A Geek's Guide to Making Art

I was educated as a scientist, and came to art very late in life. I like to experiment with different approaches and media. Lately, I have been playing with watercolor. I love the luminosity of the pigments in watercolors. My favorite teacher, Emma Skurnick, has been guiding me in the layering of watercolor and various pencil effects.


I am not very good at drawing, so I use photographs to help me get the basic dimensions down on paper.
Here are the steps that I took in creating a painting of a fellow artist's wonderful horse. Click on the images to see more detail.
First I took a photo of her.

I also took a picture of a window in the barn on the property.

In Photoshop, I combined the two shots into a basic composition.

I printed the combination photo and, using a light box, traced the basic design. After scanning the traced image, I printed it on watercolor paper.

Using watercolors, I blocked out the basic planes of the painting.

Finally, I added details with colored pencil, watercolor pencil and pastel pencil.
I call the piece Homebody.