Horse of course...his name is Mr. ED

Ok he's not Mr. Ed! I grew up watching Mr. Ed and like any little girl always wanted to own a horse. It wasn't until I was an adult that I took English saddle riding lessons for almost a year. But like all good things coming to an end, so did my riding lessons. I fell off my horse and injured my already injured sciatica. So if I wanted to continue to ride I would have to get a chiropractic adjustment after each lesson. Needless-to-say I had to make a choice and said goodbye to riding.

This is my first horse watecolor I've done.

French Fruit Gateau Watercolor WIP Finished

I think I'm done. This was a rather quick watercolor for me to do. I used gouche on some of the berries, something I've never used before. Anyway, I'm pleased the way this painting turned.

French Fruit Gateau Watercolor WIP #1

I seem to be in a food painting mode. Last week I made a special trip down to Le Panier Very French Bakery http://www.lepanier.com in downtown Seattle which is located in Pike's Market. I went to take pictures of their pastries and cakes "Gateau". This little beauty caught my eye, so I bought the cake to paint. So for $25.00 you can say I'm definately into my art! I wasn't sure if it would last as I quickly sketched the Gateau.

This painting seems to be going rather quickly. I'm finding that if I have a good sketch worked out and a color swatch of the colors I plan to use, I move around the painting in no time at all. I've only worked on this maybe a total of 3 hours, considering this is a rather detailed painting.

Daniel Smith Watercolor Palette

When I took my 3 day watercolor workshop with Susie Short last weekend I could not find my box of watercolor paints. I moved last year and packed them away and have looked hi and low, but couldn't find them. I know I have them;it's frustrating knowning there in one of the boxes in garage. I must of had over a hundred tubes of paint from Winsor-Newton,Daniel Smith, Daler-Rowney, and Holbein. So for Susie's class I needed to buy new watercolor paints and a new palette. I can't complain because I love Daniel Smith's watercolors. And the fact that his store front is only a ferry ride away.

So here is a picture of my watercolor palette. I have the following colors going from right handside corner:
Hansa Yellow Medium, New Gamboge, Pyrol Orange,Quinacridona Coral, Alizarn Crimson, Quinacridone Rose, Quinacridona Violet, Cobalt Teal Blue,Indanthrone Blue, French Ultra-marine Blue, Colbatl Blue, Phthalo Blue, Sap Geen, Quinacridona Gold, Quinacridona Burnt Orange,Perylene Maroon, Under Sea Green, Burnt Sienna, Perm Brown, Raw Sienna,Yellow Ochre, and Naples Yellow.

I ran out of space...I still have 6 more tubes of paints...so I guess this means I need to go back to Daniel Smith for another palette!

Watercolors that I did at workshop

These are the two watercolors I did at the 3 day workshop.

The grove of aspens was done by masking out all the white areas I wanted to save. Then using a 1" flat brush loaded with watercolor paint I start dabbing the color in the various areas of the watercolor. After I layed in all the various colors, I went back and fine tuned the painting. The technique I used to do this painting was wet-on-wet. I'm not a big fan of wet-on-wet, but I can see how this method, one could produce a fast painting.

The 2nd painting of the Orange calla lilies was using the method of finding the different values using my value study. This painting was also done using wet-on-wet and then going back in adding the details.

Susie Short watercolor workshop .....New way to develop a watercolor painting

Last weekend I took a 3 day watercolor workshop with Susie Short.
http://www.susieshort.com
She taught the class a different way to find the different values of a photo and then paint from those values.

Using tracing paper...

1. Start with a line drawing.




2. Next find the darkest darks in photo and leave white and blacken everything else.





3. Third step is to find all the medium values of the photo and blacken everything else.





4. Fourth step is to find the lightest lights of the photo and blacken everything else.




After doing those 4 steps I was able to find the different values and to produce my watercolor.

This is a different way of finding values, a little labor intensive, but I can see how this can work.

Apple tart

Never paint a picture from a bird's eye view. If anything I've learned is apple tarts are hard to render. This was done on 9 x 12 arches 140lb watercolor paper using Daniel Smith watercolors.

Casa Priori Finished

I think I'm finished with this piece. I'm going to put it aside for a few days and revisit to see if there is anything thing else that I need to fine tune.

Casa Priori WIP # 5

Learning a lot from doing this drawing. One thing is I don't like doing brick or cement floors. I'm hoping to finish this drawing in the next day or two.

Casa Priori # 4

An update on Casa Priori. This drawing seems to be taking longer than I thought. The brick work has been challenging trying to figure out how to make them appear broken and old.

Faber-Castell Artist Pens

I just love Faber-Castell products. Today I got in the mail my new box of 48 FC artist pens. I love the fact that their waterproof. So today I've just been playing with my artist pens to see what they can do and how I can blend colors.

Casa Priori WIP # 3

Here's my next installment of Casa Priori. I had to download Foxfire browser in order to upload pictures. What a hassle, but it seems to work.

Trying to upload WIP

For the past few days I've been unable to upload WIP updates. Hopefully this will be resolved in the next few days.

Casa Priori WIP #2

Here is my 2nd installment of my WIP. Working on white paper has it's downside. I need to be extra careful when applying color so it doesn't smudge over the rest of the paper causing it to get dirty. I think I like working best on colored paper. I'm still trying to workout how I will tackle the cement floor that has a pattern of large flat bricks. I thought I'd be further along,but because of the white paper background I need to burnish the colored pencil into the paper to blend it so white specks don't show through.

Casa Priori WIP #!

This is my next WIP of my Venice series. Each day we'd pass this little hotel on one of the side streets of Venice. I'm using Fabriano Tiziano white paper, size 9.5 x 12.5. Prisma color colored pencils

Venice San Giorgio WIP Finished

I believe I'm done with this! I really enjoyed working on this drawing because it bought back all the lovely memories I have of my week in Venice,Italy. I'll take this to my drawing class on Wednesday for a critique,but as far as I'm concerned it's FINISHED!!!!

Venice...San Giorgio WIP #3

I worked on this drawing last night until 1am. Since I fell in love with Venice, doing this drawing has been a labor of love.I couldn't get over how quickly I've been about to pull this together. As much as I like working on Mi-Tientes colored paper, the downside is it makes the drawing appear dark even though I would initially lay down a layer of white colored pencil.

Venice San Giorgio WIP # 2

I worked a bit more on this drawing. I'm amazed at how quickly the piece is moving along.

Venice San Giorgio WIP

I finally decided on my next big piece to work on. When I was in Venice back in May I took a picture of this view...San Giorgio.

This is a WIP piece. I usually start by drawing my sketch on tracing paper, that way I can work out all the details before I transfer the drawing to good paper. Once I'm satisfied with the sketch, I pick out the paper I want to use. In this case, I'm using Mi-Tientes Indio Blue... 9.5 x 12.5 . Then I trace my sketch onto the Mi-Tientes paper using white Saral transfer paper so I can see my line drawing on the Indio Blue paper. After I've transfered the sketch I use swatches of the Mi-Tients Indio Blue to work out the colors I want to use. I'm using Prisma Color Colored pencils for this piece. Usually I work all over the drawing, but with this drawing I'm working from right to left. This first installment was done in 3 hours.

Bearded Collie

When I lived in Calfornia I had a friend who had a bearded collie named "George." 8 x 8 using Faber-Castell polychromos and Prisma color colored pencils.