Cutting Hair

My daily drawings are taking on a definite air of journal entries as well. I'm okay with that as it helps with coming up with what to draw. When you're open to drawing just about anything it's close to impossible to come up with an excuse not to. That's also why I'm a big believer in getting a few good supplies and a journal with nice substantial paper. Otherwise it's just too easy to put it off with excuses like "the watercolor will bleed through the paper" or "i'll do it when I get that new pen, otherwise it won't look right".

Nutella

I'm playing a little with the layout of my pages. Incorporating more text to make it more of an illustrated journal. I'm definitely fast becoming a moleskine addict. Or at least an addict of small journals that have pages that hold up to watercolor.

Illustration Friday - Green

For this I did a few green washes in watercolor and then used my uniball pen for the drawing. For the most part I like how it turned out. The text at the bottom is kind of "meh" but that's okay. I'll let you in on a secret: On accident I wrote greem and tried to fix it by adding the exclamation mark. Now when I look at it, my mind sees GREEM!. Which personally I think rather improves it. I might start using it as a word. Any thoughts as to what it might mean? Is it good, as in, "Wow that cake is really greem." Or is it bad - "Don't go into that public restroom - it's seriously greem."

Ceiling Fan

So I'm really getting into doing some sort of sketch a day. In this one I'm playing even more with ink. I penciled in what I wanted to draw, then watercolored, then inked with a black uniball pen. I like the look of the ink but I also think it gives it a more cartoon-y look. That's also probably due to the fact that I'm using a thick uniball. I'm wanting to get a pen with a thinner line that won't run if I watercolor over it. Any suggestions?

99 Cent Flowers

Apparently on Friday at a local grocery store they set out discount flowers for 99 cents. The colors don't necessarily match but if you separate some out and put them into a pretty glass they actually look quite nice. In this way you can get a few bouquets all for less than a dollar.
Illustration-wise I'm experimenting with using a pen with my watercolors right now. I liked the way the glass looked without the pen so I left it. I do like the pen work just picking out a few flowers up top. More fun with pens in the coming days.

Vanilla

I quite like this one. Drawn from life but loose. Also getting used to using a pen in addition to watercolor. As a side note to get really good strong vanilla extract you actually should let it sit for 4 to 6 months. But that's neither here nor there in terms of drawing.

The Peacock Post aka The "I Can't Draw from My Imagination" Post

The title of this post pretty much sums up how I feel about this little sketch. Although I do like the yellow background pattern. Oh, and I'm also figuring out how to mix bigger batches of color. Getting a better feel for all of that. Which makes it worthwhile. But none of this changes the fact that I'm no good at drawing from my imagination. Not to say that my sketchbook will never have to suffer from my attempts again.

Brick Sketch

I'm not very good at drawing from photographs. This is an attempt at drawing from a photograph. I like the color I made for the bricks. The problem is that I tend not to mix enough of a color when I make mixes. I'm working on improving that. Not a lot of depth of value in this one either. All of it will come with practice. The main thing is to not get discouraged.

Illustration Friday - Snap

This is my first illustration friday post in a while. It is my first non-digital media entry ever. Right now i'm loving working in little watercolors. I'm not super good at it, but it's so much fun. There is something refreshing about being able to physically flip through pages and hold the work you've done.

Blue Tea Set

Well here is my second watercolor attempt. I actually quite like it. It's a little looser than what I'm used to doing and I like that. With this one I feel like I'm getting a better feel for how to get different values out of the paint. It's also not too muddied up since I restricted myself to only using two colors: Winsor Blue and Cadmium Red.

First Watercolor in Mini Moleskine Watercolor Notebook

A few days ago I received my small Moleskine watercolor notebook in the mail. I don't have a lot of experience with watercolors but love the quick washes of color you can add to sketches with them. So here is my first quick attempt with them. I may have overworked it a bit but it's not too bad for my first time. I'm still working on figuring out color mixes (I bought six Winsor & Newton tube paints - they're quite spendy so I just got the basics).

So far I love working with the little Moleskine notebook. It perfectly fits what I was looking for in a sketch notebook - lots of pages, paintable on both sides, ink and watercolor does not bleed through, and very tiny. I found one online for about $13 with shipping included which I thought was reasonable for 30 sheets (60 pages both sides). Until I found it I was seriously considering buying watercolor paper, cutting it, and trying to bind a little notebook myself. Nice to not worry about it now - it just would have been another excuse to put off sketching.

Technical Difficulties

... Or maybe not so technical but difficulties none the less. Our neighbors are having construction done and in the process our phone line was cut. So since Friday we've had no phone or internet. Just got it all back and am now basking in the electronic glow of our computer. Hooray for being connected again!

Abstract Sunflowers

So here is what I ended up doing with the red canvas. Instead of doing a literal translation of either eggs or sunflowers I went with sunflowers that look vaguely like eggs. Sort of. Anyway I just started painting and stopped thinking too much about it and ended up with this. It's not quite as bright as it comes across on my screen but it gives you an idea.

This picture is a little blurry but the color comes across a little more true. Also I think you can see the thickness of the paint a little more. I used a pretty thick application.

We Now Have Tomatoes

Woo Hoo! We finally have tomatoes with more than we know what to do with on the way. In celebration I've taken a semi-fancy pants picture of the first tomato harvest of the year.

On another note I finished the red canvas a few days ago and will try to get some pictures up tomorrow. Stay tuned...

Back Home

I'm officially back home from visiting my parents while my husband was gone for job training. Now we get to have the fun of wading our way through a massive pile of laundry. While I'm waiting on cycles to finish I'm thinking I could paint a little. Probably not a good idea to swing back and forth between freshly clean clothes and messy paints but hey - a girl has to live on the edge sometimes. I just feel like I need to get going with the painting because it's just too easy to sit and go back and forth between ideas. I just need to mix up some paints and go.

Bounty of the Garden - Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce

It's kind of a wonderful thing when you plant seeds and then plants actually grow. For some reason I always feel like there is no way that any seed I plant will actually do anything. But here is the proof - mmmm... delicious.

Then, being on the creative kick I appear to be in the midst of, I took a few up close shots of the produce that I kind of like. I'm wondering if I could enlarge this, frame it, and put it in my kitchen. Hmmmm... artsy.

My Next Painting - Or - What Should I Put On This Canvas?

Here's a canvas that I painted with bright reds and oranges (as in orange - the color. I can just picture myself using a piece of fruit as a paintbrush - hmmm...). But now I want to add something onto this field of color. I'm thinking sunflowers - or maybe fried eggs. I can't make up my mind. I have a few quick wacom sketches but I'm having trouble focusing on just one idea and refining it. Any thoughts? - Post them in the comment section.

My Finished Pears

So here is the final canvas. I did it with acrylic paint and I can't remember when I finished it. Quite a while ago. But like I said in my last post - I'm cheating a bit. The painting was interesting to do because I'm really not familiar with painting with acrylic. I'm still in the process of learning what works and what doesn't. Are there things that I would like to change about the finished product - yes. Am I going to let that bother me - no. I think drawing and painting - like most creative endeavors - rely more on the fact of you doing them over and over again than worrying about everything you do being perfect. This is something I've had trouble with in the past but I'm working on it. That's part of the reason I like blogging. It's motivation to go work on something if only to have something to post about.

Pears on the Wacom

So, in an effort to stay on top of posting regularly I'm cheating just a bit. I did this wacom sketch a while ago but never got around to posting it. Tomorrow I'll post the painting I made based off of this sketch.

I'm Back

After a long absence I'm back trying to post regularly. I've added some goodies to the sidebar and finally just removed the navbar at from the top. For the past year it had taken up about a 2 x 3 inch square on the left hand side of the screen (if anybody knows how to fix this without removing the bar - please let me know). Anyway I guess my blog is now all cleaned up with places to go so hopefully you'll start hearing more from me soon.