Watercolor Warfare

My co-painting collaborator has been down and out lately.

While she’s under the weather, I’ve been busy with my new favorite style.

…watercolors.

Here’s a few I’ve slathered up. Please enjoy:

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Stygian Tree

For Stygian Tree, I wanted a slightly Asian theme. Bold colors, stark lines, graceful curves. This painting was both fun and rewarding to create.

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Diabolos

A friend asked me to paint/draw a tattoo. It’s a request I’ve often received, but usually avoided. Drawing tattoos doesn’t really pay, and then there’s the whole ‘this will be on someone’s skin forever’ pressure.

But…

With Diabolos I made an exception.

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Daemonic

Using a similar style to Diabolos, I popped the cork on a bottle of Apothic Red wine and went nuts on a huge sheet of watercolor paper. I let the paint flow as it willed, and Daemonic was born.

Sometimes the most interesting pieces arise from a total lack of planning…

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Magi

Who’s everyone’s favorite Egyptian god? Anubis, that’s right! This one’s huge, and it sold mere moments after I posted it. Truth is…I’ll miss it. I had visions of framing it above my bed.

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Hallowed Slopes

Trees. Mountains. A minimalist style. If I’m being honest, I painted this one while deep in my cups. I still like it. But perhaps it’s missing something?

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Gravity

For ‘Gravity’ I decided to use an intense blend of greens, blues, and blacks. I’m not sure I’ve ever had more fun painting. I pretty much went wild with the brush, using huge, wavy strokes to create the gravitational waves.

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Caryatid

For Caryatid, I began with a charcoal/graphite base, then slathered on heavily-watered paint. The combo is unusual, I admit. The subject matter…well…maybe unusual for me. Maybe not. 🙂

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Fireroot

Most of my watercolors, I finish within a single day. I like to keep the painting surface wet and pliable (and easily changed.) But with Fireroot, I kept coming back for more. I wetted and re-wetted four separate times. What at first was a lighthearted forest scene grew darker, thornier, and shadowy-er.

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Shadow Walk

And finally, here’s one I’m not quite done with. We’ve got an Asian-looking tower, some deep blue hills, and the hints of twilight clouds. The plan is to darken the sky considerably.

…and make the moonlight furious.

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Thanks for stopping by.

Prints are available here.

For purchase inquiries, hit me up on Facebook, Twitter, or via email. Most of my watercolors are $20. (They’ll need to be mounted and framed.)

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J Edward Neill

Heart of the Forest

Heart of the Forest by Amanda Makepeace

Art post! Yeah, I couldn’t think up something clever to write this week, so here’s a magical tree I painted for an online art challenge – Colour and Texture ArtOrder Challenge.

The glowing symbol in the middle of the tree comes from the Ogham alphabet. It’s the name for Oak and means Strength. I imagine this to be an old, moss covered tree–the heart of a magical forest. I’ve ordered a cotton rag print that I’ll be embellishing, mounting, and framing. If you’re going to Jordan Con 2015 you’ll see it in the Art Show!