This is my favorite time of year to be outside appreciating the subtleties of nature. Springtime is the best time to experience the color Green in many different variations. The spring landscape is gorgeous here in New England.
The View from Poet's Seat Tower in Greenfield, MA
Above is a photo I took yesterday from the top of Poet’s Seat Tower. I made a mini sketch of the view from the lower part of the tower on a manila tag. It was an experiment using my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and some colored pencils. The pen works great on this paper (no smudging unlike some other papers I have tried), although there isn’t enough tooth for the colored pencils.
Another small painting from Google Street View in Elba, this time experimenting with my new Derwent Coloursoft colored pencils. I like the soft feel of these pencils and they come in a lot of natural looking colors, but I have trouble distinguishing different colors from one another.
I tend to draw with a ton of different colors strewn all over the table, but that won’t work with these pencils. The color swatches at the end of the pencil don’t seem very accurate, and the leads don’t look like the actual color on the paper. Being organized and having a scrap paper on hand for tests is critical for me, because I had a few accidents when I started using the wrong color.
My only other (small) gripe is that the pencils are too large to fit in my electric sharpener. Luckily, I have a manual one that works. Otherwise, I LOVE these pencils.
This is nothing like what I normally do, but I rather like it. It was fun to work on, which is the main thing I want out of my artwork these days. It reminds me of some kind of fantasy land from Haroun and the Sea of Stories or some other fantasy novel. This is my submission for February’s Virtual Paintout on the Island of Elba. It’s a beautiful island, and Napoleon was lucky to be exiled there!
This little piece depicts one of the many waterfalls that empty into the Green River. After Hurricane Irene, my husband and I drove around to survey the damage and I snapped a photo that I used as a reference. The river and the streams were flowing a lot faster than normal, which made for a beautiful scene.
I just sent this off to Moss, Norway for the second Twitter Art Exhibit, organized by David Sandum. You may remember that I submitted a painting for the first Twitter Art Exhibit as well, back in 2010. This time, the money raised is going towards the Women’s Crisis Center in Moss. I met David on Twitter a few years ago and he’s a nice guy and great artist. I highly recommend following him if you use Twitter. There’s still time to participate in the exhibit as the deadline is March 30th.
I found this ashtray at Papou’s house, and I took it home and put it on my nightstand to hold hair clips. I love the bright red inside. I enjoy pottery with white on the outside and bright colors on the inside, like these tripod dishes.
I sketched it twice. The sketch on the left was first and I was off quite a bit. I came closer to the actual object on my second sketch (right). Elipses were never my cup of tea (whose are they, anyway?). I could fill up a sketchbook of practice sketches and still be improving.
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.
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.
