Christening Commission: Baby Elephant

I was recently asked to produce a small illustration of a cute baby elephant as a christening gift.

I always start with a sketch before diving straight into the painting.
Top Tip: Once you are happy with your sketch use tracing paper to get the placement of your design correct - it's not cheating if it's your own sketch and it saves wasting expensive paper!

The painting is kept loose overall with a few details bringing the whole image together. The background is left clean and untouched, ready for a simple mount and frame.
For bespoke commissions contact us here!

Daler Rowney Watercolour

Daler Rowney Watercolour

 I’m often asked what watercolour paints I use when I illustrate. The answer is an old Daler Rowney watercolour set that was passed down to me by my Nan when I was young. I’ve replaced the majority of the pans (the individual colours) since then. The Rowney range offers a wide variety of quality pigments that are vibrant and easy to blend.

  

Our Tip: Watercolour paints are usually sold as both sets and individually as tubes or pans. Visit your local art store and see what’s best for you and your budget. You can often buy some great starter kits.

There are many different types of watercolour paints for you to use and discover. To see more of the Daler Rowney range visit: www.daler-rowney.com

Art Masking Fluid

Windsor & Newton Art Masking Fluid

Here’s one for the watercolour artists out there. Have you ever had trouble trying to leave areas of your canvas unpainted as you frantically apply your wash?

Use masking fluid to gently cover the areas you want to leave unpainted and wait for the fluid to set. Next, apply your wash or area of colour and wait till the paint is dry. Then gently remove the masking fluid to reveal the area you originally masked. You will now be able to paint the previously masked area or simply leave it as a highlight.

Our Tip: use a pipette to apply small areas of masking fluid to your canvas and use kitchen paper to remove it.

South Lakes Lemurs

 

 

 

We recently visited the South Lakes Wild Animal Park in Cumbria. The park features a variety of large animal enclosures – some of which the public can actually walk amongst the animals! Grab yourself some animal feed and your camera and get up close and personal with birds, primates and much more. This close encounter experience is a great day out for animal lovers of all ages.

(see above) An original watercolour painting of a ring-tailed lemur inspired by the animals at the South Lakes Wild Animal Park.

Christening Commission

Adding the finishing touches to a watercolour painting commission for a unique christening present. If you have something in mind for a painting click here to contact us we can work with any idea big or small!

Sunshine and Mini Art

It's great to have the lighter nights now as it means more hours of sunlight for painting. Here's a peak at some of our latest original Mini Art, ACEO Cards - my personal favourite would have to be the Little Pig! 

Click here to visit The Curious Treehouse Etsy shop

octopus triptych

A triptych ACEO which would look great framed.

Available now at The Curious Treehouse (click here) 

Nest Gallery Spring Exhibition 2013

Chris James Saunders will be showcasing a selection of original watercolour paintings at the Nest Gallery Spring Exhibition which opens on Sunday the 21st April (details above). To see more of Chris's work take a look here or for any enquires on commissions don't hesitate to contact us

Ready for the galleries

All the watercolour illustrations I have worked on over the last few months are now framed and ready for the galleries!

Flightless but Faithful

If you haven't already watched the BBC One documentary Spy in the Huddle

which captures the cheeky characters and lives of different groups of penguins over a year, it's definitely a fascinating watch I would recommend! In the meantime here are some faithful little penguins in mini Art form.

Mini Art

Aceo Art Cards are a great way of collecting unique mini pieces of art

at an affordable price. Here's a new collection of freshly painted
ACEO Cards, coming to our Etsy shop over the next few days!

Click here to visit The Curious Treehouse Etsy Shop 

New gallery watercolours

 

Just finished some new larger watercolours which are on their way to be 

framed for another gallery collection in the North East. More details to come soon...

Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil

Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil

Penguin Pirates

Yes thats right...Penguin Pirates!!

New ACEO Art Cards

A busy day working on some new Art Cards...

The finished piece!

Another piece ready for an exhibition in a local gallery

Take a look at more of Chris James Saunders beautiful watercolour work here.

coroflot

 

Look who's been featured on the homepage of Coroflot this week! 

 Take a look at more of Chris James Saunder's work here