Day 12...Intuition

So yesterday was a bust...after a long day at work it was grocery shopping..steam cleaning the bedroom carpet because the cat had defiled it with his stink...then dinner.

Made it to the studio for Day 12 and had no idea what to paint, so I just started laying down some water and color to see where it would take me.  Work is super busy and I haven't been putting much thought into what to paint, so it's a struggle sometimes.  This didn't come out too bad for just an experiment...

Days 8, 9 and 10

Well...I painted all weekend and ended up trashing everything...so days 8 and 9 ended up in the garbage.  I painted this winter landscape and I like everything except the foreground....there's always tomorrow.

Day 7 - Sunset

This is a small watercolor, more wet in wet and some wet on dry.  Looking forward to the weekend when I'll be able work on something a little more involved.

Day 6 Paint 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Pops!

So I'm trying to find exercises that aren't too involved...I'm not looking to crank out a masterpiece after work.  This was a fun little experimental exercise in watercolor...best thing was that I found a bunch of unopened tubes of cheap watercolor...it was like a late Christmas :)

Day 5 Feathers

Just some quick exercises...not a lot of time after work.  Watercolor feathers...

Day 4 - Poppies and a straw

Day 4..and I managed to paint for a couple of hours after work. I painted some feathers too, just because.   Found a tutorial with a wet in wet poppy and grass made by blowing the paint through a straw....so much fun to experiment :)

Day 3 - Paint 30 paintings in 30 days

Day 3 is a little winter scene, done mostly wet in wet with watercolors.

Day 2 of Paint 30 Paintings in 30 days

I'm playing catch up...here's the final project for the Skillshare class I talked about in the last post.  If you love watercolors, you should really try this...I had a lot of fun playing with the paint and textures...maybe there's a galaxy out there that looks like this :)

30 Paintings in 30 Days! Day #1

It's been a while since I've posted here, but it's a new year with new beginnings!  Since I'm on a break from art school, I've decided to accept the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge!  Anyone can sign up at any time, so if you feel like you need a shove in the right direction, here's the link:  http://30paintingsin30days.weebly.com/blog

So I'm starting my 30 day journey with a watercolor exercise from one of my Skillshare classes (yep...I'm a Skillshare junkie), Modern Watercolor Techniques taught by Ana Victoria Calderon.  It's an exercise focused on textures and was a lot of fun, I threw in calligraphy using my Pilot Parallel pen just cuz.

Finished watercolors

Okay, so I didn't make it through the A to Z challenge but I got about halfway.  Work got crazy, school assignments were getting pretty involved and I needed sleep.  Here are the finished paintings from class.  I will be working on some new stuff this month...custom painted jackets for one and some originals for an upcoming art show in July.

Wow...time flies...N, O, P and Q

It's been crazy at work, staying late getting ready for auction and then home to walk the dog (the only breather right now), then homework.  My mother has been wonderful ...she's been making dinner for me the last couple of nights.  So needless to say I have not been posting here...I have a team project for one of my online classes which is a little difficult to keep up with.  So I've missed a few days of this.  Auction starts Saturday so I'll be working until after midnight 9 nights in a row, then some time off!  If I don't get to post during that time, I will after auction is over.

Yesterday a friend picked up some of my herbal pillows and prints to take to the New Day Daycare Auction that's happening on Saturday- I wish them all of the best and hope they raise Piles of money!  Also, I'll be working on my clothed figure assignment and doing some practice paintings of fabric, so look for those too.  I'll be here Off and On...so keep an eye out.  This blog is quintessential after all...  :)

"M" is for Marlboro

I think I have an obsession with photos or art that depict women smoking.  I loved smoking...I used to smoke, for quite sometime.  Anyway, for my next watercolor assignment, we're supposed to paint a clothed figure.  I can draw a figure or face...no problem, but the watercolor is a totally different animal.

Our first step was to create a line drawing, I wanted mine uber accurate, so I used a light box.  And just so you know...it's not "cheating" if you know how to draw...if you use it exclusively, as your only means of drawing, then it's a cheat.   After the line drawing, we were to shade the drawing and then we'll transfer it to watercolor paper.  Here it is so far....I love this photo...found it on Pinterest here.  I'm not sure if he took the photo, or just pinned it.

I can see now with a side by side that I need to go much darker with the left side of her face...

and down her neck.  Now I see why they have us do this.

My 2b pencil was a stump when I finished and I was too lazy to get up and sharpen it.  

This is what happens when you do something like this at 11pm.  At least for me ;)

"J"..."K"...."L"....stands for....

Alright, so I missed a couple of days, things have been wicked busy and I've been burning the candle at both ends lately.  Trying to get homework wrapped up before the weekend because we'll be out of town...and staying later at work, plus my other class.  I honestly forgot about the blog...oops.  So I wanted to post my finished Landscape...there is the "L" for today.....I'm not super happy with this but here it is, and I'm posting the rest of the work in progress shots as well...enjoy.

"I" is for Ideals

It's funny that this was supposed to be a blog helping me to create artwork everyday, but it's turning into something else I think.  At the end of a long day, vet appointment, dog walk, dinner and homework...there really isn't a ton of time left for starting a piece of artwork.  I know this situation is temporary so it doesn't bother me and the ideas that I have to put on canvas/paper are many.

So 'I' is for my ideals and what I want to accomplish.  I have a festival coming up in July and not a whole lot of original work, so the idea is to set a goal of creating 3-4 paintings a week until the festival.  Right now, work is crazy until the end of April, so I plan on being nice to myself in the meantime and concentrating on completing my homework to the best of my ability while auction is going on at work.  Once auction is over I'll be able to concentrate more fully on my "ideals".

"H" is for honesty

I've been going at warp speed all day today and it's been an interesting, awful kind of day for the people around me.  I hate to see people being treated unjustly and there seems to be a lot of it going around lately.  I chose honesty for today's "theme" because I've decided at this point in my life that being honest, blunt, to the point is the way to go.  This way, you eliminate any games or confusion ...throw everything right out on the table at the get go...be sincere and speak from the heart.

Dishonest people conceal their faults from themselves as well as others, honest people know and confess them.

Christian Nevell Bovee (1820-1904) 

"G" is for glaze.....

At least that is what I'm attempting to do with this watercolor painting.  I am not proficient with this medium yet, so figuring out the process has been a little bit of a challenge.  I know that I want to slowly build up my layers to preserve the luminosity, in other words, I'm using glazes of watercolor.  Hopefully, at the end it pays off.

Here is where I am today...my class only requires we submit our in progress landscape, the final painting is due next week.  I painted a graduated wash for the sky ...over the frisket, waited until it was dry and removed the frisket.  Then I laid in color with thin paint...I will be going over this, maybe 2 more passes and adding in detail like the branches of the trees, etc.

"F" is for feelin' good...

Another short post today....ran errands in town, okay I had my hair highlighted and went shopping, sort of the same thing.  Anyway...grocery shopping, buying beer for the new 21 yr. old son (his birthday is today), and dinner...the day is gone.  Homework didn't stand a chance....my assignment is due tomorrow so work on it..I must.  I will post more tomorrow as we're off to buy the boy a round at the bar :)

"E" is for eclectic elephants exercising extraneously....

I have no art today...didn't even work on homework.  Came home...bought pizza and sat down to play Apples to Apples with my sons Nick, Pat...Pat's girlfriend Kenzie and their half sister Celena.  We all had a really good time...and I thought this could wait.  I did want to get something up here just to keep in the spirit of the challenge...I will post some art tomorrow and continue on with my landscape work in progress...'nite.

"D" is for Demo & Doodling...and Damn this is hard

So this assignment for my watercolor class is in steps and we're supposed to take the painting about halfway...and then post our assignment. The completed painting is due next week....so I thought this might be a nice demo, even though I don't know what I'm doing. So the first step was to transfer the drawing onto a piece of watercolor paper. I use Saral transfer paper, you just have to be careful it doesn't get too dark or smear. Then I had to decide if I was going to paint the sky around my tree...or mask out the leaves and paint the sky first. I opted to mask out the leaves with frisket, which is what you see here. Note to self: do not tip board while frisket is wet...hence the long drippy drip. 

Orange frisket masking out leaves



You can't paint while frisket is wet so while I was waiting for it to dry...I thought I'd sketch out a possible piece for my bike...it's a quick sketch...just an idea really.  I want to add more and will later.  

"C" is for clouds...

My homework assignment for my watercolor class just so happens to coincide with today's blog post.  "C" is for clouds and we were to paint clouds with a soft edge and a hard edge....the second exercise was to paint clouds showing depth/distance.  These are only quick exercises to get us started with our bigger landscape assignment.  So here are my clouds for the day....

Here is my reference for our upcoming landscape assignment, a quick value sketch and my color palette....