watercolor – The Ravens Landing

Pet Portraits for Christmas

Posted on November 4, 2022 by abigailcossetteryan in Animals, artist, Bearded Dragon, birds, brush pen, cats, Christmas, colorwheel, Commissions, dogs, Equine Artist, Etsy, Gifts, Gouache, Holidays, home, home decor, horse, ink, inktense, Pet Portrait, sketches, Uncategorized, watercolors

I can’t believe it’s November. 2022 is nearly over. It was a pretty good year for me in a lot of ways. BUT, this post isn’t about that. This post is about Christmas gifts, because it’s that time of year AGAIN. ALREADY. WHAT.

I wanted to do something I’ve never done before, and that’s offer $25 mini portraits. These are wallet sized pet portraits, done in watercolors, inktense, and brushpen, and shipped straight to you at no additional charge.

The minis are a lot of fun, and I prefer doing fun things with them.

How does it work?

Place an order in my Etsy shop. You pay when you place your order. Let me know what I’m painting, tell me your pet’s name.
I’ll reach out for a good photo, preferably multiple good photos of your pet.
I sketch, then send you the initial sketch for feedback. These portraits are small, so are most likely going to be a bust or headshot.
I add color to your pet! My portraits usually don’t include a background of any kind, but sometimes a wash.
I will ship your original portrait to you, or to your intended recipient if you prefer, in a cellophane sleeve and a stiff card for protection.

To get a good portrait, I need a good photograph to work from–preferably multiple good photographs.

What makes a photo GOOD?

Clear, well lit, photos are best.
If you want a flattering portrait, send me a flattering photo.
If you want a goofy portrait, send me a goofy photo.
Multiple photos help me get a feel for the shape and true color of your pet. Maybe you have a great photo of your dog in action, and that’s the one I use for the primary reference–but I have to use one of the other photos to find out what your dog’s eye color actually is.
Multiple photos let me choose the one best suited for modeling, but also allow me to supplement for an even better composition.
If you keep a social media account for your pet, feel free to send me that.

What kinds of animals do I paint?

Cautiously, any kind! But, most often I paint birds, horses, dogs, and cats.

Framed original watercolor $75
Framed original watercolor about 4×6 $100
Framed fine art print $100

I make each portrait with a mix of media, primarily the water soluble kind. I combine watercolor, gouache, inktense, and sometimes brush pen, to bring each piece to life. I use a setting spray to protect the work once it’s finished.

Anyhow, that’s my Christmas experiment. Pet Portrait Minis! Be sure to check out my Etsy Shop and order yours!

Fanciful Dragon

Posted on March 4, 2020February 5, 2020 by abigailcossetteryan in Animals, artist, Bookish, dnd, Dragon, Fantasy Art, geek, ink, Tolkien, watercolors

This one has a story.

We were at a friend’s house to play games, and one of their daughters (who is…5?) presented my husband and I with paper and pencils and told us we each had to draw half the picture.

I think it was me who suggested a hobbit hole, with the circular door being in the middle. I sketched out the left half of the hill, and when I looked over at my husband’s side, he was putting intricate scales on the head of a dragon.

The little pencil sketch ended up being really cool so the next day I sketched the whole thing out again, and then painted it.

I used a piece of paper too big to scan easily, so I’m still trying to get a clean image so I can upload it. But I really love how it came out. Especially the tall grass spines of the dragon.

This picture also reminds me to be imaginative and try crazy things. I never, ever, would have thought of making the hill a dragon, but he did. And I love it!

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tall ship tattoo design

Posted on February 26, 2020February 5, 2020 by abigailcossetteryan in artist, ink, sailboat, sailing, sketches, tall ships, Uncategorized, watercolors

I have been playing with coasters recently. Yes, that’s the big secret behind most of the circles you will ever see on this blog. It’s probably a coaster or a plate.

I actually own a couple compass tools, but they both live (sensibly) in my studio, and (insensibly) I’m almost never actually creating art in my studio. Sometimes I do. But often I paint at the end of the day, in the evening, sometimes while watching a show or listening to a book, and the light in my studio is not great at night. It takes a special mood.

Or it takes the mood for acrylics. Because those aren’t portable. Not nearly so portable as watercolors.

Anyway. I was messing with circles, and more graphic design-like images because it is stretching for me. I greatly admire those who can make that type of art.

I feel like this piece is really close to how I wanted it to look, but it doesn’t actually look how I wanted. Things got skrewy with the flourishes. Flourishes are hard , you guys.

This makes me think of tattoos, but I think you’d have to be quite clever about placement, given the circle and flourish–or make it smaller. I don’t think I would get it as a tattoo, though.

Maybe if I were a sailor.

For all my appreciation of tall ships, I am not a sailor. I’ve only been out on teeny tiny boats on ponds, and never on a tall ships when it was, you know, actually moving. Though exploring the ships in harbor has always been a lot of fun to me.

I haven’t put this piece on Redbubble, frankly I’m a bit daunted by the thought of the digital clean up process on it 😛 Maybe someday. But you could get an art print if you wanted one, just message me.

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clothes

Posted on February 18, 2020January 24, 2020 by abigailcossetteryan in artist, brush pen, character art, colorwheel, DND, geek, ink, pathfinder, RPG, sketches, style, watercolors

I really love clothes.

They are SO HARD TO DRAW.

The eyes of an owl? Easy. The drape of…well…anything? Not so much.

Pinterest is my friend and tutor. I scroll through pictures and collect images and cobble together outfts off a selection of reference photos. Most of them aren’t really practical, but I like to imagine the one above is actually quite feasible and also flattering. Imagine linen, a thick elastic fabric, and leather.

I’m finding that often less is more, when putting paint on paper. Which is sort of disappointing sometimes because the very act of putting paint on paper is fun.

This is Zare, the heroine of the stories I write over on ZareCaspian.com. I paint her often. Sometimes it comes out great. Other times it REALLY doesn’t. But it’s all educational.

I used to fashion blog a little, part of me misses it. But not really enough to get back into it. Taking pictures is time consuming. And not looking like a doofus–regardless of what you’re wearing–is also an art form. I am out of practice 😛 But I still like clothes. I like to play around with make up some days–I refer to it as war paint. Because that’s what it is, in many ways.

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Knight with a Red Plume

Posted on February 11, 2020January 24, 2020 by abigailcossetteryan in Animals, Arabian, artist, brush pen, character art, Equine Artist, Etsy, Eventing, Gifts, home, home decor, horse, horse crazy, horse training, horsemanship, ink, Redbubble, RPG, watercolors, writing

I just really like red plumes.

I painted this when I first got masking fluid. I’m still trying to learn how to use it. And putting riders on horses is startlingly difficult. Perhaps because I think I know what it looks like, but the eye and the brain don’t actually communicate as well as I think.

I am trying to push myself to explore composition more and think creatively.

What? Think creatively? In a painting? I know.

i did really enjoy manipulating the masking fluid and brush flicks for the flagging tail. I think there must be Arabian lines in this horse 😉

I’ve always liked Arabians–not just because they are spectacularly gorgeous, but also the legends around them, their endurance, and of course their loyalty. Marguerite Henry’s King of the Wind was also, definitely, instrumental.

Actually, I learned a lot from that book. I read it repeatedly, and the details of how Agaba treated Sham, the care he took to groom and saddle for the comfort of the horse, has definitely influenced how I treat horses. I try to always be kind and respectful when handling a horse. When you do that, they take it much better when you correct them for not being kind and respectful.

This is actually a character from my novel. If you read The River Rebellion on zarecaspian.com you’d know him, Trinh Kegan. His armor should be golden, but artistic liberty dictated bloodstone for this piece.

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