Scales...

I wanted to try out my new Copic .03 black marker with my DS watercolors. I wasn't sure if the marker would bleed, and it didn't! Yeah!!!

I'm finding that my confidence has grown a lot with painting daily. I think like anything, practice really makes the difference. I've enjoyed experimenting and for me, that is the key of not getting bored with my art.

Koi Fish @ Huntington Garden's, Pasadena

During the summer I got an opportunity to visit Huntington Garden in Pasadena with my friend Brenda @ Amber Ridge Desert. It was rather warm while we were there, so I took lots of pictures of the beautiful Koi fish that they had in their Japanese Garden area.

One white bird

Another bird to the collection. He's rather white and had difficulty in getting his true color scanned.

Everyday Matters

I seem to be in a revolving door lately with doctor appointments and doctor's offices that do not have good magazines to read. So I thought I would start doing the Everyday Matter Challenges and take my Moleskine Plain journal that is roughly 9.5" x 7.5", my new Sailor 1911 Bordeaux Extra Fine nib fountain pen that I won on an Ebay auction and use my Copic Sketch markers to add color. I own about 50 Copic Markers and I wanted to learn how to shade using them, so I thought EDM challenges would be a great place to start. I kind of got these out of order and started with my hand first since that was the easiest to do.

Chinese Brush paintings

On Saturday I took my once a month Chinese Brush painting class. Focus of the class was magnolias and birds. On the painting with the bird, the class was just focusing on drawing an outline of a magnolia to get the feeling and volume of the magnolia. The bird on the branch was an embellishment that the teacher showed us how to add afterwards.

On the second painting...this was done on really pale green paper using white paint for the bud of the magnolia and then adding detail with the green paint and a rather water down brush of paint.

I found working on these two painting was very Zen and relaxing.

Two sweeties

I thought these guys looked sweet. I never realized how colorful birds could be.

Can we talk?

I really loved doing this painting. These birds remind me of two people having a conversation.

I'm not sure...

I'm not sure what type of bird this is...probably a parrot, but then too could be a parakeet. With this bird I got to use some of my newer Daniel Smith WC...cobalt teal, blue orche,and lapis. I had wanted to use some Golden fluid acrylic, but when I went to Joann Fabric to buy a couple of colors for some reason I couldn't remember where the art department was in the store. I finally remember about midnight last night.

I have my eye on you!

I've always have liked this photo when I've seen at Wetcanvas in their photo reference library. Something about birds and their bright color feathers and menacing eyes. His head feathers were time consuming...one stroke at a time.

Drama

I should of realized something was amiss yesterday which would set the tone for the rest of the day. I went to Kinko's to get 12 photo copies made and just as I pulled in the sky opened up with a down pour of rain, with a lightening shower in the distance. I made it inside without getting terribly wet. It was after making all the adjustments on the printer that I got 2 copies made before the power went out. I waited around for 20 minutes thinking the power would go back on,but it never did.

When I got home my dog Bella was contemplating her next move!

Then around 11 o'clock as I was winding down for the night I find my husband doubled over in pain and couldn't get up. I ended up having to call the paramedics and they took my husband to the emergency. I'm lucky that the paramedics gave good directions to this hospital because I arrived there before my husband did. It was a war zone at this emergency. If you ever want to see the dark side of a town visit your local emergency room...very scary. After waiting for 2 hours the doctor finally came into to see my husband. I was not impressed with the doctor at all. I could visually see on his face that his mind was racing to the next patient, listening,but not listening. Tests were ordered and finally 6 hours later we were told my husband had a kidney stone. I was relieved that it wasn't too serious to keep in the hospital and that he could go home. Talk about having drama in one day. I'm so tired that I think I could sleep for a week. I'm just thankful that with drinking lots of water and resting the kidney stone will pass.

I'm hoping tomorrow will be a quiet and relaxing day.

Birds,Butterflies, and Fish

I always like the beginning of the month because I get to work on a new subject. As much as I loved painting horses, September will be the month of exploring Birds, Butterflies, and Fish.

So to kickoff September here is my first bird...a Red and orange parrot. I've been reading a few watercolor books...wet-on-wet and decided to try mixing my colors on the paper, instead of traditionally on the palette. Dropping the paint on the paper and seeing what the puddles will do is an interesting way to paint. If anything this might loosen me up.

Post card horse

I was going through all my sketches of horses that I've done this month and I found this little guy that I did free hand using my paint brush to draw the horse and then add color.

Icelandic horse

As promised...my latest horse painting. This guy is a Icelandic horse, which are rather small horses about 12 to 13 hands. There known for their intelligence, gentle personality, and stamina.

Pears...a departure

I know these don't look like horses. I had to take my dog to the vet yesterday while she had her teeth cleaned, so I popped over to Dick Blick in Pasadena. While in Dick Blick I noticed that Dick Blick now carries their own line of colored pencils,but not watercolor soluble colored pencils. I seem to have every brand except Prismacolor watercolor pencils. So I bought a set and decided to test them out doing a simple sketch of pears. I was rather impressed with the Prismacolors wc pencils. The colors are rich and vibrant and 36 cp seems to be just the right amount of pencils to work with. I liked them so much that I plan to do more simple sketches using them and probably take them out in the field with me.

So tomorrow I finish working on my horse painting...I promise I will!!!

Yupo Cat

I decided to take a break today from horses. I've been reading and viewing other artists using Yupo paper, so I decided I give it a try.

I sketched free hand this cat and then used Caran d'Ache Neocolor Artist crayons. I layed in all the color then wet the tip of a watercolor brush to move the color around the yupo paper. I didn't like the way it looked, so I re-worked the drawing. After playing with the paper I finally just layed the color and used a paper towel and Q-tip to blend. This plastic paper is so cool because if you don't like the way something looks you can wipe it off and start again.

Rocky mountain

This guy gave me some trouble with his coloring and I was afraid I might of over worked this painting. I guess I'm becoming an expert at lifting color without lifting the wc paper too!

This is a Rocky Mountain horse which is a rare breed and they are ridden for pleasure and good endurance competitors.

A horse with attitude

I love the expression on this horse...lots of attitude. This horse is a Paint horse which is used on ranches and rodeos.

I've been Tagged

Ok, I've been tagged by my friend

Brenda from http://www.amberridgedesert.blogspot.com/

I've never been tagged so I'm not sure how this works...but according to Brenda I need to tag 4 of my friends or favorite blogs that I visit daily. Other than meeting Brenda face to face, the following blogs are one's I like to visit to see what's new and get ideas. Go check out their blogspots you won't be disappointed!

Linda from Frenchless in France http://lindamathieu.com/ wonderful blog on insights to living in France. She takes wonderful photographs that really give you the flavor of France.

Belinda Del Pesco http://www.belindadelpesco.blogspot.com/

Belinda does wonderful watercolors and prints from her hand craved stamps...lots of wonderful information.

Geninnes' Art Blog http://www.blogdelanine.blogspot.com/

Great illustrations,hand craved stamps,and she has such a well organized studio to die for.

Diahn http://www.diahnott.com/

I use to see her posts at WetCanvas so was pleasantly surprised to find her blog.

I visit many blogs but I thought this would give you a sprinkling of what's out there. Lots of creative people .

Appaloosa with baby

I wasn't sure if I wanted to add grass to this painting since I'm trying to do a series of horses and wanted to keep the back ground white. Baby horses are so awkward when their young.

Gypsy Vanner Horse

I love learning about the various breeds of horse there are. This beauty is a Gypsy Vanner Horse which was developed to pull heavy caravans.