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.

Read more...

PPF - Tuscan Window

11x13 Watercolor on Canson 140lb Coldpress Paper

So much has been going on the past few months.  I feel like I've been gone forever.  Christmas was absolutely wonderful despite having bronchitis.  My wonderful boyfriend gave me a plasma tv, a kitchenaid mixer and a $100 giftcard to Michaels! Yes I am spoiled! I used my giftcard to purchase my Bob Ross oil paints and have been painting away.  I hope to share those over the next few weeks.

The new year brought the flu, I feel as though I have been sick more often than not this year, ugh! Two rounds of bronchitis, the flu, the stomach flu and just recently a cold.  I'm thinking it's because I'm not typically around little ones until meeting my boyfriends very large family.  Every time one of the kids has the sniffles, I get sick.

 February brought the death of one of my boyfriend's brothers. My boyfriend is the youngest of nine children and they are all very close.  It was hard to watch him go through that kind of pain.  It also brought my birthday and more spoiling from my boyfriend in the form of Kohls and Hobby Lobby giftcards. I got some great clearance deals at Kohls and a wonderful Wilton cake decorating kit along with some painting supplies from Hobby Lobby.

So far March has proved to be following along with the previous months bad luck, my bf's family dog got very sick.  I spent a week there caring for him.  Poor thing could not eat, barely walk and was having a tough time breathing.  After several vet visits and a misdiagnosis it was determined that he had metastatic cancer and we had to put him down.  One of the hardest things I've had to do.  The good news so far this month...my daughter got engaged!  They just moved into a new townhouse and needed some artwork for their walls so she came over and 'stole' some of my oil paintings for her bedroom and has asked me to do an acrylic painting of Ganesha. He's a little Indian elephant god, yikes!  My experience with acrylics has not been the best so far, but it's a pretty simple painting so hopefully it goes well!

Also hoping that April will finally bring some good news as well as some spring weather.  Can't wait to open windows and feel the warmth of the sun.  Hope you all have a great weekend, please stop by Paint Party Friday to see all of the wonderful artists and their creative works!

step one

step two

Step three

The finished piece

Read more...

Sunday Sketches - Christmas Cards

Watercolor on Strathmore heavyweight textured cards

I absolutely love Christmas, everything about it from the crazy running around buying gifts, to the days of cooking and baking.  This year I decided to make a few Christmas cards instead of just sending the commercial bought ones. I love giving personal gifts and what better way to say Merry Christmas than with a hand painted card.  They're not perfect and I need to practice more with my writing skills but I'm happy with these so far.  I'm linking up with Sunday Sketches so hop on over and check out the other great artists by clicking here.

Read more...

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!

Read more...

Sunday Sketches - Practice Pieces

 Happy Sunday!  I've spent most of the weekend doing practice trees so I decided to try to do a quick landscape.  Nothing spectacular just trying to apply some of the things I learned from watching videos on YouTube last night.


Not to be upstaged by a silly little practice piece Peanut just had to get in on the action and have her photo take also.

We're going to look at another apartment this afternoon.  Much cheaper than the last one, hopefully just as nice.  Need to decide soon as we only have a couple weeks before moving day.  It sure would be nice to have somewhere to move to. lol

To see more Sunday sketches hop on over to Blue Chair Diary hosted by Sophia.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

Sunday Sketches - Midnight Velvet

'Midnight Velvet'

I've been practicing with my watercolors and was looking at photos online for some inspiration and found this gorgeous glowing moon with black background and treeline and couldn't resist.  Now, my treeline isn't as nearly as cool as the real thing and I kinda cut off the moon a little too much on the right but I think it turned out really good.  The colors in real life really pop and it looks as if it's glowing so I'm super psyched about this one and can't wait to frame it and hang it!

I use watercolors for the moon and gouache for the black to make sure it was more opaque and not too transparent.  I've had some small tubes of the gouache for about three years and haven't touched them until now.  It's much thicker than regular watercolor so I only had to give it two coats to get a nice rich black.

The hunt for a new apartment is still on.  We're supposed to look at a condo for rent today but I haven't heard back from the owner so I'm not sure if he found someone else to rent it or he's just been really busy.  I'm hoping it's because he's busy because it sounds really nice.  It has two bedrooms and a loft area, 1.5 bathrooms, a washer and dryer right in the unit and central air!  Knowing my luck he already rented it out and is just avoiding me now. lol.  

Anyway, to see more great Sunday Sketches hop on over to Blue Chair Diary hosted by the lovely Sophia!

Read more...

Paint Party Friday - The River

"The River"

I missed PPF last week so this week I made sure I took some time out to paint!  I didn't want anything structured where I had to sketch first so I watched a few videos on Youtube and just started slapping paint on. lol  I think it turned out pretty good.  I've been on days for the past two weeks and for some reason it seems like I don't have as much time to play.  But I go to afternoons for the next two weeks so I should have more time to practice painting.  We're still searching for a new apartment also.  We're going to look at a two bedroom condo on Sunday.  I'm super excited about this one so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's not a total dump and that it works out.  :)  I'm off to work soon but will be back later to look at all the pretty paintings!

To see all of the Paint Party Friday submissions click here.

Read more...

Paint Party Friday - Sailor's Delight

"Sailor's Delight"

Here's my week two Paint Party Friday Submission.  I'm actually quite happy with this one.  The colors are a little off from the original painting, the purple is more of a lavender color in real life.  I realize that my boat is a little skewed and the line for the sail is bowed out instead of a straight angle but overall I like this one a whole lot more than my first one.

I got the idea from Paint Works Magazine August 2010 edition.  If you've never seen this magazine and you love painting, I highly recommend checking it out.  They have ideas for acrylic, oil and watercolors in every issue.  I own several issues but this is the first time I've actually taken the plunge and have tried one.  I have the newest edition that has a beautiful watercolor tulip design that I'm really wanting to try but want to wait until I have more practice first.

If you would like to see more PPF submissions hop over to the Paint Part Friday blog here.  Happy Friday!

Read more...

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I'm not really doing anything special for St Patty's Day, in fact our electricity is supposed to be shut off between 10a - 3p so they can inspect our meters.  I guess it's a good thing that we're going to work early today.  The image above was some watercolor practice from a book I found at the library.  The bottom images was teaching shadows with the wet on dry technique.  I don't think I love the hard edges but I did actually do some practice before jumping into a whole large piece. lol.

The image below was another practice piece.  It was some brickwork which I don't think turned out too badly.  I realize that I need to space the bricks closer together and on the edges where it was pretty much obliterated the instructions were to use your soft brush and fade it.  Well, either my paint was still to wet, my brush was too wet or I used to much pressure because I pretty much erased it.  Another lesson learned.

Not sure I'll have a masterpiece for Paint Party Friday but I will have something!

Read more...

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!

Read more...

A Midsummer Night's Secret Dream Party

 

It's here, it's here!  A Midsummer Night's Secret Dream Party is finally here!  It's a magical night when the fairies come out to listen to your deepest creative secrets.  Hosted by A Stuffed Life with participation from some very talented people.  Please be sure to visit everyone by clicking the links in the sidebar of the Midsummer Night's blog which you can reach by clicking the link above.

I had planned on doing a witty, creative little story for my Secret Dream; however, we've had a really bad day with one of our feathered friends and I just don't have it in me.  Our beautiful little Sunny seems to have broken one of her legs.  She doesn't seem to be in any pain but she can not bear weight on it and the claw part of her foot is limp.  Unfortunately, we are not in a financial position to take her to a vet, especially on an emergency basis so we had to try to splint it ourselves, which has not been an easy process.  I'm hoping she will be ok in the long run so if there are any fairies listening, my current secret dream is for my poor little bird to be feeling well and back to her usual feisty self.

As for my projects for this blog party, I had planned on having three pieces.  A watercolor, an acrylic and an oil pastel.  The acrylic did not go well at all and by the end of it I was ready to throw it against the wall.  I love the vibrant colors in my oil pastel sunset but the photo just doesn't do it justice.  Wasn't in the mood to try to get better ones.  I do love my watercolor and I tried something new with them, I not only used the ones in the tubes instead of the cakes/pan (not sure what they're called), I also used a cotton canvas board instead of watercolor paper.  

Without further ado...

Watercolor on Cotton Canvas Board

Oil Pastels on Acrylic Paper

Read more...

A Birthday Gift

'Serenity'

Pencil on Sketch Paper

My boyfriend's mother's birthday is on Tuesday and he wanted to send something to her that I made.  I had just drawn this at work and I have to say, this is my favorite sketch so far.  The picture really doesn't do this one justice because of the extreme lights and darks.  This is the first sketch I have done with a water reflection and I think it turned out pretty good.  This was another practice sketch in the book I'm working out of so I didn't just dream it up or get it from a photo, but I'm still very proud of it.  As soon as my bf saw it he immediately declared this to be the gift for Mom.  I happen to agree so I framed it in a 4 x 6 black frame which really brings out the graphite even more.  Loving it!  Going to be hard to part with this one.   lol

I also wanted to tell you about my great finds at Hobby Lobby and Walmart.  At Hobby Lobby I found a 16 piece Oil Pastel Set on clearance for $3.59 which normally runs $9.99!  The end of the box was smooshed so I'm guessing that's why it was marked so low but all of the pastel crayons are intact.  Then, we went to Walmart and I happened to stumble upon a small but nice selection of fine art materials.  I got another set of oil pastels, this one had 25 colors for $4.99, they are slightly smaller than the Hob Lob ones but look to be of similar quality.  I got a pack of three 8x10 cotton canvas boards for $3.96, a pad of acrylic paper for $3.96 and a set of twelve 0.4 oz tubes of water colors for only $6.49.  It was like Christmas for me.  My boyfriend's birthday is Sunday and he received some b-day cash from his parents and let me buy some art materials.  Isn't he the sweetest?

Now, does anyone know what I'm supposed to do with oil pastels?  lol.  I've watched a ton of U-Tube videos and I think I just may like this medium.  Anything I can stick my fingers in to blend is a plus in my books!  

TGIF and hope you all have had a great week!

Read more...

Another ACEO Attempt

This little guy was my second attempt at making an ACEO.  I think he turned out pretty good.  It was very hard to get all that detail into such a small space!  I have learned that I should not start out with such intricate designs when trying something new.  Then again, I've always been that way.  The very first quilt I made was for my mom who has relocated to Arizona.  I wanted the quilt to reflect the region so I used Native American Indian signs for the quilting part with a Kokopelli as the center  of attention.  Not an easy task for a brand new quilter, but I love challenges.

Anyway, I got the design idea from one of my Goodwill artbook finds.  I used watercolor pencils and added watercolors where I thought it needed a little extra oomph.  Now, if I could just get up enough nerve to try my acrylics!

Still having back problems but I am moving a little better.  My right leg keeps going numb all the way to my toes so I think I'm going to have to go back to the doctor.  She told me to give it two weeks and we're at about 1.5 right now.  Somehow I don't see it getting miraculously better in the next few days.  :(  At least I'm back to drawing and painting!  :)

Read more...

My First Full Sized Watercolor Painting

I may have been a little over zealous when I chose this picture to be my first water color.  I've done little ACEOs but never a large piece.  I thought it would be easy to do a building but I was wrong.  Creating straight lines and trying to cover the graphite I used to copy the image from the original drawing made it look too outlined and not as realistic.  I realize now that I need a book to help me go step by step instead of trying it on my own.

My boyfriend absolutely loves it so I told him he can have it.  LOL.  I really need to work on my trees and my rocks look like anything but rocks.  It was a learning experience and I'm glad I tried it.  I do love watercolors and I will be trying more images but I really do want a book to follow.  After all, that's how I learned to draw and it seems to have worked.  Again, I had trouble with shading.  I did fine on the church itself but put the shadows in the wrong spot on the ground.  Each time I try something new it is a learning experience and I'm happy to have been able to try new things.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.  I plan to spend the day at the pool, weather permitting.

Read more...

Illustration Friday and Ripple

If you haven't heard of Illustration Friday and Ripple  please take a minute to check them out.  This week on IF the topic is 'Ripple'.  Based on the topic you create a work of art in whatever your chosen medium is and submit it to their gallery.  Ripple is a blog where you can find donated artwork to help save the animals affected by the oil spill. Each sketchcard on this blog is $10.00. The $10.00 is a donation to help the animal victims of the Deep Water Horizon Gulf Oil Spill. Every penny is donated. The two Non-Profits that are benefiting are The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and The International Bird Rescue Research Center. You can purchase a card if you donate directly to one of the non-profits and email the confirmation and your address to ripplesketches@verizon.net. The artist will mail you the signed card.

We don't have to feel helpless. We can help. Our small actions together will ripple outward. 

Here are my submissions for IF and Ripple.  They will be available on Ripple as soon as I figure out how to do that. LOL.  Actually I've emailed Kelly to let her know I want to donate them.

'Better Days'

ACEO Watercolor on Strathmore Coldpress Watercolor 300 Series 140# Paper

'Lizzie'

ACEO Watercolor on Strathmore Coldpress Watercolor 300 Series 140# Paper

'Lizzie' was my first ACEO ever, well technically this one is the second as I gave the first to my wonderful boyfriend without whom I probably would not be creating art at all.  Lizzie is the name of our newest parakeet.  She was just a baby when we got her and is the sweetest bird we have.  I know parakeets don't have much to do with the oil spill but she is a feathered friend of all of the birds being affected on a daily basis.

'Better Days' was my second ACEO attempt.  My inspiration was the beautiful water I saw in Key West and Cozumel, Mexico years ago on a cruise.  I think of those days as better days for the marine life that have to endure this tragedy.  'Better Days' is a shot from below the whale looking upward.  Hope you enjoy them as I had a lot of fun making them.

Thank you Melanie for providing the link to Illustration Friday!

Read more...