New Watercolor Portrait

COLORADO CUTIE

PORTRAIT PRICE LIST

MORE HANNE LORE KOEHLER PORTRAITS

 

Order your child's portrait early to avoid the Christmas rush!

This Colorado Cutie is Julia. I have just completed this watercolor portrait of Julia as a young girl commissioned by her aunt as a gift for Julia's graduation.

The photo that she sent as reference was taken many years ago in her backyard in daylight, which made it a pleasure to work from; however, the background was not very pleasing or complementary to the beautiful image of the child. Her aunt requested that I paint a Colorado autumn scene in the background with gorgeous fall Aspen colors. I splashed tones of yellow, orange and brown to represent the leaves of Aspen trees and then strategically painted some tree trunks and branches so they would not interfere with the portrait. I painted some blue sky areas to complement the blue denim jacket. We could not tell from the photo the color of Julia's eyes so I reflected the blue jean jacket and sunlight in her eyes to make them sparkle. I fell in love with Julia's precious ponytails and to make them stand out, I painted the background much darker and left plenty of white sunlit highlights to accent her delightful fly-away hair.

Julia is now a beautiful young lady with a bright future. All the best, sweetie!

Painting Composition

FAMILY PORTRAIT

 Family Portrait On The Dock

Original painting size: 22" x 30"

Framed to size 32" x 40"

Prints are available in various sizes, styles and prices.

I composed this painting of a family enjoying a summer vacation on the dock of their cottage in Muskoka using several photographs of different sizes: the cottage, the dock, the Muskoka chairs and individual photos for each family member. It was quite the challenge to get the sizes of each item in the right proportion, perspective and lighting to unify the different elements of this painting and make the scene look natural.

It would have been much easier to paint this scene using a single photgraph with a single light source and proportionate elements as reference; however, this was just not available. The family did not take many photgraphs and, at the time that I was entrusted to paint this family heirloom, sadly, one of the parents was deceased and the boy had grown up. By scanning at least eight different photos of various sizes into the computer, I was able to arrange and rearrange and resize each element until I was satisfied with the composition. I could then use this "image combo" as a basic reference with proportionate sizes of each element for my detailed pencil drawing on canvas. When it came time to do the actual painting, I had to choose a single light source so that all the shadows would be consistent in order to create a unified natural looking scene.

To add to the degree of difficulty of the project was that the medium chosen was watercolor which meant that once the paint was on the watercolor canvas, it was there to stay. In addition, white paint should never be used in a watercolor painting. The white that you see is the white of the canvas so that, if you want to keep certain areas white or very light, this has to be planned and mapped out in advance.

Although this was a difficult and challenging project, I thoroughly enjoyed the process. I love it when a painting comes together. I welcome your inquiry into the commission of an original  watercolor portrait, oil  painting or acrylic painting. Satisfaction guaranteed. International clients welcome! 

Watercolor Lesson

AIR FORCE

Visit my website for price, size and style details of the original painting of this aerial skier and order prints online.  

I recently received this charming email from a highschool student:

Hello, Mrs. Koehler!

I just found your gallery and am totally blown away!! How you do what you do with all the detail in your paintings, and in watercolor, is amaaaaazing!!! Just wondering, do you use reference photos most of the time? Or is it all out of your head? And how do you get such detail with watercolor? What size brushes do you use?
Sorry for all the questions, but I am enchanted with your work! I hope to be as good as you someday! Would you take a look at my page? Please? Thank you!!
Keep up the stunning work!
Emily

Here is my response to Emily. Perhaps it will peek your interest to try watercolor, too.

Thank you for your thoughtful comments, Emily. I was happy to visit your site and find such lovely work - very mature for a fifteen-year-old. You are very talented and it appears you are beginning to develop your own style in your preference to draw portraits.

As for watercolor - give it a try! This medium cries out for experimentation. Start out by brushing a layer of plain water onto a piece of watercolor paper - let it soak in but not dry. Add a wet layer of Prussian Blue on top. (Artist color in a tube works better than student color - less grainy). Wait patiently while the shine disappears from this layer. Before it dries, add a little sprinkle of salt. Now, the hard part is to wait until completely dry without touching your work. Just watch the magic that happens! Voila!! ... snow  ...stars  ...frost ...whatever your imagination says it is!

I use a combination of reference photos, painting from memory, and experimentation with the medium to create a painting. I use brushes of all sizes, from a 2" house painting brush to the smallest artist brush for fine detail. The more detailed the subject, the less water gets mixed with your paint.

That should get you started - if not hooked - on watercolor! When it comes to watercolor, experimentation is the best teacher. No one can tell you what to do better than if you try different things yourself. No pressure, no one to impress, no exams! If it doesn't work, try again with different timing, less water, more water, more color. Have fun with it!!!

 Hope you will have fun, too!!!