I never really commemorated blog anniversaries before, but I was looking through my archives the other day and I realized that my blog is turning three today. I have been posting my work elsewhere online since 2005, but this is the first blog that I’ve really made “my own.”
The above painting is another one from earlier this year. Just looking at all my old watercolors makes me want to sit down and paint again. I wish I had more time!
I decided to make more bookmarks in the same vein as these. I really didn’t have any use for them though, but thankfully I knew three people in need of a new bookmark.
Dick Blick was running a sale awhile back and I took the opportunity to order some more blue paints. Above is the result of my experimentations with my new colors.
Previously, the only blues I had on my palette were cerulean blue and phthalo blue. I bought some M Graham cobalt blue, ultramarine blue and prussian blue. I’m not too impressed with the prussian blue though, because it seems like it’s just a darker version of phthalo blue. I really love the cobalt blue though, and I think this might be my new favorite blue.
While organizing through my art supplies during my move, I found a number of watercolor fruit still lifes that I had completed last January as a practice exercise. I will show you all of them later on, and I’m thinking of making more because it was such good practice.
Thanksgiving is going to be really hectic for me this year, but I can’t wait for my relatives to meet baby Cate. She is truly the best gift I could have asked for. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving with your families as well.
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?
This is my submission for this month’s Virtual Paintout, located on the island of Sardinia. Looking around on Google Street View, I thought that this would be the perfect vacation spot for me. I love the dramatic landscape, and the sea is so beautiful. I would love to go there for a week or two and paint lots of watercolors.
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.
Hurricane (tropical storm) Irene proved to be a real non-event for my family other than our power going out for one hour. There was a gentle, steady rain with almost no wind. I’ve seen the lake more choppy on a sunny day in fact. It was generally just a gray, yucky day. Thankfully, I baked up some tasty whole wheat blueberry-oat scones that morning.
Below is a watercolor I made last year of the Deerfield River as seen from the Bridge of Flowers. It is so sad to think of it as such a destructive force. I still have some reference photos of the bridge itself from that trip and I’ve been thinking of making a painting to remember it like it used to be. I’m sure they will fix it all up at some point, but it will be a long time and will take a lot of money.
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.
