A Wildlife workshop with David N. Kitler

I just got back from a 4 day workshop with David N. Kitler. What a fantastic time I had!

He's a great teacher and an inspiring artist. He lives in Calgary and travels all over the world to study animals on location. Here's his website so you can check out his work. http://www.davidkitler.com/ WOW is all I can say! I'm looking forward to taking more workshops from him in the future.

I'm not showing the painting I'm working on til it's finished. (It's in the "early ugly" stage) But I will show the reference photo that was taken in Africa by my son David on one of his trips.

Hopefully I will get some more time this week to work on it. Do you like the idea of learning to paint wildlife? Let me know below!

September is done!!

Oh well! Best laid plans and all that jazz!  Life really happens sometimes. I have been painting regularly but haven't finished any of the projects I've been working on so the 30 paintings in September didn't happen.

There was a website that had to be launched and several things that had to be fixed up after the launch...Check out this site I was working on for most of the summer. www.kwsa.ca  It's a website for our local artist's society.

And I got sick and didn't feel much like picking up a brush for a while!

But that's enough excuses - I am looking forward to really launching my new website and launching a couple of different ventures.

Keepsakes Coffee and Canvas Parties
The latest thing to hit KW! So much fun! How it works...

You invite some friends to your home or office and I teach you how to paint a painting in 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Simple, contemporary designs. You don't have to know how to be an artist, I teach you how to paint step-by-step.  You can also come to my cozy home studio.  Check out the Coffee and Canvas parties on my website for more details.

Beginner Acrylic Classes
I have a new Beginner Acrylic class starting on Nov. 14th. It's 4 weeks long and all the supplies are included in the cost. You will complete 3 to 5 small projects and learn all the basics.

Check out my Beginner Class page to find out all the details!!

Treasured Teapots

Our local Sketchclub that meets at the Button Factory went on a field trip to the Antique Market. Our challenge was to sketch items that we could "collage" into a painting. I chose teapots and managed to find quite a few different shapes and sizes. So these are 'Treasured Teapots' from yesteryear.

Watercolour in my Sketchbook 10x14"

Tiger Swallowtail on Dandelions

Tiger Swallowtail on Dandelions. 7x9" Watercolour and Ink.
I'm a little behind because I've had a bad cold and haven't looked at a brush for a couple of days!
So much fun to do all the black with pen and then see it come to life when you add the colour :-)

YOU can do this!!

These two lively sisters were students of mine.  Suzanne and Ricki. They are sisters. They didn't know how to paint at all when they started in September, but by the next fall they were painting like this! And loving it!

Inch by inch, it's a cinch!

My very first painting

My next door neighbour, Sylvia talked me into going to a Decorative Painting class at a nearby craft store.

Decorative painting - for those who don't know, is a painting style where you paint decorative designs on useful objects like wooden items, fabric, glass or non-useful surfaces like paper or canvas. It may include stencilling and faux finishing as well as many other techniques that are also learned in a step by step process.  It's a great way for people to learn how to paint.

I had already seen many painted projects in craft magazines but at the time there were no wood pieces in craft stores to paint on and I didn't have a way to cut wood myself, so I had just looked and wished I could paint. After this class, I found supplies and borrowed a bandsaw from my dad to cut the wood pieces, and I painted all my Christmas presents that year! This is the cute angel I painted in that first class many years ago - the beginning of my artistic journey. I probably painted this angel 5 or 6 times after that first class - a great way to practice.

I'm not sure now who the artist was who designed this angel (Rita Martin?) - nor the name of the teacher - but I am sure grateful that she gave me a start. 

I will be starting to teach painting classes this fall so if you would like to learn how to paint just send me an email and I will fill you in on the details. 

You can get started any time in my Open Studio classes and you can choose from my extensive library of samples and designs so if angels like this aren't your thing we can find something you DO like that will tickle your fancy. Styles have certainly changed over the years...but the techniques you learn can be applied to any style or design. If you've heard about Painting parties or maybe even attended one, we have the same thing going on in my home studio every week. Most of the supplies are included so it's simple to come and make it and take it!  This makes for a fun, night out for you and maybe a friend or two!!

Don't wait! Treat yourself, and maybe you will even have some paintings to give to your friends and family by this Christmas - something you made yourself!

Bleeding Hearts Step #4 Final painting

For the final stage of my Bleeding Hearts watercolour, I deepened the red on the hearts, and added some very light shading to the white parts of the flower along with adding seeds. Then I toned down all the lightest leaves - adding yellow-green where the light was shining on the leaves and adding more violet shades and darker blue-green shades to add variation to the leaves. 

I gave it a rest and took some photos. I noticed some leaves that were advancing too much into the foreground so I toned them down a bit and tidied up some edges - softening others. When I was happy, I signed my name, framed the painting and framed it. 

I entered it into the KWSA member's show in June and I'm thrilled to say the original has sold already!!

I will arrange to have prints that you can order online and those should be available soon.

Bleeding Hearts Step 3

Step three...

I decided on the placement of the main leaves using the colours of the background so there would be a variation of interesting colour in them. I transferred the leaves onto the paper, and started to darken some of the areas where I want lots of contrast. 

Wetting the paper in sections I dropped in paint to make darker green and green-blue and yellow-green areas around the leaves. I used the background that was already there as a starting point. Using 2 brushes, one to apply the paint and another damp brush to soften edges so I didn’t get hard lines I worked my way around the outside of leaves. I prefer a softer blended look for my watercolours. 

It was quite a fiddly job painting around the little hearts but I want to see all the areas of the painting progress at the same time. I was trying to darken the edges but keep light in the centre to draw your eye to the main object which is the flowers. 

The background hearts are there as background so I purposely make the red bleed into the green and fuzz the edges so they disappear a bit more. This step of negative painting probably took me the longest since I had to put on several layers to get some of the areas dark enough. 

Adjust this… adjust that…make some of the edges softer and some more crisp. I still want to try to keep the colours that I started with since I love this combination. Play time!  

Oh I’m so pleased with how this is going…

Can't wait to show you the finished painting tomorrow!

I hope you can make it to see the KW Society of Artists show if you live close. It's on until June 25th at the Button Factory on Regina Street in Waterloo. 

Bleeding Hearts Step 2

Here is the second step-by-step photo of my "Bleeding Hearts" painting that is entered into the KW Society of Artists show that opens at the Button Factory in Waterloo on Friday from 5 - 7pm.

After the first layer of light pink is on to show the shape and overlap of each heart, now it's time to really brighten up each flower. Using quite a bright red colour I wet each flower and touched the colour to the areas I wanted the strongest colour to be - keeping in mind that I wanted to leave some white areas to show the puffiness - and give each little heart some form and shape. 

With watercolour you can't paint two wet areas side by side or else all the colour bleeds into the wet area next to it. So I had to skip around quite a bit so so I could always be working on a flower that was beside two dry hearts.

You'll notice some hearts in front, some behind and some hanging sideways because they don't all face the same way as they hang from the stem. To show one heart was overlapping another heart, one edge was kept lighter and the one below (usually) is a bit darker - or vice versa - this way you don't have to outline each little flower with a line. The edges are kept crisp and the colour variation separates each one. I kept glazing more colour and more colour on the hearts until they were almost as dark as I wanted them. On bleeding hearts the older little hearts are lighter than the newer ones. I'm not quite done adding the layers of colour to all the hearts.

I'm loving how the hearts are turning out. Now is the time to sketch some leaves from the plant in my garden and figure out placement using tracing paper that you can see the background colours through.

Bleeding Hearts are one of my very favourite spring flowers. What spring flower is your favorite??

Watch for step 3 tomorrow.

Bleeding Hearts Watercolour KWSA show

This painting is called  "Bleeding Hearts" it's 11x14". For a few days I'm going to be sharing step-by-step photos so you will see my watercolour as it progressed. 

It's entered into the KW Society of Artists show that opens at the Button Factory in Waterloo on Friday from 5 to 7 pm.

The first step is to draw out your design onto watercolour paper. I used a combination of photos and also drawn from life using my own plant in my garden as reference material. When you are pleased with the design, you paint over all the little hearts and stems with masking fluid (thin latex) to save the white. 

When that's dry you wet the paper on both sides and drop multi colours into the water and watch the colour do its thing. It's magic! Watercolour dries much lighter than what it looks like when it's wet so you never really know what you're going to get until it's totally dry!

After it's dry you can remove the masking and you can start to put some pale colour on the hearts to define the shape of each one.

I'll share the next step tomorrow. I LOVE the colours in the background. I hope to keep some of that bright green to show the dappled light falling on the leaves. What do you think? 

Loons in Killarney... in progress and Joseph Schneider House

This is what is on my easel this week! My husband took the photo that I'm working from a few years ago and I knew I HAD to paint it when I found it again recently. I'm using the methods I learned from the recent Terry Isaacs workshop I took. I definitely would have given up on the rocks and water in the background without a method of breaking down the details into manageable parts.

I'll post another pic after I work on it today and tomorrow. Can't wait to see how it turns out :-)

This week we also went to a local historical home in Kitchener with the Sketch Club. Joseph Schneider House shows what life was like in the 1840's.

 I didn't sketch this week...there was just too much to choose from! I will be sketching for weeks and I have quite a few photos that have inspired me to paint. 

 

 Fraktur art was one of the earliest forms of Folk Art in this area since it was originally settled by men and women of German descent. This sampler was made by a young girl around 1840. There were samplers and copybooks that children had used in school to learn their alphabet. The Artist in Residence this year is a lady from the calligraphy guild I belong to. She does illuminated art and uses gold leaf in her miniature art.

That's the fun of meeting with a group of other artists regularly. Sketch club makes me get out and see things in my own community. Local places, things, and people that inspire my art journey. AND you get to learn some history while you're at it.

Sharon (the interpreter) was making bean soup for Culture Days that are happening this weekend in a lot of the historical cultural sites in KW. She will be at McDougall house for the weekend though since she'd rather put up with the sound of bagpipes instead of the guns of reinactors who are reinacting the War of 1812 at Joseph Schneider house!! Our local Painter's Guild will be participating on Saturday by having a demonstration at Schneider House. It's a great day to get out and catch up on a bit of history and culture in our region.

Lots to inspire!

Learn to paint a mottled background with Acrylics

This is my first attempt to upload a video I made where I show how to create a mottled background using Traditions Acrylics. (It works with any other brand also) I will be teaching at the Waterloo County Painter's Guild later on this month and I made the videos as a demonstration showing the preparation that they need to complete before the class on Thurs Sept 20th at Albert McCormick Arena on Park St. in Waterloo. If you've never painted before, this project isn't too hard for a beginner!!

Eventually I want to offer this class as an online course on my website. It will be offered free of charge since I'm just getting my feet wet and working out the kinks in my video technique!

Watch the videos and email me if you have any questions.

Painting a Mottled Background in Acrylics Part 1

Painting a Mottled Background in Acrylics Part 2

Painting a Mottled Background in Acrylics Part 3


Here's a picture of the background step finished.

My Cougar is finished!

This "cat"  has been on my easel off and on since November at least! I finally am declaring it finished! It's been sitting in my livingroom and many people have admired it for quite a few weeks now - but I kept looking at it to see if I was really happy with it. I put it back on the easel tonight and punched up a few spots - toned down a few more. I think I'm happy with it now.

This painting was part of an online course I'm taking at Art Apprentice Online with Neadeen Masters. She's a great teacher and I'm learning so much from her online video classes.

A painting teacher never stops learning!!

 One thing I learned (again) is that painting fur is a process. (Sometimes a long one LOL) A layer of lights, a layer of darks, more lights, more darks etc etc until you are happy with how it has turned out. The other thing I learned is to make sure you take some time away from your painting, and look at it for a while to see what you're not happy with. After a break you'll be able to figure out how you want to fix what you're not happy with. Just give it some space and time and the solution will come to you!!

Painted in Acrylics by Debbie Eckmier in an online class

with Neadeen Masters at Art Apprentice Online

16x20 acrylics on masonite

If you love this painting, and just have to have it - make me an offer so good I can't refuse!
All proceeds from this painting are going to Villages of Hope - a home and school for orphans in Malawi. My son's in-laws (and our friends) are the Directors of this growing! ministry in Lilongwe, Malawi.   http://vohmalawi.org/
You will have a striking painting for your home and you'll be helping out some wonderful kids at the same time!

I'd love to hear your comments about my kitty :-)

PLEASE share this with all your friends.
And I'd love it if you would like my FB page! Debbie Eckmier - Keepsakes Art Studio

Sketchclub - Waterloo Train Station

What do you do when it's REALLY REALLY hot and sunny but there's no shade? You sit in your car and sketch from the front seat. Sketchclub last week went to the Waterloo train station. The train makes trips from Waterloo to Elmira. Why is it when you live in a city that you leave all the fun touristy things to do - to the tourists!? I've never taken this train trip. It might be a fun thing to do with the grandkids some day.

Most everyone else opted to sit on the other side of the station and sketch (and paint) the train engine. I liked the flowers and the building itself - with just  a hint of train peeking through under the awning.

Here's some of my photos :-)
(Taken through the windshield of course!)
The building was too long to get in one shot unless I backed WAY up. So I took sections so if I decide to work on this more, I will have all the details I need.

I get to teach at Coast 2 Coast !!

I'm so excited! I just found out I get to teach this watercolour painting at Coast to Coast in Mississauga  in May 2013! Called Waterlily, it's based on the yummy techniques I learned at my recent workshop with Karlyn Holman. This class will be great for Intermediate and Advanced watercolour painters. It includes the paper and paint as well as all the texturizing materials. Just bring your brushes!!