I used to be pretty good at watercolor painting, back when my days consisted more of illustrating than photography.  Oh, I was never, ever nearly as good as I wanted to be.  But I am even further from my painting aspirations now!

My struggle with watercolor painting has never been about lack of brush control.  It’s seemed like it’s been more about too much of it! The style of my art has always been realism.  To create an image and make it as real as possible.  Before turning more and more to the art of photography, I had spent many years doing 100′s of large commissioned pencil portraits of people, using photos as a reference.  Often times, the portraits also included many symbols and items that spoke of that subjects personality and what mattered to them…..very much like my portrait photography work today.  With every illustrated piece of work, I struggled to let that portrait go, until the subject looked like they were truly right there looking at you.… Read More