Tulips of a different color

I keep on asking myself how many colors are there of tulips? I probably will discover that as I continue to draw them. Stonehenge paper 8 x8in; Neocolor water soluble crayons

Tulips

I'm just remembering all the lovely tulips I had in my Washington house. The last year we lived in Washington State my husband planted for me over 400 tulips. It was amazing to see that many tulips in my front side yard. Stonehenge 8 x 8 paper, Prismacolor watercolor pencils.

More tulips...

I guess I have spring on the brain because I did another drawing of tulips. Faber-Castell polychromos on Stonehenge paper 8 x 8 inch.

tulip in crayon

I've been seeing a lot of artist do art work using crayon...the kind of crayon we used as kids. So this weekend I decided I would give it a try. I bought myself a 64 color pack of crayons. I first sketched out just a line drawing of a tulip. Then I proceeded to color each petal, added the shading,and finally the background.

What I learned...Wax build up was a problem. I had to use a piece of card board to scrap off the wax that did not blend into the petal. I must of put at least 10 layers to get a value variation. Using crayons I had to use a lot of pressure when applying the crayon to the paper causing my fingers to hurt.

As I was coloring I kept on wondering if I used just plain newsprint paper if the crayon would go on easier and if I'd get less wax build up?

Finally...would I use crayon again? Probably not. It was an interesting experiment, so for now the crayons go back in the box!

Chinese Brush Paintings

Today was my Chinese Brush Painting Class in Burbank,CA with Nan Rae. The focus of class was cranes and trees. This was a fun class and I was amazed at the number of paintings I was able to paint in 4 hours. Each painting got easier or maybe I finally feel at ease painting in that style.

Three pink tulips

I am enjoying the process of cross hatching on this drawing. Still working out how to make the two top tulips pop. 8 x 8 Stonehenge paper, Faber-Castell polychromes

Jewelry by Irene...that's me!

Back in January I went with a friend that I met on WetCanvas to another friend of ours gallery showing in Ventura. We went early to walk around downtown...which had lots of interesting shops. One of the shops we went into was The Peruvian Bead Company http://www.peruvianbeadcompany.com/. The beads were so colorful that I bought some beads to make two pair of earrings.

After making the two pair of earrings...the pink ones and the aqua ones below the pink, I was bitten by the bug. Recently I found a bead shop in the town I live in and bought more glass beads to make earrings and a necklace. So last night I was up till midnight finishing the necklace. I thought it was really cool to find a leaf shape clasp to match the glass leaf in the middle of the necklace. The necklace is about 20" long.

I'm not sure why I was never interested in making jewelry before. The only problem I have with working with the beads is that I have long nails and it's a bit difficult to pick up the really small beads or spacers. Also I have arthritis in my hands, so working small is a little cumbersome. I also need to figure out a way to photograph my jewelry so anyone can see the detail much clearer.

Parrot Tulip

Ok, I did another colored pencil drawing, this time on good paper. I used Stonehenge paper 8 x 8 and Faber-castell polychromos. I applied the colored pencil by hatching back and forth. There are some areas that hatching didn't give the effect I wanted so I just applied color to give the drawing a more smooth finish. This scan really doesn't show the value changes that are on the Original drawing. I will put this aside for awhile and probably go back and rework some of the areas that are bothering me.

Parrot Tulip

Another colored pencil practice piece done in my 5.5 x 7.5 plain paper moleskin. I was playing around with different ways to add color. On the bud in the right corner, I applied cp to give the appearance of smoothness. On the two larger buds and the back ground,I cross hatched using large strokes. I think I like the cross hatch buds,so I plan to do another parrot tulip using this technique. I will also use better paper.

Pink Tulip

In all the years I've been working with colored pencils I usually just do a line drawing and build up the values. So with this drawing I decided to do something different. I started with a line drawing and then did a grisaille in pencil, then added laying layers of colored pencil. I ran into some problems using this method. Using the grisaille, I probably made the dark areas to dark, so when I applied the colored pencil on top, it came out too dark and looks like mud. Also,using this method, trying to keep the light areas light became a problem. Since this was just a practice and learning piece, it made me see what I would have to do to work with this method. I probably would shade the dark areas with a lighter touch using pencil, then come in laying the various layers of colored pencils. Because I ran into some problems, I wasn't able to develop the various layers of the petals to make the drawing appear more 3 dimensional.

Chesnut sided wabler

Still not feeling great,but finding working with my colored pencils while in bed seems to work. This was done in my plain paper moleskin.

Hydrangea

I've been away for the past week. Went home to the San Francisco bay area to visit my sister,visit all my favorite art stores, and do my taxes. I haven't been doing any art. I came home, only to come down with the flu. So I've been in bed playing with my colored pencils, working out the details for a watercolor I plan to do when I feel better. I probably will do a still life setup of hyrangea's in crystal and take some photo's for reference for my watercolor painting. I'm hoping to do a full sheet watercolor. It's been so long since I've worked that big. But in the meantime, this is what I've been working on.

How many penguins do you see????

I can't remember the name of the movie that I saw ...I think it was called the "Walk of the Penguins," that I became interested in these beautiful creatures.

Three Penguins having a coffee break! 9 x 9 watercolor

Ralph, Jr. ATC Copic Markers

Many faces of Penguins ATC Copic markers

Swans sleeping

I think these are swans, not sure. Anyway watercolor wet-on-wet, 9 x 9, Aquabee sketchbook.