Now that I don’t have a studio with everything set up already, it’s getting tough for me to paint in watercolor in between all the baby stuff that I do every few hours. But yesterday, Cate took an extra long nap and I got to do a little painting. I did this for the January Virtual Paintout challenge in Summit County, Colorado. It was a good opportunity to paint a snow scene. I’m thinking I might use this painting for my Christmas card next year. The reference image was cloudy and gray, but I turned it into a night scene. I also took liberties with the trees as you can see.
I bought some hotpress watercolor paper to try out. I’m not sure how I feel about the surface; it will take some getting used to. Coldpress paper seems to allow me more time for “wiggle room” before leaving an indelible mark. Also, coldpress paper seems to take more abuse and “scrubbing” before the paper’s surface starts to disintegrate. I painted this rose, but I mangled the leaves badly so I cut them off with the paper cutter.
It’s frustrating to have something turn out badly, especially when I don’t get to paint whenever I want anymore. I know that it is to be expected though, and I’m glad I experimented with this new paper.
This is my latest painting, which I used as the image for my Christmas cards this year. I painted it in watercolor first, and then went over it with colored pencil. I wanted something really bright and bold, and I think that I got what I was going for even though it isn’t blatantly Christmas themed.
If you scroll down you can see two work in progress photos plus my printed cards that I got in the mail the other day. Opening up my package made all my hard work seem worth it. I ordered my cards with red envelopes. I am really happy with the quality, although I wish I had the option to have 5 x 7 cards printed.
This is after I finished the watercolor and had just started on the colored pencil.
I worked from top left to lower right and used a piece of paper towel to rest my hand on to avoid smudging the colored pencil.
This image goes along with this one that I had posted earlier. My sister had them printed on postcards to use as invitations for my baby shower. I like the delicate look of graphite with watercolor wash and I’m thinking of making more pictures in this style. What do you think?
There is no fatigue so wearisome as that which comes from lack of work. -Charles H Spurgeon
I painted these roses back in July, when I had more energy and when my life felt completely different. These days I am exhausted, mostly because I am in my last few weeks of pregnancy. Apparently, I have a free pass to take it easy according to my family, but I can’t help but feel a little guilty. I did finish up my large handbook sketchbook and have started on another one. So far, all I’ve done are small black ink sketches, although I’m hoping to drag out the watercolors and have a go at them soon.
I sketched these daisies last week after my baby shower (one of them). Yesterday was my other baby shower and now I am swimming in so much baby paraphernalia that I find it overwhelming! I am so lucky because I was only expecting a fraction of what I got. I was going to try to be super minimalist, but now I’m thinking that my baby girl will be pampered for sure.
In my mind I’ve been avoiding the inevitable that I am running out of time to do certain tasks uninterrupted. Now that my life has settled down a bit and I’m done moving, I’m going to try to do as much drawing and painting as possible before the baby gets here. Also, I’ve been trying to do some reading because I probably won’t be doing much of that either.
This is my submission for the July VPO which is on the Island of Jersey. I usually don’t wait so long before submitting my painting, and I finished just in time. I started this picture earlier on in the month, but didn’t get around to finishing it until yesterday. I painted in watercolor first, and then went over it with the colored pencils. Finally, I used the colorless blender to brighten up the colors and smooth them out a bit. Since I was working on watercolor paper, I couldn’t hide the tooth of the paper, but I’ve always liked this effect because it allows me to get really bright colors. I wasn’t trying to be especially realistic with the colors and was going for something happy and sunny instead.
The other day I sat outside to draw these beautiful lilies. Unfortunately, it was much too hot for me and I was harassed by bees. I did finish my drawing, but I felt rushed. I added the watercolor later, indoors.
While looking through my paper collection yesterday, I found a pad of watercolor paper that had an old drawing in it, from over a year ago. I had made an ink drawing of a Mexico City street, originally intended for the Virtual Paintout, but I had abandoned the whole piece because the drawing had many errors in perspective. I never ended up starting over and submitting anything that month, so it kind of felt like a failure to me. When I looked it over yesterday though, I still liked one part of the drawing, so I decided to do something with it. I painted it in watercolor and then cropped out the part that I liked. Now I have this colorful mini painting sitting next to my drafting table.
This scene is based on a photo I took on a small private beach in Maine that I found while taking a walk along the coast. I made one sketch beforehand, rearranged the rocks just a bit, and changed the colors. Blue is my favorite color, can you tell?
