Guardians of the Sea: Seahorse Painting

I found that seahorses lend themselves to be painted in almost any color. Perfect reason for me to paint one. Both seahorses are painted with Dr. Martin Liquid Watercolors, as two separate paintings on white backgrounds. I originally thought I would have them as two paintings, but played in photoshop to combine them like this and loved it even more. Prints, of course, are available in my Etsy store.

Below is a WIP photo showing the seahorses
with their first layer of paint.

All images/artwork ©Samantha Nagel
(DO NOT USE MY ARTWORK!!!!)
See my image policies at my website: http://www.samnagelart.com/image-use--faq.html

Octopus and Rubber Duck

I'm calling this one "Bath Time Octopus". The rubber ducky makes this painting more cutesy than my normal look, but I kind of like it. I have this watercolor painting available for sale as prints in my Etsy store.

I love the way it looks on the iphone cases too!

artwork ©Samantha Nagel (DO NOT USE MY ARTWORK!!!!)
See my image policies at my website: http://www.samnagelart.com/image-use--faq.html

Pillow Cover Giveaway!

I've teamed up with Full Lives, Flat Broke to give away my most popular item in my Etsy store. Megan did a lovely feature of my work and the items I sell on Etsy. The pillow cover above, printed from my original "Sea Monster" watercolor painting will be given away to one lucky person! All you have to do is enter via Rafflecopter at the bottom of the page at this link: http://fulllivesflatbroke.com/2013/07/09/art-by-sam-nagel-giveaway/ . Winner will be selected in 10 days, good luck!

Since my sea monster has been such a great hit, I decided to paint another octopus. Here's a preview of the next octopus painting in progress:

Art Nouveau Women

These are two new watercolor paintings with an Art Nouveau theme. I really love Alfonse Mucha's work and always wanted to paint some flower haired ladies of my own. These two are available as prints at my Etsy store.

©Sam Nagel (artwork not for use or altering in any way)

Bird Nest

I recreated my bird nest drawing into another painting, this time using watercolors. I got a new set of Dr. Martin liquid watercolors and looove them! The pictures link to my Etsy store where you can purchase the products and prints.

©Sam Nagel (artwork not for use or altering in any way)

Vintage Bird Cage & Ombre pillow

The first image is a watercolor painting of a bird cage with the birds flying out to freedom.
©Samantha Nagel (not for use or altering in any way)

Jellyfish watercolor painting

watercolor painting of an orange, pink, purple jellyfish. I'm also showing it on an iphone case. They are both available for sale in my etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SamNagel

©Samantha Nagel (not for use or altering in any way)

Octopus Tentacles

My new octopus watercolor painting. I cropped it on the pillow cover and iphone cases, which are for sale in my Etsy store here: www.etsy.com/shop/SamNagel

©Samantha Nagel (do not use or reproduce in any way)

thanks for looking!

Lionfish

New lionfish watercolor painting I have up for sale in my Etsy Store as a print, and on several types of products, check it out: www.etsy.com/shop/SamNagel

©Sam Nagel (do not use or reproduce in any way)

Pug Dog

I just finished another pet portrait painting, this time of a Pug named Pugsy! I'm looking to continue painting more pet portraits, and not just dogs, any animal is paintable. Below the picture of the painting is the actual photo of Pugsy that I worked from. I usually remove the collars and freshen up the colors, and this time because she is a small dog I decided to paint a full body instead of only the face. If you are interested in having a painting of your dog or cat or animal friend just email me at sam_sgn@hotmail.com

oil on canvas 18x18"

Koi Lady, second session

Still more progress shots. Just to let everyone know, this painting is on a 24x36" canvas, one of my biggest figurative works so far. I have already gone passed what is photographed here and finished defining all of her hair. I'm really diggin the art nouveau hair and plan to incorporate some Mucha inspired style. I am still thinking about a title.... perhaps "Don't Be Coy" ?

Still in progress... now on canvas

I tweaked the drawing, adding some more interesting elements to the piece, then brought the drawing onto canvas. So far I've painted an hour session and will allow the oils to dry up a little before I continue onto the next step....

Something New: Pin-up

I've been working out some new sketches for a painting. I'm sketching in photoshop with my tablet, but I'm going to end up doing the painting in oils. The bottom image is basically putting my idea onto paper, then I got real reference to work from and produced the second image at the top... what a difference. The next thing I want to do is add some kind of motif to the painting... just gotta figure out what that will be... something in her hair, it's all about her hair (and less about the boobs) ;)

Pet Portraits

I just finished a commissioned oil painting of this lovely yellow lab, and I'm ready for more! Who else wants a pet portrait? I have a great time painting these and have found that although I love painting people portraits, pet portraits are much less fussy. They don't complain about things like "I look too fat or too old" ... let's face it animals are much easier to work with. So far I've painted plenty of dogs, but honestly where's the cat people out there? I love cats! I can paint any pet or even their people :)

I usually try to stick to the square format and do a true portrait of the animal, that means a focus on the face/head upper body. I've found that using a square format emphasizes the character of a portrait painting. All I need is a decent picture of your beloved pet. I will coach you on providing a good photo for reference... the better your photo the more accurate your painting.

So far the popular size an 18x18" canvas (good for big dogs and large animals), but I also will paint a 16x16" (small dogs and cats work great on this size). I paint around the sides so framing is optional. The prices are $360 or $285 ... very reasonable and you get an original painting that is long lasting and priceless!

Want something even bigger? email me we can discuss price by size... sam_sgn@hotmail.com

Order your custom Pet Portrait now, pick from two sizes (the links will redirect you to my Etsy store):

18x18" pet portrait
16x16" pet portrait

email for any questions: sam_sgn@hotmail.com

 here's some progress shots:

Nude Figure Drawing

I found a pretty awesome figure drawing tool online. It gave me the feeling of being back in school in my figure drawing class again. You can set up your time intervals and the website cycles through a variety of figurative pictures to draw. After a couple quick drawings I ended up pausing this particular picture and spent about 45-60 minutes creating a more finished piece. If you want to do an at home drawing session I recommend trying it, here: Figure Drawing Practice .

2013 Calendar "Body Mind Spirit" series

New calendar for sale on my Etsy Store only $24 ... here www.etsy.com/shop/SamNagel

I've been working on creating three 2013 calendars with all of my new artwork. It's a desk calendar that is a monthly tear away, and comes with a mini easel for display. I'm also giving one calendar away to a lucky person who 'likes' my facebook page Art by Sam Nagel . And if you share one of the calendar photos you get a second entry into the drawing! so check it out and share!

Meditation

©Sam Nagel

This is the last card in the deck I've been working on for some time now. I'm very happy with how it came out. I was beginning to run out of steam and new ideas, but realized this whole time I never painted someone in a meditation pose, and so I find it very fitting to use it now on the card that puts the deck in completion. FIN!

See the meaning of this card and others at: Intimacy Without Responsibility -The Conscious Evolution of Love  facebook page

Another Couple

©Sam Nagel

This time it was a simple and quick photoshop painting. I always enjoy using silhouettes on a painterly background.

See the meaning of this card and others at: Intimacy Without Responsibility -The Conscious Evolution of Love  facebook page

Space Whale

© Sam Nagel

I just couldn't get this off my mind. Whale in Space. love it.

mixed media: pencil and photoshop painting

Ripple Effect

I decided to break out my old pencil rendering skills and see what I could come up with for this new card. When I first started out making art I only drew with graphite for years. I swore back then that I was happy drawing super realism in black and white and didn't have the desire to dabble in color or paint... I find that very funny now. It turns out that I love painting more than anything, and drawing in pencil is more tedious than I remember, but still enjoyable. I'm glad that I can combine my pencil work with my digital painting like above. So I used color pencil (who needs erasers?), scanned and combined the two drawings in photoshop, then digitally colored.

See the meaning of this card and others at: Intimacy Without Responsibility -The Conscious Evolution of Love  facebook page

Wholeness

©Sam Nagel

I recreated an older piece of art I had done about five years ago. The concept of this tree fit very well with the card I was designing. check out the meaning of the card on facebook, link is below...

See the meaning of this card and others at: Intimacy Without Responsibility -The Conscious Evolution of Love  facebook page

Curly Fern

©Sam Nagel

I kept this one pretty easy. I actually enjoyed painting the background, trying to create soft blur focus in some areas along with some texture. I had sketched the fern leaves in my sketchbook and scanned it. The line is my original sketchbook drawing, the rest is painted digitally in photoshop. I really wanted to use the imagery of the curly fern for a while, and use the concept of a yin yang, but without it being the yin yang symbol. I took some artistic liberty with the curl of the fern transforming into a full fern leaf... it probably doesn't actually look that way in nature (nor is it blue). I also needed to create something with the cool colors rather than so much warmth.

Portal

©Sam Nagel

I'm getting toward the end of the cards. Even though I did them in random order I still have more that are at the end of the deck, and my visual interpretation keeps getting more trippy. (or it could just be the electronic music I'm listening to) I chose to represent evolution of the soul and a general higher awareness with a Japanese torri and shrine. The purpose of the torri is to separate the mundane and profane from the sacred, it cleanses and purifies as one passes through them.

See the meaning of this card and others at: Intimacy Without Responsibility -The Conscious Evolution of Love  facebook page

Orchid Flower

©Sam Nagel

It turned out kind of psychedelic. I had a crappy painting that I started for this card, but turned it into the background... If you look carefully you can see a man's profile and ribbon-like brain matter... haha. Now onto the next card... 6 more to go!!!

See the meaning of this card and others at: Intimacy Without Responsibility -The Conscious Evolution of Love  facebook page

Bird's Nest

©Sam Nagel

from to pencil drawing to digital painting. The line is my original pencil line, + photoshop for color.

See the meaning of this card and others at: Intimacy Without Responsibility -The Conscious Evolution of Love  facebook page

Drawing Time

Reminding myself I can still draw with a real pencil. I've been doing too much digital work and felt like I was loosing my touch. I left my sketch lines in these, didn't do any cleaning up this time. I also have been using some old watercolor pencils that I've let go unused for years... it also makes me be more confident in my mark making since there is no erasing with them.

watercolor pencils in sketchbook

©Sam Nagel

The Poet

©Sam Nagel

I've had this idea floating around in my head for a long time and so I finally got around to painting it.

See the meaning of this card and others at: Intimacy Without Responsibility -The Conscious Evolution of Love  facebook page

digital painting/photoshop

Spirit of the Trees

©Sam Nagel

I'm enjoying creating interesting silhouettes combined with a painterly technique.

tools: photoshop cs5

Fire

 ©Sam Nagel

I'm feeling very angry today. So I painted the anger card... fitting. I imagine this is my energy when I'm pissed off. I have a lot of it. But of course, it's a couples card, and about how anger is healthy in relationships and how to express it... so hopefully it is not too scary, lol.

photoshop digital painting

Fish

©Sam Nagel

I don't know which one I like better... paint spatter or clean? I started painting the fish without reference, and so now I can't tell you what kind of fish it is, but I'm thinking it's a cross between a koi and betta. The beauty of art is you can be full of shit and as long as it looks good it doesn't matter. :)

painted with a tablet in photoshop