's and he LOVED the Big Cat Diary show on tv. I got hooked -but I also teared up every time an animal was captured for food...

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  9. What beautiful expressive pieces. I must admit to enjoying the unpredictability of watercolour but I am a recent convert too and still learning how to use it. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

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  10. Both paintings are wonderful. It seems as though gesso keeps the watercolor from moving on the paper but it's hard to tell online. I paint in acrylics and a bit of oil but love that watercolors are so much cleaner. I also like the softer look that watercolors give but Im not yet ready to give up the acrylics just yet.

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  11. These leopards are gorgeous! I adore the gesso one, love the eyes!
    Beautiful work Emma.
    Annabelle : )

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  12. Wow those leopards are very powerful! Good job!

    Hugs Giggles

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  13. I love both the painting but especially love the sly love in Leopard #2’s eyes. You work such magic with watercolors.

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  14. Wow, I love all the color! They give the cats great movement and energy. Gorgeous! I also love your giraffes! I wish I knew how to use watercolors. I adore the look but I'm just awful with them. :)

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  15. Very cool! I especially like the way the colors blend in the first one. It makes it almost dream-like. :)

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  16. Lovely paintings........I'm not artistic in the slightest but my dad had a real talent for painting and drawing, he used watercolours a lot, he also liked charcoal for drawing.
    #PoCoLo

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  17. These are beautiful - particularly the second one. I love watercolours because they seem to have a dream-like effect to them. Thank you for linking to PoCoLo :) x

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  18. Beautiful leopards! I love how the colors are so fluid.

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