Finishing the African Ladies Trio

 I know this is a day late and a dollar short, but I wanted to finish discussing the color version of this painting. Here is the finished color version.

The buckets on their heads needed some definition and some form, so I shaded them to give them a more round effect. (here is what they looked like before I did that)

I wanted to put in little mounds on the sides of the hill.

I darkened the shadows beneath the hems of the skirts. I also connected the shadows to the feet.

I went the top of the hill about 2 inches and added a blend of green, magenta, and burnt orange for a distant background.

I added some patterns to two of the skirts, and lifted out some highlights, especially in the folds and in the buckets on their heads. I also darkened shadows on the skin. I also darkened the road on the bottom to give even more of a feeling of the hill.

I think it would be interesting to do a notan of the colored picture to see how close the values come to my value study. 

Two Christmas Cards

 True confessions: I used ideas from two YouTubers, Ellen Crimi-Trent for a loose card, and Julia Lis Art for the black and white card.

This loose painting comes from Ellen Crimi-Trent. It's a method I would call construct-deconstruct-reconstruct. You paint some general forms and dry the painting. Then, with a brush and water, you loosen the paint and allow it to run in different directions, occasionally adding in some other color. Then, after you have "deconstructed" and loosened the paint, you dry it. Then you "reconstruct" by adding paint, using metallic paints, spattering, making more hard edges, etc. 

The full tutorial is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY2IM5jVi-o

The second card, the deer in a forest by Julia Lis Art,  is actually much easier than I expected. I did a few things differently than the video. Here are a few things you might change up:

1. For the oval, instead of drawing it, I slightly scored around an oval shape. No erasing necessary, and the paint stays inside the oval. You might also consider cutting the oval out of a piece of contact paper and applying the frame to the paper. This will keep your outer paper clean while painting. (Especially if you tend to make a mess, like me.)

2. You do not have to make a deer. You can just do the trees or add another forest critter...squirrel, cardinal, fox, or even a couple walking hand in hand. 

3. You could also have one small part of it a different color, such as red.

4. The tutorial colors the deer silhouette all the same value. I left a rear leg a lighter value to make it seem a little more distant.

The full tutorial for this is Watercolor deer in forest painting for beginners » EASY step by step winter painting tutorial - YouTube

If you do a picture inside a circle instead of an oval, it would look very much like a snow globe, which would also be cool.