Sarah's Painting Journal

I finally delivered my pet portrait commission today but I was in such a hurry to get it out of the house before I changed my mind that I forgot to photograph the final version so I will have to go and visit it sometime to record it. They seemed to be pleased with it, [...]

Here is my further progress on my pet portrait commission. I have tried to punch up the contrast a bit but I am still very unsure of the expressions. My source material is so scant and I barely know the annimals in question having only “met” them once. I guess I will let this dry [...]

I have always avoided commissions (usually by quoting such an exorbitant price that I manage to scare the client away).

I spent some more time finishing off my pochade.
I replaced the hinges and clasp and made a brace from a couple of mending strips. I have an old camera tripod which is missing the block that is supposed to screw into the camera. So I made a mounting block out of three pieces of boxwood [...]

Well I made some progress today. Whether this will be worth the time I am putting into it remains to be seen. I must have spent two hours this morning seeking out the right hardware. Everything I have read insists that it is essential to replace the existing hardware with something sturdier, so I have [...]

I have been thinking for some time that I wanted to replace my antique pochade with something a little less precious. The one I have belonged to my grandfather and is at least 100 years old. I have looked at the commercially available ones and they are mostly too big, too expensive or too fancy. [...]

For more information and to see the finished painting, see My Daily Painting Blog.

Well I am beginning to think that this was a mistake, that just because it worked at 7X5 doesn’t prevent it from being a monumental waste of canvas at 20X16. I guess that is pretty usual at this stage but with my smaller paintings it happens after about 10 minutes, not a week. I will [...]

So I decided to choose this one for my January Monthly painting. I have painted it twice already, last January and earlier this month, and it has been a popular subject. It is 20″ X 16″ and I hope to retain some of the spontaneity of the original while using the advantages of allowing some [...]

This  little watercolour was done about 7 years ago. I thought about it when I went out to paint this lunchtime. When I got to the spot I had chosen I realized that I had forgotten to fill up my water reservoir, so I had to resort to markers again.