The Colorful Engineer

fine art by caroline serafinas

New Instagram Post

New Instagram Post

Working on a new painting but you can bet I’m counting this toward my #100heads ! This one is only about an inch big. 7/100
.
.
.
.
.
#colorfulengineer #100heads #100headschallenge #100dayproject #404taken #watercolorsketch #sketch #watercolor #watercolorportrait #portraitpainting #portrait #figurativeart #figurativepainting #makeart2019 #carveouttimeforart #dailyart #paintingoftheday #doitfortheprocess #watercolor_daily #paintingoftheday #marylandartist #makersofmaryland #etsyartist

Instagram filter used: Normal

View in Instagram ⇒

New Instagram Post

New Instagram Post

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” -MLK Jr.
.
.
.
Head #6/100 just in time for Martin Luther King Jr Day
.
.
.
.
#colorfulengineer #100heads #100headschallenge #100dayproject #404taken #watercolorsketch #sketch #watercolor #watercolorportrait #portraitpainting #portrait #makeart2019 #carveouttimeforart #dailyart #dailypractice #doitfortheprocess #watercolor_daily #paintingoftheday #marylandartist #makersofmaryland #etsyartist #mlk #mlkday #mlkquotes #martinlutherkingjr #martinlutherking

Instagram filter used: Normal

View in Instagram ⇒

New Instagram Post

New Instagram Post

Work in progress of one of my heads 🎨 .
.
.
.
.
#colorfulengineer #100heads #100headschallenge #100dayproject #404taken #watercolorsketch #sketch #watercolor #watercolorportrait #portraitpainting #portrait #makeart2019 #carveouttimeforart #dailyart #dailypractice #doitfortheprocess #watercolor_daily #wip #progresspic #paintingoftheday #marylandartist #makersofmaryland #etsyartist

Instagram filter used: Normal

View in Instagram ⇒

New Instagram Post

New Instagram Post

We visited my painting tonight at the HoCo Open reception! Food, drinks, art, music. What more could you want?
.
.
.
.
.
#colorfulengineer #hoco #hocoarts #hocoopen #ellicottcity #watercolorart #watercolorpainting #makersofmaryland

Instagram filter used: Normal

Photo taken at: Ellicott City, Maryland

View in Instagram ⇒

100 Heads Challenge for 2019

If you follow me on Instagram you have probably figured out my one of my goals for 2019. I’ve challenged myself to painting 100 heads this year. The 100 heads challenge is pretty common among artists on Instagram. So I’m not coming up with anything new here. But I thought it would be a good way to practice my portraiture skills. I generally enjoy painting people but also find them to be quite difficult. You get one detail wrong and it throws off the whole picture! My goal is to also try going about these heads much more free-handed than I typically start a painting, which usually involves printing out the image, and tracing a few key spots to make sure my proportions are right. However after a few ugly starts I’m still using a ruler as a crutch. I’ve also given myself permission to keep the ruler since I am, after all, an engineer 😉 But we’ll see how things evolve.

You can follow my progress on Facebook or Instagram.  I’m only on head #5…. and we on day #16 of the year. So I need to catch up.

Head #4- Marie Kondo

Now for a story and a trip down memory lane….. it occurred to me just a couple days ago that this isn’t my first 100 heads rodeo. I don’t know how I didn’t realize this earlier, but I drew 100+ heads for my wedding favor gifts back in 2009! Yes, I drew one for every guest at our wedding. Here is the whole gang (sorry about the terrible picture):

And a close up. Again, I apologize for the terrible photography.

I actually wrote a couple blog posts about this in 2011: this and this one.

Looking at these pictures has also sparked flashbacks of when I actually took this on. I set up a schedule for myself and calculated how many portraits I needed to draw each week in order to get these done before our wedding… which I recall being 5 or 6 each week. Oh and tracking down head shots of everyone- that was a chore! It involved lots of stalking and a few awkward emails. But I did manage to pull it off and finishing this project remains one of my greatest accomplishments ever.

If you’re wondering how exactly I went about this, here is a quick recap: First, I drew up a male and female generic body. (BTW each body is holding a picture of my now husband and I.) I scanned in those drawings. And then for each person, I printed out a body and drew on a head. Easy peasy. Ha.  For each head I cheated a bit and traced a rough outline before starting. Because, again, it is really difficult to draw facial proportions correctly!

Also, you can see from the favors that we got married in 2009. So it looks like I’m on track for a 100 heads challenge every 10 years 🙂

HoCo Open 2019

I showed one of my paintings in the HoCo Open 2019! The exhibit was on display from January 11 through February 22, 2019. HoCo Open is an annual non-juried exhibit open to visual artists who live, work, or study in Howard County, Maryland. Artists are invited to submit one piece of original artwork completed in the past two years.

I submitted my painting “Dear Journal” for this exhibit. It was tough picking just one. But at least this way my little boy was in the show too 🙂

Dear Journal
2018
9″x12″ Watercolor on Paper

 

 

New Instagram Post

New Instagram Post

Head 5/100. This is starting to get more enjoyable. I have a process for going about these now 👏 This one is just a random woman inspired by a stock photo. It feels like less pressure when I’m not painting someone I personally know 🙃
.
.
.
.
.
#colorfulengineer #100heads #100headschallenge #100dayproject #404taken #watercolorsketch #sketch #watercolor #watercolorportrait #portraitpainting #portrait #makeart2019 #carveouttimeforart #dailyart #dailypractice #doitfortheprocess #watercolor_daily

Instagram filter used: Normal

View in Instagram ⇒

New Instagram Post

New Instagram Post

Head 4/100. Has anybody else been completely engrossed in watching the #mariekondo show Tidying Up?? .
.
.
And for anybody keeping track I’ve decided I’m keeping my ruler 🤙
.
.
.
#colorfulengineer #100heads #100headschallenge #404taken #watercolorsketch #sketch #watercolor #watercolorportrait #portraitpainting #portrait #makeart2018 #carveouttimeforart #dailyart #dailypractice #konmari #tidyingup

Instagram filter used: Normal

View in Instagram ⇒

New Instagram Post

New Instagram Post

3/100. Feeling a little better about how things are going with this challenge. I switched to better paper. I also pulled out my ruler. I’m not sure if that’s cheating or not 😬
.
.
.
.
.
.
#colorfulengineer #100heads #100headschallenge #404taken #watercolorsketch #sketch #watercolor #watercolorportrait #portraitpainting #portrait #makeart2018 #carveouttimeforart #dailyart #dailypractice

Instagram filter used: Normal

View in Instagram ⇒

New Instagram Post

New Instagram Post

🎵 It’s my party and I’ll hide if I want to🎵
10×13” watercolor .
.
.
.
We’ve had some birthday balloons floating around so I decided to put them to good use 😁
.
.
.
#colorfulengineer #watercolor #watercolorpainting #watercolor_daily #watercolorart #aquarelle #makeart2019 #carveouttimeforart #dailyart #dailypainting #art #artwork #kidart #balloons #marylandartist #momartist

Instagram filter used: Normal

Photo taken at: Maryland

View in Instagram ⇒

About Me

Hello, I’m Caroline, an artist from Maryland. I appreciate you stopping and taking the time to look around.

Sign-Up for News and Updates

Get Social

Latest Posts