Chinese brush paintings from class

Yesterday was my once a month Chinese Brush Painting Class with Nan Rae. We worked on leaves and mums. With each lesson I learn something different allowing the pieces to form in my mind. Nan always makes doing these exercises so easy, but it's not! Learning how to load the paint onto the brush,having just the right amount of water in the brush, and the applying the right pressure...all these factors determine the outcome of each piece. I'm hoping with time and practice my hand will shake less and I'll be able to produce some nice pieces. Until then....practice,practice, and more practice.

Slippery Lady Orchid Watercolor

My lastest watercolor...a Slippery Lady Yellow Orchid.

Arches 140lb waterclock block 12 x 16 in

Daniel Smith watercolors

Blue Flower Poppy

I love painting flowers. This is a macro painting of a blue flower poppy

Arches 140 lb paper
12 x 16
Daniel Smith watercolors

Echinacea flower

I was up until 2 in the morning painting this flower.

16 x 20 watercolor

140 arches cold press watercolor block

Tiger in Watercolor WIP finished

I believe this guy is done.

Tiger face in watercolor wip #2

Here's an update on my watercolor. I pulled out the instructions on the Fredrix watercolor canvas and learned how to add darker values without lifting the paint. More paint, less water on the brush.

Trick or Treat...

Happy Halloween from the Just Crazy About Dogs!

Tiger watercolor on canvas board wip#1

I'm doing an experiment using this Tiger face. I did him in soft pastels and I wasn't too happy with the pastel dust.

This guy was done with watercolor on Fredrix canvas board...9 x12. This is my first time using the canvas board. I liked the way the watercolor looked, but also if I made a mistake, I could easily lift the paint without damaging the canvas. I still need to figure out how to apply more washes without lifting the color...that seems to be the only down side to this canvas board.

Tiger wip #4

Here is another installment of my Tiger. After
laying in and defining all the areas, I wasn't too happy with the way the color came out. The black was very
muted. So I went into photoshop, using the layer feature, I punched up the black area by dropping in black paint.

I'm going to sit on this drawing for a day or two and decide if I'll leave "as-is" or try something else.

Tiger Wip update

Here's another update on the Tiger. I'm now at the stage that I have to fine tune the details. Since I'm not happy with some of color around the tigers mane, I plan to incorporate some colored pencil to see if I can make his mane pop. I plan to also use colored pencil to add the detail to his eyes because I can get a sharper point using my colored pencils.

Tiger WIP #2 update

I worked a little more on the Tiger. He seems to be coming together. The new easel is working out too. One thing I have learned about working with soft pastels...I need to work from the top down,otherwise the pastel dust falls on the surrounding blocked in color.

Tiger WIP done in soft pastels

About 5 years ago I tried working in soft pastels, but the dust was a killer for me. After spending several hundred dollars on soft pastels, I inhaled pastel dust once too much, so I put them away figuring I'd donate them to some one.

Recently when I was looking through my art supplies I came across my different sets of soft pastels and pastel pencils. I thought I'd give working with soft pastels one more try, this time investing in a desk easel so the pastel dust could just fall to the bottom of the drawing instead of me blowing it away.

I love my new desk easel and I think I'm finally going to be able work in soft pastels without inhaling the pastel dust. I found this easel at Swains in Glendale and it was on sale for $44.00...what a deal. When not using the easel, the top folds down and is held in place with buckles that snap in place. There is also a nice size drawer to hold supplies.

So here is another WIP of a Tiger done on 8.5 x 11.5 Fabraino pastel paper using Faber-Castell pastel pencils. So far I've just started to block in the main colors. Total time working about 1 hour.

Plums Chinese Brush Paintings

Yesterday was my once a month Chinese Brush Painting class with Nan Ray. We worked on painting Plum trees, in ink and then colored with watercolor. Nan also demo'd pumpkins for a Thanksgiving card and Pine cones for Christmas cards. I haven't had a chance to try doing the pumpkins or pine cones.

Roma Tomatoes Oil Pastels Complete

I think I'm done! I really enjoyed playing with my oil
pastels. I've layed in as much color as the paper would allow.
It was nice to be able to see quick results and not have to
wait between colors, as in painting with watercolors.

Roma Tomatoe Oil Pastel WIP

It's amazing how the creative juices are tied into how we physical feel each day.
Since most of this month I've been ill, I really haven't felt like doing much of
anything. After reading my recent copy of Pastel Magazine, I got back my
inspiration to create. Looking through my hoard of art supplies
I came across pastel pencil sets, soft pastels,and oil pastels
that I haven't used in 3 years.

So this piece will be a WIP using oil pastels on Fabriano pastello paper 8.5 by 11.5.

I'm working right to left trying to block in the major colors. This took me about 2 hours. I forgot how quickly I can work using oil pastels.

Sunflower abstract

It's been a rough couple of weeks of being under the weather. I finally think I'm starting to feel better. So I'm slowly easing myself back into painting.

This is my first attempt at painting an abstract. I did wet-on-wet just laying in various colors, sap green, quin gold,hansa yellow,violet, and also used fluid acrylic white paint. I did negative painting developing the shapes and then fine tuning them.

I'm not sure if I like painting this way, but I did like using the Golden fluid acrylic white paint. It added texture to some of my sunflowers.

I've been away...

As usual life has taken another twist. Since my last posting in September I've been rather ill and my husband was taken again to the emergency room. My husband is better now, and I'm still under the weather. During all of this we had to go to Canada for my husband's mother's memorial. It was good seeing all the Canadian relatives; 3 days went by to quickly and I came home rather tired. I just haven't had the energy to paint,but I have been doing EDM sketches which I'll scan and post when I feel better. So in the meantime I've been resting a lot and catching up on all my art books that I've bought over the last few months.

I took this test and it was interesting to see what flower I am.

I am a Daffodil What Flower Are You?

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.

Lipizzaner horses

Lipizzaner horses were used in Spanish Riding School in Austria. I think I like the way this wc painting looks in person. I decided not to paint any background. I'm finding as I focus on one subject i.e. horses,dogs,flowers, per month, I am becoming comfortable with each piece I do.

At night before I go to bed I've been sketching various parts of horses using pen and ink or rendering them in pencil. I've found by doing these nightly sketches it helps me to see the various parts of the horse and think about what I'm actually painting.

Trio of horses

I've been working on this for the last two days off and on. Interesting what you can do with a really limited palette. 9" x 12" watercolor, using DS watercolors

mother and baby

I need to find my color wheel to come up with combinations of colors for my horse pictures. Working small has it's advantages...I can produce a painting in about an hour.

A chesnut

Today I had a doctor appointment in Beverly Hills...meeting up with my new Rheumatologist who happens to be a very published book author. I decided to take my small prismacolor portfolio along so I could work on my new horse drawing. I exchanged the colored pencils with watercolor pencils. It's a good thing I did because I had a lot of down time waiting to have tests done.

I layed down the initial colors and thought I brought my portable watercolor water brush, which I didn't. When I got home much,much later, I used a small #4 round brush to activate the wc pencil color. I was not happy with the Cretacolor aqua monolith pencils. The color did not blend very well so I used my Daniel Smith watercolor paints. I was much happier with the results.

Working 4 x 6 postcard size is a good size to experiment with. I also was working on this painting on my patio. The breeze was so strong that the wind dried my wc paints rather quickly allowing me to work fast and add a few layers.

Horses

I thought I'd devote the month of August to painting and drawing horses. Since I've only painted one horse in my life, I thought it would be fun to learn something new.

I plan to paint horses using my own color combination...getting away from traditional colors.

I also plan to paint these guys in a really small format 4 x 6 watercolor postcards.

trees

This is my last landscape for the month of July. I used my liner brush and my deer foot brush to do some of the detail in this painting.

I still have a lot to learn about painting landscapes. Each one presents a different task to workout. But now, I'm ready to move on to something else. I will continue do landscape sketches and hopefully in time will feel comfortable executing them.