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?
I hope everyone has a good day, especially if you are feeling depressed. I am planning on having a nice, neutral V-Day this year. I baked a bundt cake with a lemony glazy, and we are ordering pizza tonight.
I had fun making this little sketch of a chickadee for the Wilderness Art Challenge, which is a monthly art challenge hosted by Gary Keimig. He has some really lovely nature art and photography, so I would check him out. The scan didn’t come in that great because of the buckling of the paper, but I wasn’t aiming for perfection.
A bit of trivia for you: I have only used birds as a subject three other times in my life before, when I was a preteen. I painted a bluebird for my grandmother, a parakeet for my grandfather and a cardinal for someone in my church who collected them.
Since then I haven’t drawn birds at all, mostly because I felt that the Internet was becoming too saturated with them, especially owls and peacocks. Birds seem to be a good “self-contained” subject and I have noticed that they are a favorite subject for illustrators and artists who like to stylize their work more. For more bird themed art, check out Geninne Zlatkis and Natasha Newton, who have made a name for themselves by painting birds almost exclusively.
Do you know of an artist who paints birds? Let me know in the comments!
I hope everyone has a peaceful and relaxing Christmas with your families. I am planning on having a nice one myself. I will be back next week with my review of 2010 and my 2011 Art Goals.
There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so, he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted. -Henri Matisse
While I’m thinking about Matisse, I thought I’d post some links:
I’ve been doing a lot of little watercolors lately, mainly because I am trying to use up this certain sketchbook that I bought as an experiment. I have a long way to go, but I am really unhappy with the paper in it, so I just want to burn through the pages. It is made by Art Alternatives and it is made to look like a moleskine knockoff (it has the similar black cover and elastic band with the little pocket in the back). It is labeled as being for pen and ink and watercolor, but the paper only holds up to very light washes. Besides extreme buckling, the surface of the paper also starts to break apart when you use a lot of water. In my older watercolor sketchbooks, I used to tape off sections of the page because I like crisp edges, but this paper tears when the tape is removed. I’m thinking of trying out just pen or marker on it to see if the paper holds up better. I have a Moleskine watercolor book to start when this one is finished, so we will see how it compares.
Edited to add: If you read the below comments, you can see that the book I have is apparently not intended for watercolor (only very light washes) and the wording on their packaging has since changed. Once I finish up the books I already have I might try out their regular watercolor book, because Moleskines are really too expensive for me to justify buying regularly.
Art Every Day Month is going well so far. I am so thankful for all the kind comments — it is such an encouragement for me. I also have twenty-five out of fifty drawings/paintings completed for NaNoDrawMo. I have been counting the small watercolors as part of NaNoDrawMo just because of the time involved, but I would love to do more than fifty so I can count my watercolors as extra material.
I did this yesterday from a photo I had taken in 2008 at Lake Eden, Vermont. I was experimenting to see what a pencil sketch with watercolor wash would look like. I feel that my artwork is too “tight” and I am trying to loosen things up, especially in my sketchbooks. I wanted it to look wet and misty which was how it was at the time when I took the photo. It was about 7 am and everyone else was still indoors so it was very peaceful.
Yesterday I also ordered some MiniCards from MOO. I used about twenty or so images, mostly things that I did this year but I also some from 2008 and 2009. I used only bright and colorful pieces because I wanted the set to be consistent and those pieces are the ones that usually get more attention from people. Next time I do this, I will first sort through the images and pick out the ones that I want to use before uploading (to make the process faster). I also had some issues with some of the files not uploading, and had to go back (sometimes five or six times) to try again. In any case, I can’t wait to see what they look like when they arrive.
Every fall I make some sort of leaf drawing or painting. In fact, leaves seem to be a favorite theme of mine all year long. They seem to have a lot of personality and each one is different, which I love.
While doing a Google image search for “paintings of leaves,” I found the site for Vermont artist Gary Milek. He uses egg tempera, gold leaf and watercolor to create really beautiful and detailed landscapes and florals. He and his wife run a joint gallery and botanical garden called Cider Hill Gardens. I think I will add it to my list of places in Vermont that I want to visit next time I get up there.
Last week we bought a bag (1/2 peck) of apples and I had the intention of drawing some of them, but I kept putting it off for another day. Until yesterday, that is, when I noticed that there were only three left! I finally drew them before they disappeared for good.
