I spent the early summer working on some watercolors in preparation for a faculty exhibition this fall at Truman. Mostly subject matter of locations I have visited recently. Now back to working on digital skills.
Architecture/buildings
I keep bouncing my students around/between nature/natural subjects and man-made/mechanical subjects just to push their technique - and for them to figure out what they can do innately and what comes harder for them. Each student is different in their likes and dislikes. So, this week is buildings and architecture. My choice for my demo …
Landscapes
We have moved on to watercolor landscapes in illustration class this week. Landscapes are a bit more challenging than birds and it takes practice to pull them off. Actually, I just tell the students that landscapes are a bitch and they take a lot of practice. They believe me. Here is today's demo, a little …
Demo Bird 2016
Here is this year's illustration class, watercolor demo bird. Fresh off the press this morning. This is an Eastern Bluebird - Missouri State bird.
Better late…
Amazingly, I find myself with a few moments of free time. So, I thought I would post a couple more class demo pieces that I did last semester for my illustration class. One demo bird and a gouache demo. The gouache piece is a portrait of a teacher my daughter worked with in Lesotho, south …
Demo Birds
In the last few years, I have been using birds as subject matter for quick watercolor demonstrations in the illustration class I teach. The illustrations are typically around 8 x 10 inches in size and completed in a two-hour class period. I always appreciated watching someone work on and complete artwork. I try to show …
Put a dog in it
I've used dogs as subject matter in many of my illustrations. It wasn't a deliberate decision, I just noticed that they were showing up frequently. Growing up in rural Kansas, on a farm, dogs were just natural companions. They kept things under control with all the wildlife that came out at night. We raised sheep …
Indian Lookout
There is a rock formation about five miles south of Delphos, Kansas that has been a local feature and tourist destination since the settlers arrived in the 1870's. Of course the Indians of the area knew about it and used it as a lookout over the valley. Hence the name. It is a relative high …
The demo birds
I am going to use the blog feature on this site as a means to include detail about my illustrations. I have already blogged two short posts about couple of recent pieces. This post is about the little watercolor birds you'll see on this site. They are the result of in-class watercolor demonstrations in my …
Half-Jack
I have done many illustrations with my grandfather as the subject. This watercolor is the most recent. He was called Half-Jack by a custom wheat cutter back in the days of C.B. radios. It became his C.B. handle and stuck to him long after craze died away. This image was from a trip to Canada …
RUSTY NELSON 
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