Sunrise.........

Jim has this real thin birch plywood, you remember, the stuff that he cut the cats out of. I wondered how it would take coloured pencils. This sunrise is the result. I used a picture from our trip to Sanibel Island, Florida, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to.

The plywood took the colour very well. It is kind of cool to see the wood grain through the colours. If you look closely you can see some of the more prominent grain coming off the sun on the right side. I'll have to try something else that leaves more of the wood bare or that uses it as the median colour.


This was done in ATC size. Funny what your brain sees and makes important. Planning wouldn't hurt, but I just wanted to jump in.

Colour Mixing Wheel.....

This after noon I found a colour mixing wheel in my bookmarks. I have ignored it until today. When I found it again I thought to myself this is exactly what I need to work on. In my thought, colour mixing is an art form all its own and if you can't do it you will be limited in what you can paint.


I started a thread over at Lori Andrews-Come paint with me. Asking that beginners jump in and try their own colour wheel and that the more experienced artist give some constructive critiques.


I had a hard time making my purple and my yellows seem similar. I found out that you use a lot of yellow, a bit of red and a touch of blue when you are mixing colours.

Bubble , bubble......

Kim started a new project at Drawspace, Let's use our coloured pencils. She put up this great picture of a bubble for us to try out, as well as showing the steps and colours that she used to draw it.
Well I meant to do it in CP but I have water colour on the brain right now and well, out came the paints. I tried hard to keep the layers from mounting up, but wasn't so successful. Oh well its more practice and maybe not so bad.

Maple syrup......

I ran a weekly challenge at Drawspace this week. I based it on my trip to Northern Michigan, where I visited my Cousin. They were in the process of collecting sap to make syrup. My Cousin's Father in Law worked the evaporator, kept the fire going and watching the temperature on the syrup. He was able to explain to my younger boys and myself the whole process. The boys helped out with all the different jobs. Then we were able to bring home a jug of syrup.

Maple leaf......

I was reading through a water colour thread on Drawspace, where I found an image posted by Adolpho. He suggested laying down a wash of yellow on the leaf and build from there. I found I got lost on the leafs vines, probably because even though I started slow, I sped up after awhile.

Sarah on the same thread suggested that only two or three layers of colour should go down, so I think that will explain some of the muddiness. Sarah also suggested cutting yourself some post card size papers and keep practicing, which sounded like a great idea.

I am using 140lb strathmore CP water colour paper, I wet it down and then taped it. It still buckled, I am thinking this is because I didn't soak it, just ran it through the tap water. I'll try soaking it next time. Oh, might also be because I taped it too close to the edge, or the paint tape I have isn't strong enough.

April 2009 VSD......

I haven't done a virtual sketch date in a while. There is a whole new way of signing up, so if I can figure that out, I'll be doing good. Here is my sketch I am working from. The original photograph is from Jeanette. I am showing the sketch first because it goes down hill from here.

Here is my horribly overworked flower done in water colour. I figured I was done but got to thinking what would it look like with a background.


For all that I just swabbed in the background with no finesse, it does show that the background was needed to finish the picture. Good thing to know for next time.

Lilac Breasted Roller, Botswana, Africa.....

Drawspace has a new water colour challenge this week. Marisa put up some beautiful pictures with lots of colour in them. Like this Lilac Breasted Roller from Botswana Africa.
I did this water colour painting in my moleskin sketch book. I really am enjoying using water colours. It is fun to see how quickly a picture can take shape. Although I do find that I need to get some patience for giving the paint time to dry and thinking out layers of colours.