#427 Ann #427 Canvas Print

My gouache and ink painting of Ann Ranlett. She was in costume at the annual Steampunk Victorian Holiday Faire at the High Hand Gallery in Rocklin, California. I thought it would be interesting to see if I can make a watercolor painting look like scratchboard. I started with black paper. Discovered most watercolor paints disappears on black paper so I had to find a different way to make it work, and the clock was ticking. I decided to try this never used cheap gouache set that has been sitting the shelf for years. This was my first experiment in painting in gouache as I tried to figure it out as I went along. The background white ink marks simulates Ann’s use of scratch marks on a scratchboard. If you see her actual work, it’s impressive.

Ann Ranlett, MSA, is an artist and illustrator specializing in pet/animal portraits and nature subjects rendered scratchboard, watercolor, pencil and mixed media. She graduated from CSU, Sacramento, with a bachelor’s degree in...

My search to find my biological family was the genesis of my journey into the world of art. When I finally found my birth family, at the age of 40, I was plunged into a new and very different family. On one occasion while talking with the father I had never known, I discovered that my great uncle was the renowned watercolorist Dong Kingman. Fatefully discovering a cheap watercolor paint set, and intrigued by my relationship with Kingman, I wondered if I had inherited any of his talent. This lingering question spurred me into trying to paint. My first challenge was deciding what subjects I would paint. As a fan of Van Gogh, and knowing that he painted images from his day to day life: houses, fields, people working, I decided to do the...