Why do they not...

My favorite watercolor paints in the world are nothing fancy. They are cheap, vibrant, and not obvious.
Crayola watercolor paints.

However, it's a specific kind of watercolor. It's not the junky oval pan watercolors that take twenty dips of water to get any sort of color. No. It's the square pan watercolor set. It looks like this:

BUT FOR SOME REASON, I can't find it anywhere. Not a single place. Not Wal-Mart, not A.C. Moore, nowhere. I simply can't find them. Are they dated? Are they simply not in production anymore?

I for serious need to find this specific set, otherwise I will suffer with having to use expensive-fancy-pants watercolors.

It irritates me.

Prints

I told myself I would stay away from deviantART as much as possible, but it seems like I'm lying now. I've actually set up a print shop there, so if you want to buy prints you should check it out. I'm not sure if you need an actual deviantART account, but it wouldn't hurt setting one up if you simply want to buy a print. They come in decent sizes for prints, too.


But really please buy prints.

White Tree

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry, I was really really bad at posting for over a week.

To make it up to you, here's my favorite piece in my portfolio.


16" x 20" oil on canvas

I painted this last September or October. The size on the blog doesn't do the painting justice, please click on it to view the full size.

I don't have much to say about it besides the fact that it's my favorite piece.

Closer details. Be sure to click on all of them.

Artwork belongs to H. Kerr/Kevin Schlink.
Do not redistribute/use without permission.

Branch and Eggs Drawing

16" x 20" dry pastel, charcoal, and chalk on brown paper.

I did this drawing this past year. A good friend of mine did an oil painting of the same subject at the same time as I did, so we had a lot of fun working on our own pieces. Her painting was absolutely gorgeous, filled with lots of purples and yellows, cool and warm balancing each other so simply. What was most interesting to me is that we were working on the same subject, and even though our mediums were completely different, we were able to represent the subject so truly. That's why art is so beautiful; being able to express the same idea in so many different forms, how two separate visions can be so different and so similar at the same time. It's magic.

A few detail shots. You can find more on my Flickr page:

Artwork belongs to H. Kerr/Kevin Schlink.
Do not redistribute/use without permission.

Watercolor and a WIP

Watercolor Trees:



Very roughly 7" x 20" watercolor on cold pressed paper.

This painting was my first time using watercolors. They aren't nearly as bad as everyone says. Common complaint from people about the paint is that "they bleed" into other parts of the painting. The solution is that you have to let it dry, a lot. You seriously can't rush. Since the paint is pretty much pigmented water (hence it's name), it's just going to blend with anything around it that is wet. Unless you are intentionally trying to get a bleedy look, you must wait for your paper to dry before moving on. Otherwise, everything will run and turn ugly, which I think is the opposite of what you're intending.

About a year after I finished this painting, we had a huge rainstorm in Connecticut. We were sent home from school because of the rain. It was awesome. However, when I got home, the rain had leaked through the roof and ceiling and decided to be right over my painting. Not an oil painting, but a watercolor.

I was able to save most of it, but you can still see some of the damage.



Otherwise, the painting is in great shape.







Bonus for today: a WIP (work in progress).




I'm still trudging along on this painting, but I swear I'm going to finish it soon.

Artwork belongs to H. Kerr/Kevin Schlink.
Do not redistribute/use without permission.

Drawing/Painting, and a song.

About 10" x 12" charcoal, pencil, colored pencil, watercolor on drawing paper.

Inspired by the World of Warcraft warlock spell "Drain Soul." No detail shots since it's large enough to not have them.

Also, I have a song to share with you all.

The Avalanche by Sufjan Stevens.
(link leads to a YouTube video.)

Artwork belongs to H. Kerr/Kevin Schlink.
Do not redistribute/use without permission.

Wednesday 13 July, 2011

Happy Wednesday evening, folks.

Light the Way:



16" x 20" tempera on canvas.

This painting was inspired by the song "Light the Way" by Athlete. You can listen to it on YouTube if you want to try and see what I was seeing when I listened to this song. I painted this entirely from my mind, listening only to that one song. It only took a few classes, but I still love this painting.

Now that I listen to the song again while looking at the painting, I find that it doesn't exactly match up with the lyrics. Funny how the mind's eye envisions something, and generally only views it that one way when you hear something, smell something, any sense. It's funny to think about, sometimes.

Some detail shots.

Artwork belongs to H. Kerr/Kevin Schlink.
Do not redistribute/use without permission.