Midnight Ramblings

Free Coloring Pages Download

Stephanie Law — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 01:29:35 +0000

Another batch of coloring pages. You can find previous set for downloading -here-. Most of these were done at the art directing request of either my daughter, her playdate friends, or my nephew. So if you’re wondering, “Why is there a monkey?” or anything else along those lines, blame the 4 year olds. Click on each of the images below to download the pdf. Then share with some kids, grab some pens, and have fun! The Yexian painting was a winner with Claire, and she wanted to color her own version of it while I was working on mine.

A Chinese Cinderella – Festival Night

Stephanie Law — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 02:35:12 +0000

Festival Night Prints ($16.95) & detail closeups available here Size: 11×16 inches Medium: Watercolor, ink, gold leaf Third piece in the series of paintings of Yexian. The other two can be seen here: * * * Some of the developmental sketches and photos of the process: The initial thumbnail concept. You can see it has all the final elements I ended with, but things got rearranged a little bit. Slightly revised from the thumbnail. Finalized sketch before I started painting. I flipped it to go the other direction so that it would nicely mirror the first piece in this series ...

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A Chinese Cinderella – With Pure Heart

Stephanie Law — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 17:09:53 +0000

With Pure Heart Size: 12×16 inches Medium: Watercolor, gold, metallics, ink Detail Closeups, Prints ($16.95) and Original painting ($1395.00) -available here- The second in a series of pieces illustrating the Chinese version of the Cinderella story. Yexian with the magical fish that grants her wishes. The earlier piece in this series can be seen by clicking on the thumbnail below: * * * Some of the in progress sketches and photos of the process: Started with a thumbnail for this piece. I wanted to paint the fish, and Yexian leaning over the water to see it. The first concept ...

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A Chinese Cinderella – Burdens to Bear

Stephanie Law — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 04:35:48 +0000

Burdens to Bear Size: 11×16 inches Medium: watercolor, gold, ink, metallic pigments Prints ($16.95), Original painting ($925.00), and detail closeups -here- Yexian of the ancient Chinese version of the Cinderella story, written in the 9th century. I have two more images planned for this series right now. Those should be coming right up in the next couple of weeks. This is still pretty early on, and right now we’re just in the throwing-ideas-around-stage…but I’m very excited to be working with translations of Chinese stories from Carrie Reed and Roland Wiebe. * * * Some of the in-progres sketches and photos: ...

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New Art: Meditations of Beauty

Stephanie Law — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 16:26:48 +0000

“Meditations of Beauty” Size: 10×10 inches Medium: Watercolor, metallics, rice paper, gold leaf, ink Prints & Original will be available at Modern Eden Gallery. Contact the gallery for the collector’s preview if you’re interested in purchasing. Detail closeup views available -here- * * * An apple was all it took: Sweet white flesh Burnished with a sheen of golden beauty, Tossed among three Vanities Just to see what could be. hey say I did it because I was jealous. But _I_ did not need to squabble To assert that I was the most beautiful. I did not need a ...

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New Art: Journey of a Wish

Stephanie Law — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 17:06:14 +0000

Journey of a Wish Size: 10×10 inches Medium: Watercolor, gold leaf, metallic pigments, ink, on canvas 8.5×11 inch ($16.95) & 11×17 inch ($26.95) prints available -here- Original painting not yet available * * * Muhru has been calling to me again. There is a Japanese legend that if one were to fold a 1000 paper cranes, a wish would be granted. A couple of years ago when a dear family member was sick, we would gather in the room, folding paper cranes. It was a very meditative activity. The hushed rustle of paper, pleated with muscle memory in the fingers, ...

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New Painting: Moon-Gazing

Stephanie Law — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 17:30:01 +0000

Moon-gazing Size: 12×16 inches Medium: watercolor, gold leaf, metallics, ink 8.5×11 inch prints ($16.95), 11×17 inch prints ($26.95), and Original Painting ($975.00) -available here- * * * Some of the process that went into this piece: One of the miniature 3×3 inch canvases that I painted last week was the initial starting inspiration for this painting. I wanted to expand on the concept. Began with a lot of rabbit references and doing a number of sketches and thumbnails. Which eventually led to the finished sketch. Early messy-painting stages. Adding in some blacks.

Techniques & Mediums: Watercolor Ground

Stephanie Law — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 04:58:18 +0000

What is watercolor ground? For those of you familiar with other mediums like acrylic and oil, watercolor ground is the equivalent of gesso. It’s a primer, but unlike acrylic/oil gesso, it is specially formulated to be a porous surface that accepts watercolors, instead of repelling liquid like a traditional gesso would do. What this means is that you can turn any surface into something suitable for watercolors, instead of being limited to paper and illustration boards. The brand that I have been using is made by Daniel Smith, and they offer 4 colors – white, neutral, black, transparent. I’m told ...

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Testing a new transfer method

Stephanie Law — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 17:47:00 +0000

I’ve been thinking on this for a while now, because sketching directly on a canvas with watercolor ground is not a very satisfactory experience. Especially with fine point mechanical pencils. It works a little better with a more blunt softer lead. But it makes transferring sketches difficult. I decided to try something I did long ago in college, back when I was doing intaglio printmaking. There’s a technique called Chine-collé where you take some lightweight paper (like fancy Japanese rice papers) and bond it to a heavier surface for support. I dug up some rice paper I bought a long ...

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Illuminate

Stephanie Law — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 04:42:00 +0000

Illuminate Size: 10 x 10 inchesMedium: Watercolors, inks, metallics on canvas Prints ($16.95) and detail closeup images -available here- I had been planning to do this piece for a while, based on the miniature 3×3″ canvas painting I did a couple of weeks ago. And that in turn was based on a photo of my daughter. I don’t often stick this close to reference photos, but in this case it was so nearly perfect that I strayed from my usual. This painting was my first attempt at doing watercolors in larger scale on a canvas, prepared for that purpose ...

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Free Coloring Book Pages

Stephanie Law — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 17:17:00 +0000

My daughter’s been on a coloring kick lately. And now that she discovered I can draw what she requests…. Well, for those of you with little girls who also love princesses, fairies, butterflies and flowers (or for the inner little girl in you), here’s some downloads. Click on the images to access the pdf files for printing.

Natural Plant Pigments

Stephanie Law — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 05:54:00 +0000

I spent the day at the Berkeley Botanical Gardens, at a workshop taught by Judi Pettite on the making of, and use of plant pigments in dyes and inks. To those of you who have been following me for a while, you know I’m a big fan of the natural plant pigments that Kremer Pigments used to sell. They’ve since discontinued that line. But something about plant pigments has really drawn me in. I’ve been meaning to try and make my own Nettle pigment at some point, and after this workshop, I definitely want to make it, as well as ...

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