Black Eyed Susans

 I kept adding and changing the washes on the background of this painting and never quite came up with anything that I was really happy with.

I'll be getting some masking fluid to protect light areas and let me be more free and spontaneous with the backgrounds.

Step by Step Watercolor Tulips

As usual it all began with photos of gardens past. Things keep me so busy in the summer that I seldom get a chance to paint things while they're blooming.

I started with a loose pencil sketch of my main subjects.

Here you see the photo I used along with the type of paints and water brushes I carry with me. Water brushes hold water in a compartment which comes through the brush when you squeeze  the handle.

I probably should have left it alone before trying to add borders and outlining it with ink. It looked fine at this stage, don't you think so?

I took this picture so that I could compare the outlined bits with the rest of the painting in case I was making a mistake I figured that It would show me where I went wrong.

  Well, for better or worse, here is the completed painting.

The ink makes it look a bit like a stained glass window and I kind of like that about it.

Garden Photos, Pencil and Marker

  Rather than relying on paints and colored pencil I thought I'd see what I could accomplish with just one pencil. I chose an H to avoid smudging.

The garden photo I'm using was of some petunias I had in the container garden last year.

The first results were nice but I decided to go over it again to darken the background and improve the contrast.

I found that I liked it a lot more after that.

Here are a few envelopes decorated with markers and a fountain pen. The tulips were based on another of my garden photos. 

These cards include photos of flowers cut from my garden placed next to the watercolors that I did from them.

Waiting for Spring

With all of the sun and thawing going on I'm eager to get outside and see how things are coming along but then reality sets in and I realize that I chill much to easily these days and I can't take my big,power wheelchair outdoors until the ground is both dry and solid enough to handle it.

In the meantime there are still those garden catalogs, markers and watercolors to entertain myself and everyone I know with.

Here you can see that none of my markers were the right color so I began to experiment with layering them to get the right effect.

Of course along the way there's always coffee or tea and even that makes it to paper.

Meanwhile, efforts continue to organize the studio wall in my tiny living room.

It doesn't look great but at least things are up and out of the way when I'm not using them.

The Thaw Sets In

Just as I was beginning to think winter would never end a bit of a thaw has set in along with stacks of garden catalogs arriving so it's a good time to start thinking about this years garden.

Somehow I get the impression that the birds are thinking about this too.

Painting this simple card and envelope design just felt like spring. I'll be attaching a photo to the center of the card so that's why it's just a border.

I even get ideas from the junk mail as I grabbed a few markers to think about this design seen on a clothing companies envelope.

It's such a simple design that I think it will work well in watercolor too.

Iris Drawing in Ink, Pencil and Watercolor

This sketchbook project began with a photo of Iris that had been a gift from my Brother. 

Next, I started on the pencil sketch that would help me decide how to go about painting it.

Here you see them all together in the book.

Mistakes were made here by making the teapot more dominant than the flowers.

Other attempts will be made until I get an image that I'm happier with and can take the image to print in my zazzle store.

Card and Envelope Sets: Pen, Ink and Watercolor

I started by  using the same design but different approaches to the card and the envelope trying to decide which approach that I liked better.

Next I did a line drawing and wash version of one of my favorite days on the front porch of my first house.
For the envelope design I repeated the image of the flowers and painting.

I'm trying lots of different things with this latest bunch of card and envelope sets. This one used techniques called negative painting and transparent glazes. Negative painting involves building up a background around an area using many layers of different colors to create the illusion of leaves, stems, and flowers.

This little envelope design was just a drawing enhanced with bits of watercolor.

New Sketchbook

Here's a picture of the lovely new sketchbook that my husband bought for me.

It's a reproduction of an antique so the cover is really an interesting design.

I began with that garden photo that hadn't quite worked out for me in my last post and went on to sketch it again.

As you can see this paper handles watercolor much better and I was pleased with the results this time.

I went on to ink the outlines and my husband fixed the image so I can use it on the computer and to design products with.

Watercolor Sunflowers from My Garden Photo

Sunflowers always make me happy so I figured that would shake the winter blues.

I grabbed the first piece of paper I was and sketched out the outlines before beginning to paint.

I should have stuck to colored pencil and markers because it turned out that this paper didn't really have enough body for watercolor.

By the time I realized that I was committed and had to stick with the paint.

 The results weren't great but it was colorful enough that I inked the outlines and mailed it to an elderly Aunt who's In a nursing home.

It may not be art but I enjoyed working on it and it will give her something new to put on the bulletin board in her room so it was time well spent.

Cabin Fever in the Studio

AS most of you know the reality here is that " the Studio" Is just an extra wide shelf mounted in front of my living room windows. Art Supplies have dwindled and there is little real art going on these days.

It's snowing the big, fluffy flakes today and coming down heavy enough that I can't see anything beyond the playground across the street.

I've been stuck at home since October hoping to raise enough money on Go Fund Me to finish paying for my wheelchair and begin to save enough to purchase a rear entry wheelchair van.

My specially equipped chair has an extra long wheelbase and won't fit into a side entry.

We're grateful to the people that have paid a few hundred dollars on the chair but need so much more if I'm ever going to get free of the house this winter.

Why am I telling you all all of this? Because it's really affecting my creativity and strangling my inspiration.

The best I can do now is just share pictures of my old work while I plan what to do next.

Here's and oldie but a goodie. I just had this printed on my new computer mouse pad. It's just a detail view of that purple iris in the lower center of the painting and I like it a lot.