Buddha in primary colors

This painting had a different process than I usually do. The portrait was  inspired by a quick ball point pen sketch of a water fountain that I had done several months ago in a notebook.  Later, as I was going through the notebook, I thought that it might make an interesting painting, so I enlarged the sketch,  originally only 2" high.  The fountain was a blueish-grey color, which worked well for the ball point drawing, but I thought I would add some color to the painting.  So I worked with a limited palette of red, blue, and yellow to create " Buddha in Primary Colors".

Meditating Buddha watercolor

Another Christmas gift...for my wife to put into her meditation room. This was started about 8 months ago with a sketch of Buddha. Next, I drew a pencil outline of the buddha and painted just the background in a wet-on-wet style.Then it sat for about 6 months.  One of the reasons I've been practicing portraits is so I could feel confident in finishing this piece.  The hands are still the part that trips me up, and these where in a particularly challenging position. This is one of those paintings that I could continue tweeking, but at some point I had to say I was finished.

Buddha

Just a quick pencil sketch of Buddha to practice drawing people. I chose pencil because it is more forgiving than other mediums.  I can tell I still need to work on hands. His mudras are kind of tricky. He did sit very still for me though! Here is the picture I took my insiration from, although I did make some changes.