Inspiration Avenue - Blossom

I've been on a flower kick lately, possibly due to all of the rain we've been getting lately. Hoping it brings lots of pretty flowers next month.  I did this painting this evening and saw that the theme for Inspiration Avenue this week was blossom so I thought it was fitting to link up with them. Take a moment to stop by and check out all of the pretty blossoms by other wonderful artists.

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Inspiration Avenue - April Showers

'April Showers' Watercolor on Canson 140lb Cold Press Paper

It's that time of year again, Spring is here and the rain is due to start early next week.  I've never attempted rain in watercolors and I think for my first try it turned out pretty good.  I'm not a huge fan of the rain, well, I guess it's more the storms than actual rain.  I may be 45 years old but I still hide under the covers during a nasty bout of thunder and lightning!

I'm linking up to Inspiration Avenue for the first time in months so I hope you hop on over and check out the other wonderful artists that are also participating in this week's challenge, April.

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Watercolor Wednesday

I've decided to do some Watercolor Wednesday posts in an effort to try to keep up with my blog. I had originally painted this to link up with Inspiration Avenue last week but time got away from me and I didn't make it in time so I'm sharing it now.  It has inspired me to do some watercolor Christmas cards which I hope to post later this week.  If you would like to share your watercolor posts for today, sign up with Mr Linky below.  Happy Wednesday!

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Inspiration Avenue - Mother and Sweet Saturdays

"Mother"

I'm using this image for both Inspiration Avenue's prompt and Sweet Saturdays as I think it fits for both.  I had a lot of fun with this one.  My distant trees aren't exactly the greatest but I still love this one.  I think it's my new fave!  BTW, it is the first painting I've put my signature on.  EEEHH!  I was so tempted not to but I know I should get used to adding it.  I think next time I will make it more subtle though.  Don't want it to distract from the painting itself so much.

To view all of the Inspiration Avenue submissions click here.

To view all of the Sweet Saturdays hosted by the lovely and extremely talented Diana Evans click here.

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Inspiration Avenue - Hello Spring

"Hello Spring"

Watercolor on Strathmore Coldpress 140lb 300gsm watercolor paper

With a little help from Photoshop I actually like this one. lol.  I tried the salt for the background effect and as you may see on the right hand side, the salt spilled out so fast it covered the entire section so I had to go kind of heavy on the rest of it.  The original is lighter in color but I really like the Photoshopped version better.

Check out more Inspiration Avenue submissions for this week's challenge here. 

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Inspiration Avenue - St. Patty's Day

I thought it was fitting that since I grew up in Chicago that I draw the Chicago River dyed green for St. Patty's Day.  I sketched it up in pencil first then went over it with my new Sharpie pen (which I love by the way!) and for the thicker black lines my Staedtler Lumocolor pen.  I colored in the green river with several different shades of green with my Prismacolor colored pencils.

I stopped at Hobby Lobby again today to get the Prismacolor Turquoise pencils (I've heard they're pretty good for sketching) but I haven't used them yet.  I was only going for those, but you know how it is. lol.  I ended up with some new watercolor brushes (on sale for 50% off!) and another pastel paper pad in a larger size.  So I have tons of new supplies to play with and a whole day off of work! 

Check out all of the great submissions for this week's challenge here.

Happy Saturday!

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Inspiration Avenue - Black, White and Pink

This week's Inspiration Avenue weekly challenge was Black, White and Pink.  I immediately thought of a ballerina so I sketched one while I was at work and broke out my water colors when I got home.  I really like her; however, if I were to do it again, I would not put any facial features.  That's the one part I really don't like.  I had a ton of fun with this one and really let myself go and not worry about trying to be perfect.  

I've also realized lately that I'm loving the color pink.  Purple has been my favorite since I was little but lately everything I like happens to be pink!

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Inspiration Avenue - Books

'Books'

Colored Pencil with Marker on Sketch Paper

I was really excited about this week's word prompt for Inspiration Avenue's Weekly Challenge.  As an avid reader I have lots books on my bookcase shelves, so much so that I've had to resort to stacking them two deep and on top of each other wherever possible.  I'm a huge fan of scary, gory, murder, mystery type novels and have the likes of Stephen King, Patricia Cromwell, Dean Koontz, John Saul, Michael Connelly and many more author's adorning my shelves.  In fact, I am reading a new Dean Koontz book titled, "Relentless" but have only just begun the first chapter.

I love working with colored pencils and marker.  If you've never tried this technique, I really urge you to give it a whirl.  You can use any brand of colored pencil, I happen to have a very nice set of Prisma Color  Premier colored pencils and Markers.  I use the colorless blender marker all over and use varying shades of gray for shadows.  I need a new 10% gray though, didn't get the cap on all the way and it dried out.  The colorless blender is awesome though.  It removes the waxiness of the pencil and makes it look more like a pigment ink or something.  Pretty cool effect with little effort.  I have some colored markers but have not tried those with the pencils yet.  The best part is, you can use ordinary sketch paper as long as you don't overdo the marker.  

That's my art lesson for the day.  lol  Hope you are having a good week.  Only one more day and I get a day off!  Not sure why I'm excited, I'm going to be on call for ers as my boss is going to a Toby Keith concert this weekend, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed I won't have to go in.

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Inspiration Avenue - Circus

For this week's Inspiration Avenue challenge, the theme was Circus.  I immediately thought of elephants, trapeze artists and a lion tamer, but decided to go with a clown.

I wanted to show emotion with my clown so I made him a sad clown.  Why is he sad?  Because he gets such a bad reputation.  Raise your hands, how many of you readers are afraid of clowns?  I thought so!  lol.  I'm not sure why so many people are afraid of clowns.  Sure, there was John Wayne Gacy (for those of you that are too young or not from Illinois, click here to find out who he was.)  There's also 'It' from Stephen King.  But outside of those two, I really don't see what's so scary about them.

What do you think?  Clowns: scary or not?

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Inspiration Avenue

'Wish'

Marker and Colored Pencil on Sketch Paper

This is my first submission for Inspiration Avenue.  It's a weekly challenge that anyone can enter in any medium and you can even win prizes!  How fun!  My boyfriend said she looked a little sad and I told him that not all wishes come true, maybe she's wishing for the impossible.

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