Women of Kauai Series 1

The Women of Kauai fascinates me so I wanted to do a series of paintings depicting them using resources from my visit there in 2010. I'm developing these paintings from the sketches and photos that I took. Each time I work on these, I'm reminded of the rich experience I had immersing myself in the culture and lush environment. Their beauty goes deep in a way that celebrates unpretentious love of life, unaffected by what media dictates on how they should look, act, or feel. Everywhere I turn, there's this infectious happiness imbedded in these women's faces of wisdom, content, and richness... 

Grace 
Watercolor 18x23.5
I named this piece Grace because of the way she moved while she told a story of a beautiful Princess of the Island of Kauai. With her graceful hands and the intensity of expression on her face, I wanted to capture the reverence she felt while she paid tribute to her beloved Princess.This painting is currently in the members' show for Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society at Los Altos Library, CA.

 Chant
Watercolor 16x20
Another way of storytelling done by Hawaiians is the Chant where, instead of doing it with their hands like in Hula, they utter words in honor of their royalties and culture.

The "O" Girls

This is a commission from the Orendain family of Anaheim, CA. Just closed this project and received authorization so I can post it here. This was such a fun piece to do and the Orendains were a delight to work with!  I used photos they took during their family vacation, Summer of 2010. Grand Canyon was one of their stops so I decided to use that as the background. The whole family were doing this shots of capturing jumps mid-air and I thought it would be great to put all three girls together.

The "O" Girls, Graphite on 18x24 Strathmore Drawing paper

Red or Read

It took a few months to get ready after getting out of school: framed some work, finished my website, created and printed business cards, and I finally joined my first Art Show. It's with the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society Members' Show that opened yesterday at the Los Altos Library. Hope some of you can stop by and check out the display of Artwork. It's up until February 29th.

Wednesday was a very full day driving around Bay Area. After I dropped off my painting at the Los Altos Library, I met up with my husband for lunch in Santa Clara. Then off I go to Blackhawk Gallery in Danville where I met my friend who was showing there. We had our little meeting at her home in Walnut Creek and later went to Concord to attend my first California Watercolor Association (CWA) Board Meeting. I got voted in officially as the Co-Director of Workshops. And when I opened my e-mails the following morning, there's an invitation from the Southwest Art Magazine to place an ad to showcase my work. It's finally happening!!!

Loose Watercolors

Here are some of my attempts at loosely painting in watercolor, done in Spring 2011.  Some are more successful than others but I'm posting them all here so you can see my struggles, experiments, and occasionally tripping over gems of happy accidents. After all, I have not made any postings for about a year and this is to make up for that. I will forever be a student for when I stop learning is when my work cease to have meaning.

"Orange Cover" Watercolor, 9x11. Our tree produced extra tasty fruits that year and before the squirrels ate them all, I managed to paint this, adding the rusty color of the shed roof that enables the critters to feast on our oranges.

"Livermore Barn" Watercolor, 15x22. Livermore has beautiful rolling hills of farms and vineyards. Sadly, developers can't build gigantic condos and shopping centers fast enough, destroying views like these on their path. I'm doing what I can to preserve and chronicle these images while I still can.

"Oak" Watercolor, 5.5x14. I think Oak trees are beautiful but one of the hardest to draw and paint. I experimented with a spray bottle then allowing the water to carry the pigments, spreading it from droplet to droplet, thus creating the prickly twisted branches that is so characteristic of the mighty Oak. Fun!

"Iris" Watercolor 10.5x14.5.  I think I can go further on this one, adding more hard edges and deeper shadows to make the forms less confused...

"Rosy Roses" Watercolor 6.5x10.  Here again could use more hard edges, but the soft dreamy effects works too.

"Veggie Tail" Watercolor 8x11.  This was painted using live produce. I attacked this piece fast and aggressive, like how it turned out and learned that it takes a lot of confidence to paint that way. Keep practicing....

"Radishlicious" Watercolor 12x16.  I love the perspective on this piece and enjoyed painting the roots the most. Go figure ;)

"Squash 'N Garlics" Watercolor 12.5x16.  No one is safe in my kitchen :)

"Last Blooms" Watercolor 12x16.  I wanted to play with the muted colors of winter and suggest the left over flowers that were once bright and now dry and wasting away yet creating an intriguing mood.

"Arum's Baby" Watercolor 14x22.5.  I learned recently from my sister Josie the difference between Calla Lilies and Arum Lilies and the giant species I have are called Arum. This little guy was enjoying them and I couldn't resist taking a few snap shots. Of course I just have to paint him.

Colors in Water, Fall 2010

Fluid Acrylics can be used like watercolors with incredible results! I was introduced to this technique by Nicholas Simmons, a rockstar of an artist :) Pros, it's permanent and will never be destroyed. The beautiful background colors and texture you create will not be lost when you start painting in layers. Cons, it's permanent and cannot be erased... though since it's acrylic, you can always paint opaquely and layer it. Super fun technique and medium to work with...

"Honu" Fluid Acrylic, 19.5x19.5, 140 lb hotpress Arches

"Red FanDamgo" Fluid Acrylic 20.5x21, 140 lb hotpress Arches

"Koi Dance" Fluid Acrylic, 18x28, 140 lb hotpress Arches

New Etsy Shop

I just opened my new Etsy shop and named it JanetGrz. I'm getting hits for favorites but no sale yet. I should have done this months ago but I tried eBay first. Now that I've done both sites, I prefer Etsy hands down. Their set up and community is just so much more organized and supportive. I love it! Here is the link, come visit me and drop me a convo (Etsy linggo for conversation ;) ...
http://www.etsy.com/shop/janetgrz

Props painting and texturing in photoshop

Signage around town...

Painting a lot lately, digitally

I love Watercolor!

Took Watercolor class with Gale Antokal and I remembered why I went back to school to begin with. Watercolor is officially my favorite medium. I can get lost in it and let go...

My Milk

Another one done in Facebook's Graffiti...

Katie Graduates High School

Katie's mom was my Speech teacher and we took Photoshop together last semester. She saw my WonderWoman digital caricature and asked if I can make one for her graduating girl. We collaborated and here's what came about. Hope she likes it...

Old Photos Restoration/Retouching

I also learned techniques on how to restore broken treasures like this without losing the integrity of the resolution, texture, and the general feel of the photograph. This was tedious and fun at the same time but thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.

Handtinting

Been learning the art of retouching/restoring a photo and handtinting old photos. Here's one of my dad. I retouched it first and cleaned it up a little bit then hand tinted it with Photoshop. Mother's Day gift for my mom...

Photoshopped Tidepool

I've been tweaking this for a while. I'll leave it alone and call it done... for now! :)

Book Cover

The challenge was to redesign an old book cover using what we've learned in photoshopCS4. I chose "The Martian Chronicles."

Old Design _____My Design

Ellen, the Wonder Woman

This is my first full body with background layer attempt. I really enjoyed working on this and learned my way around photoshop a little bit more. Included is Ellen's photo reference. Fun, fun, fun!

Mya

Digital Caricature, my first colored piece... sooo fun!

Apologies for a long Silence

Once again, my friends' work inspired me to update, post, and keep going even when hard times bog me down. I'll be posting whatever I have, good or bad, just to challenge myself to never give up what I really love doing. Okay, done with the dramatics!

So, for starters, I've been playing with photoshop teaching myself Matte Painting and I'm loving it! I took my old tidepool painting and tried pushing it further to get more atmospheric effects. Something I was too chicken to try. I'm telling you, this medium is giving me the courage to try out new things and be crazy! Still in progress...

Fall 2008 Semester

I'm taking two classes this semester, Art 129A - Maya 3d Rendering with Dave Gustlin and Art 115 - Intermediate Animation with Dave Chai. It's raining daves this semester... lol. I was enrolled with Courtney Granner's 117 Visual Development class also but that would have been suicide and all the professors laughed at me and strongly advice against it. Two studio classes max is the going rate these days. We started the semester running; within the first two weeks, we already have a 10 minute animation short and a Rancor turn around and full body low poly count model due. Looks like sleep will be fleeting again for the next three months. I'm just glad I'm in good company...

Here's my Rancor Turn Around done in Photoshop. My first time to draw anything official with my wacom tablet and my first time to do a turn around on any character. Taking John Clapp's 113A when he used to teach it with a bit of perspective helped me alot as far as knowing which parts should line up and understanding the planes in 3D. We will also learn ZBrush in 129A to finish off the model.
A sample of my figure drawing portfolio for my Animation Class. We are to draw 25 figure studies and 25 on location sketches with different themes every week. Well, yesterday they just upped the bid to 100 figures a week so we can get rid of our 10,000 ugly drawings faster... lol. Hopefully it will work for me too. I will be stalking people a lot more this weekend. Happy hunting!


The theme for this week is 'fun in the sun'. I took my pc and wacom tablet to the park near my home and sketched people playing. Drawing with the pen tablet helped me loosen up and not be so caught up with details... I have to try that again... it was fun!