TRUE GRIT in Watercolor

Detail of the painting. Click images to see them larger.

    Howdy and hello! Lately I've been doing studies and preliminary work for a watercolor commission I'm working on. I needed to do a "test painting" or two in order to figure out exactly which way I wanted to approach the actual painting step of the process. I knew I was going to be using a lot of browns and earth tones. I figured I may as well paint something that, if it turned out well, I could give to my dad as a finished painting. My Pops likes westerns and he and I really enjoy watching the Coen Bros version of True Grit. It's one of our go-to movies for funny quotes. What better to paint, but the main characters from the film?!

    Above and below are two photos of the finished painting in full. The top photo shows the brownish colors which dominate the palette better than the one below.

    This photo shows some other elements, such as the details and tones, a bit better.

Weird snapshot of the painting framed.

    My dad was quite pleased with the surprise painting! He asked me to help him frame it and set it up in his office. Cool! :) It's fun to get to surprise people with a gift of artwork every now and then. Or as Rooster Cogburn would say, "You are not LaBeouf."
    God bless, guys! Have a great week!