Art Spirals

Some flower studies I've squeezed in lately. Life is getting busier, I'm out of my daily sketching and attempt at daily painting routine, but here's what I worked on today and yesterday.

A drop dead beautiful iris in my garden, sidelit by the afternoon sun. it was plein aire painting, the shadows kept shifting, and I feel like I"m just daubing paint without really understanding where I want to put my medium and dark values to form the shape...but I did take photos before I started, and I'll work on value sketches tomorrow and attempt it from the photo.

From Watercolor 2007

and then the gazania...many attempts at this, I'm half satisfied with this one. I have to get over the compulsion to keep fussing with it to make it look exactly how it is, and that overworks it and looks like yuck.

From Watercolor 2007

The other week I went birding at Hueco Tanks, I love this park! Even though I love to bird, and I was with a birding friend, my eye kept getting drawn to the interplays of light and shadow and figuring out how I would paint pictures there. I'd love to take a palette and paper out there and work al fresco. some day! anyway, I've sketched there before, but this time took photos to work on back home. Here are ref photos, one with sky and one a closeup.

From Travel Photos

So I started with taking monochrome shots also with my camera (another option would have been changing the pics to black and white in a photo program). and I did a value sketch with pen, while waiting at a ballet class, using the monochrome version in my camera.

From Watercolor 2007

Then a watercolor value sketch (only the first) using the mud left on my palette:

From Watercolor 2007

Then I started doing practice studies of rocks and mountains. here are some:

From Watercolor 2007

From Watercolor 2007

More work to come...

I started another journal, this one for backyard nature sketches, to keep track of the changes in growth. Here are some of the first pages Fig branch and full bush sketch:

From Daily Drawing...

Lily sprouts, rose leaves in bud, ash tree in bud:

From Daily Drawing...

Radishes from our garden in the Reflexions bound journal. Purchased it from ASWExpress, it was a good sale, but i'm not crazy about the paper (70 lb), compared to the HandBook square journal. this paper bleeds through. I like the HandBook a whole lot better, and it's in a square size too, although slightly smaller! These at Dick Blick: http://www.­dickblick.com/zz118/­69/ take wc washes much better, a heavier paper.

From Watercolor 2007

From Watercolor 2007

I got several suggestions from the WatercolorWorkshop group to add darker values to the piece, and of course, as soon as they mentioned it, i saw clearly that's what it needed. So here it is, it'll be called "done" and I'll move toward doing it again at some point.

From Watercolor 2007

WatercolorWC on acquarello, 9.5 x 11"

Life got very hectic over the last several days, but today I was able to use the colors I'd mixed and left on my palette (all cool ones) and got this down on paper. There are of course things I don't like, and could use improving, but on the whole, for where I am, I'm happy with it. I got the aerial perspective ok, the sky is good although I envisioned more grey clouds, the foreground isn't too busy, and the leafless trees are good. the italian cypress on the left is too large, and I'm unclear as to the low building in front, behind the tree, and it shows in the painting that I'm unclear on it.

some things I've learned: I want to work bigger. I wanted to have fun with the shadows and the darkened arches, but didn't have the control with my brush. I'm going to practice many skies and more skies, and desert scenes.

here's my sketchbook for the piece:

From Watercolor 2007

Watercolorand my initial wash attempt grabbing the wrong yellow (see previous post)

From Watercolor 2007

From Watercolor

From Watercolor 2007

Several washes later, on advice from Zan, I'm liking it better, but know I need to do it several times. more. I put a cool brown wash (raw umber/raw sienna) over the rock in back, and it recedes, but still doesn't look "rockish". I put a dark purple on the front, and sandpapered to make the brush, but I don't think it looks like brush either. BUT some of the scrapings with a utility knife to make the spines on the prickly pear look right.

Learned a lot from this piece...Learned that I need to work much more on rock, and if I do practice pieces, without filling in the rest, I can improve on this. but on the whole, I see improvement from the previous version.

I've been drawing every day for the past month and a half, and painting every day too for the past week, and it's really influenced what I do in the majority of my time (when I'm NOT painting). I have so little time for painting or drawing really. So here's what I do: when I'm doing my various errands handling the daily activities, I am looking for the shadows, figuring how I'd paint that tree, or this building, seeing what the colors are in the early mornings compared to high noon, and the late afternoon. It's quite exciting to see my everyday places in this new way. The second thing I'm doing is to keep and date all my painting attempts and journaling on the sides what I've learned from each piece...because no matter how much the piece fails, there's usually something interesting in it, and always definitely something I've learned! I'll scan and post some of those pieces too.

Today I had 25 minutes between loads of school valentine's day activities and the clouds were billowing over the mountains with a patch of blue sky in the middle of gray dark clouds, and a lovely church with a bell tower on the hill. So I sketched it as a thumbnail/value sketch, did it again to show what parts I needed to remember, and realized I didn't have my camera. So I went back in the next ten minute block of time to take a picture even though the clouds were gone and skies were blue, after a hail session. such an odd weather day! when I got back home for my longest break, 45 minutes, I attempted a preliminary wash with blues, purples and yellows/greens...but realized RIGHT after i'd done it, that I used the wrong yellow. cadmium yellow, not transparent, not cool, but opaque and warm. WRONG! for this look at least. but i had a yellow orange already mixed from the day before painting, and I took the short cut. note to self, don't do that! I'm trying a vertical orientation, realizing I need to work on larger paper, half sheet to feel the freedom of doing what I want, and that I need to not feel so rushed.

But total exhaustion has set in, so no more drawing/painting today, but that's ok. Time to get the kids to bed and then get myself there too!

This first one is a watercolor collage. I followed an exercise from a watercolor for kids video that my girls and I watched, and it was fun. Drop colors down in blobs. let dry. Find the flowers within it and use a marker/black crayon to define them. I added another little group of flowers behind it (on the top), glued it to a nice cardstock and then painted the cardstock background.

From Watercolor 2007

Watercolor It's in the mail now to my mom.

From Watercolor 2007

I got these neat card sets from Oriental Trading Company that have a square window frame, you insert a picture, glue it in and then I embellished it with wc strips. Fun to do. bright and cheery.

From Watercolor 2007

From WatercolorI originally posted this to the Watercolor workshop group on yahoo, and got some good suggestions from Zan on what to do next, to make the background further away, wash with a cool red or brown, and put a dark purple wash on the foreground brush to make it stand out, and then do some scratching for the thorns and brush. I'm grateful for the suggestions, but haven't gotten to work on it yet. maybe tomorrow! This weekend was filled with having a garage sale and all that entails, and having birthday celebrations for moi! Here's the original photo I took out at Hueco Tanks:

From Travel Photos

From Watercolor 2007

WatercolorWatercolor without drawing first on Fabriano Artistico Rough

This is for a birthday card for my sister-in-law. I don't think she follows my blog consistently, so it'll be a surprise for her. I kind of had a teapot that looked like it, but I took liberty with it. overworked the right side a bit too much, but on the whole, I like it! What do you think?