Simple Little Work of Art for Someone Who Means the World to Me

My week has been a little trying and I haven't had a ton of time in the studio. I also haven't had the time I would want to read some of my favorite blogs. So if you haven't heard from me, I apologize. Life gets in the way sometimes. Regardless, I wanted to post a mini-project that I did last week.  It was fun, quick and a delightful gift to give to my bestie.

I took this pic...well, I actually stole this pic off of my friend's Facebook page. He posted it a few weeks ago with a caption that read:  Happy Dog.  This is my best friend's Maltese, Missy chilling out at their beach house in Florida.  The overall feel and soft tones in the photo made me want to use it.

I popped it into Picasa and played around with some of the settings and then reduced the photo into a pencil sketch.

After printing the pencil sketch version out on a piece of 8 1/2 X 12 watercolor paper, I washed the different areas of the images with gouache.

As I worked with the medium, I made subtle changes to the image, changing the lines and direction in the foreground, creating a little more drama in the atmosphere and intensifying the depth of the ocean color.  This was a fun, relaxing project and I had a blast delivering it to him at his new art gallery that is under construction as this time.

It's fun to create something for someone you love.  There is a certain nervousness that is involved in such an endeavor, even with something as simple at this little piece of art.  In the end, I think he loved it. After all, it has his sweet Missy in the image.  Who wouldn't like something like that?!  

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Linking this to 

Paint Party Friday