failed attempt - girl with chicken

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The never-finished portrait…

Girl with Chicken

SIZE: 15,7 in. x 15,7 in. - 40 x 40 cm - 3 cm
PAPER: GESSO BORD AMPERSAND 

COLORS: DANIEL SMITH WATERCOLOR 

2025 © ISABELLA KRAMER

find me on INSTAGRAM

„Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.“ 

- Winston S. Churchill

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During late summer, I’ve had a great photo shoot with this lovely country girl. Now I’m starting to work on some portrait ideas from it. The first sketches come out fine, but the decision to create a portrait on gesso board was a mistake. I think my respect for the underground was too high, and the more I drew, the more I realized that I can’t do this in the way I wanted.

So I washed up the failed work and applied a new gesso ground…

Let's hope for a better start to the next version 😏

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Das nie vollendete Porträt…

„Erfolg ist, von Misserfolg zu Misserfolg zu stolpern, ohne die Begeisterung zu verlieren.“ – Winston S. Churchill

Im Spätsommer hatte ich ein tolles Fotoshooting mit diesem netten Mädchen vom Land. Jetzt fange ich an, daraus ein paar Porträtideen zu entwickeln. Die ersten Skizzen sind ganz gut geworden, aber die Entscheidung, ein Porträt auf Gesso-Platte zu malen, war ein Fehler. Ich glaube, ich hatte zu viel Respekt vor dem doch etwas teureren Untergrund, und je mehr ich zeichnete, desto mehr merkte ich, dass ich das nicht so umsetzen kann, wie ich es mir vorgestellt hatte.

Also habe ich die misslungene Arbeit abgewaschen und einen neuen Gesso-Grund aufgetragen… Hoffentlich klappt der nächste Versuch besser 😏

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July Girl

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July Girl

SIZE: 15,7 in. x 15,7 in. - 40 x 40 cm - 5 cm
PAPER: GESSO BORD AMPERSAND 

COLORS: DANIEL SMITH WATERCOLOR 

2025 © ISABELLA KRAMER

find me on INSTAGRAM

 I’m a bit behind for Day One @worldwatercolormonth 2025 - but I think my newest Summer Girl portrait fits perfectly for the hashtag #radiant

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Easter Eggs

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Easter Eggs

SIZE: 20 cm x 20 cm - 5,5" x 5,5"

PAINTING GROUND: AMPERSAND AQUABORD 3 mm

COLORS: DANIEL SMITH + SENNELIER

2023 © ISABELLA KRAMER

find me on INSTAGRAM

Not really easy to take a realistic photo of it. You have to look for it in real 🐰🐰🥚🥕🐰 I was in the mood for creating some Easter eggs!! Painted on Gesso bord and adding some real gold on the final version.

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Autumn Still Life - one

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Autumn Still Life - one

SIZE: 20 cm x 20 cm - 5,5" x 5,5"

PAINTING GROUND: AMPERSAND GESSOBORD 3 mm

COLORS: DANIEL SMITH + SENNELIER

2022 © ISABELLA KRAMER

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My plan was to paint a series with some autumnal still lives in a small format and I've started with Ampersand's gessobord. Hmm, it's a miracle with this one, because I've no idea if I've put a watercolor ground on it or not. And it looks like not, but the watercolors stayed from the first wash perfectly on it. Okay, you must be very careful with corrections, otherwise it's three steps forward and two backwards, but even salt on the wet pigments works great. So I took a gessobord for No. 2 too, but it doesn't work. The colors beaded off and absolutely didn't want to stick to the gessobord. I had to put some watercolor ground on it. I'll show you the result in my next post. 

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One of the last

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One of the Last 

SIZE: 12,7 cm x 12,7 cm - 5" x 5"

PAINTING GROUND: AMPERSAND GESSOBORD 3 mm

COLORS: DANIEL SMITH watercolors

2022 © ISABELLA KRAMER

find me on INSTAGRAM

"Polar bears rely heavily on sea ice for traveling, hunting, resting, mating, and, in some areas, maternal dens. But because of ongoing and potential loss of their sea ice habitat resulting from climate change–the primary threat to polar bears Arctic-wide–polar bears were listed as a threatened species in the US under the Endangered Species Act in May 2008. As their sea ice habitat recedes earlier in the spring and forms later in the fall, polar bears are increasingly spending longer periods on land, where they are often attracted to areas where humans live.

The survival and the protection of the polar bear habitat are urgent issues for WWF. In October 2019, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Polar Bear Specialist Group released a new assessment of polar bear populations showing that the number of polar bear subpopulations experiencing recent declines has increased to four, with eight populations still being data-deficient. The good news is that five populations are stable while two have been experiencing an upward trend."

©www.worldwildlife.org 

  

It's my first try on gessobord and I'm thrilled. It's a wonderful surface.  Part one of a small Polar Bears series.

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