Four cars

This watercolor was part of my car series that I was doing. Arches cold press watercolor block 12 x 16", Daniel Smith Watercolors.

Birds nest

I guess I would call this drawing a mixed media. I started a new journal ....Aquabee 6 x 9, using pen and ink, Prisma color watercolor pencils, and Cretacolor watercolor sticks.

ATC size drawings

I've been doing small sketches using my Prisma Color watercolor pencils on card stock paper. I cut the paper to 3.5" x 2.5"(ATC) size. I wasn't sure I'd like working in this size since it's rather small for me,but after doing several of these drawings I was able to adjust. I've also figured out if I do a contour drawing in pencil and then come back in with waterproof ink, I can correct misplaced lines. After I've added the ink, I erase any pencil marks. Then I lay in the various colors of my Prisma Color watercolor pencils. I finish the drawing by using my Pental water brush to release the color.

This is a good way for me to draw daily and not feel guilty if I haven't produced any large pieces of art.

Today is my Wedding Anniversary

Today my husband surprised me with a dozen red roses for our 26Th wedding anniversary. I've been blessed with a wonderful husband who is loving, kind,generous,supportive,funny, and brilliant.

We met 27 years ago and I knew on our first date that I was going to marry him. The day he purposed to me was just a beginning of the many surprises I would have with him. He started the day with sending me a dozen yellow roses in the morning and yellow mums in the afternoon, and ended the day by sending me a white Rolls Royce to pick me up at work and take me to one our favorite restaurants. He had given the driver a cassette of my favorite artist Chuck Mangione. So on the 45 minute drive I got to listen to Chuck. My husband was at the restaurant waiting for me. We had dinner and the whole time I had butterflies in my stomach because I knew he was going to purpose. I'm not sure how I ever got through dinner, let alone eat dinner. I kept on waiting for him to purpose, but nothing happened. We walked out to the car and sitting on the seat was the cutest raccoon with a bouquet of balloons and a sign that said "Will you marry me." Of course I said yes. We met on the 23rd of January and got married one year later on January 23rd.

How big is an elephant???

I thought I'd try only using 3 colors on this watercolor. Burnt Sienna,Raw Sienna, and Cobolt Blue. I painted this elephant wet-on-wet with my new Isabey #0 mop round watercolor brush. I'm just amazed at how much pigment I picked up with the brush and how the brush holds onto the point.

Pan pastels

Yesterday when I was visiting Santa Barbara I went into the local art store and was pleasantly surprised to find Pan Pastels. These pan pastels are new and are so cool to use. They are applied with an applicator, they erase, they blend really well, and the colors are very vibrant. You can learn more about pan pastels at www.panpastels.com

So here is my first piece done with pan pastels...I think I finally found pastels that I can work and live with!

Beware of paper cutters!

Beware of paper cutters; they can be dangerous! Yesterday I bought myself a paper cutter that would allow me to cut paper in various sizes. I took the cutter out of the box and noticed it was not sitting straight on the counter. I turned it over to discover one of the little rubber feet was missing so I took off the remaining 3 feet. As I was turning over, the palm of my hand accidentently was pressed against the blade. Boy did that one inch cut hurt and bleed like crazy. I thought I was going to bleed to death and couldn't for the life of me stop the bleeding. I finally managed to get a rather large band-aid on my cut so I could apply pressure to stop the bleeding. After changing the band-aid several times and having my hand elevated, the bleeding stopped. Needless-to-say,it was an experience I don't want to repeat again. So with a lot of attention to the blade I finally got to cut some card stock paper into 3.5 x 2.5" pieces.

I now have a pile of 3.5 x 2.5" blank pieces of card stock paper that I will draw small pictures of items. I thought this would be a quick way to continue drawing and not feel overwhelmed by a big piece of paper. One of things I like to do at night is to relax on my bed and watch TV and draw. With this size I can draw to my hearts content and if I create bad art, I can always toss .

I've been doing a lot of pen and ink with watercolor or colored pencils. I like the bold line of the pen and ink and it is so easy to add a little color with either the watercolor or colored pencils. So here are two ATC size drawings of finches.

A cardinal

I really like working in pen and ink and then using watercolors or watercolor pencils.

Some new art pieces

Here are a few recent pieces that I've been working on. All were done with pen and ink, then I used Neocolor crayons dry and then used a wet paint brush to blend in the color. All were done on Fabriano paper.

Hand - book Journal

I've been sketching in my moleskin trying to get motivated to draw and paint. I'm not sure if I want to work in watercolors, colored pencils, or faber-castell markers. I'm trying to jump start my creativity. So yesterday I finally opened my hand-book journal that is 5.5" x 5.5". I thought I would use this to doodle and see what happens. As I look through other journals the one thing that always catches my interest is drawing and painting dogs.

I really like the paper in my hand-book journal. It seems to take the watercolor and markers with no problem and no buckling. My plan for January is to draw and paint at least one image a day. I have to draw 7 more images to stay on track. I guess I work better under pressure.

Happy New Year! Goals for 2008

Happy New Year!

My artistic goals for 2008

Paint and draw daily
Work on my children's book stories and illustrations
Enter art competitions
Try to get into juried shows
Work on marketing my art work
Take a figure drawing class
Continue to build my pet portrait business
Explore different subject matters....trains,sailboats,butterflies,interiors
Join an art association and get involved

And finally do more plein air outings.

Artistic goals of 2007

As I look back on 2007 and my goals that I set out to accomplish, I was surprised at how many I was able to do.

The year has been a year of unexpected changes. After living in the Pacific Northwest for 2 years, we decided that we really had enough of the grey skies, power outages, and snow. So in March my husband decided to go back to consulting full time and he found a long term assignment in Mojave, California. In less than 3 weeks I had to pack up my house,put it on the market to sell,find a new house in Southern California,and move. After it was all said and done, I was in my new house by April 1st. It took me a few weeks to get settled and my new studio set up.

I started 2007 with buildings,then portraits,landscapes,lots of florals,a few cars, one cat,and even got involved in a monthly Chinese brush painting class. In between I worked on writing a few children's book stories and used a good part of December working on the illustrations. I even surprised myself at sketching daily and even painting daily into the wee hours of the night.

As for traveling, didn't do as much as I would of liked, but did go to Ohio for my nieces wedding;Chicago visiting my girlfriend;the SF bay area to visit my sister and watch her graduate from junior college, and a trip up to Canada for my husband's mother's memorial.

It's been a busy and productive year. So tomorrow I'll focus on my artistic goals for 2008.

The Great Monarch Butterfly Chase by R.W.N. Prior

Back in 1993 my husband on a dare wrote a children's book titled "The Great Monarch Butterfly Chase." He wrote the story,did rather basic illustrations, made a dummy book, and submitted his manuscript to 3 publishers...all done in 30 days. Within two months the manuscript was accepted for publication by Bradbury Press, An Affiliate of Macmillan, Inc. Eight months later the book was published. I believe there were two full printings making my husband a nice sum of money.

Whenever I mention the book, people want to know where they can purchase a copy. Unfortunately the publisher stop printing the book. Recently while unpacking I came across a few copies of his book. With my husband's permission, I scanned his book and now you can read his story of the monarch butterfly's journey from state to state all the way down to Mexico.

A nude

On WetCanvas there was a challenge to paint Sophie in any medium...here is my interpretation.

9 x 12 cold press
Daniel Smith watercolors

Divide and Conquer my studio

Divide and conquer my studio...that's my new mantra. I don't know how many times I have organized my studio, each time discovering art material that I have. One could say I'm never out of supplies. During my organization I finally found my 100 plus watercolor tubes of paint. Some being Winsor-Newton, Daniel Smith,Daley Rowney, and Hobein. It was Xmas early.

A couple of weeks ago I had ordered this empty artist palette with 18 slots for watercolor paint. So I decided to pick 18 colors that I use over and over again. Most are Winsor Newton and about 5 are Daniel Smith. I'm just trying to use up these tubes of the Winsor Newton, since I love all of Daniel Smith watercolors. When I run out of a color I'll replace with Daniel Smith.

Top row:

Transparent Yellow,Cobalt Yellow,Naples Yellow, New Gamboge,Alizarin Crimson, and Indigo

Middle Row:

FUB,Cobalt Blue,Cerulean Blue,Cobalt Turquoise Lt,Sap Green, Yellow Orche.

Bottom Row:

Raw Sienna,Perm Brown,Burnt Sienna,Burnt Umber,Raw Umber, Ivory Black

Red old Truck

This painting is one that I almost ripped up and started over again. Instead I gave myself a break for a few days to see if I could salvage it.
Sometime around 11 p.m. last night, I decided to work with what I had painted and just went for it. I just kept on layering it and mixing colors on the painting as I went along. If I was to paint this truck again I'd do a few things differently. Probably I would add more to the background, reposition the truck on the canvas, and probably use better reference photo's.

Arches 9 x 12 watercolor cold press block
Daniel Smith watercolors

Gocco

A few months ago when I was in the SF bay area visiting my sister we went to Paper Source and they were having a demo day. One of the products they were showing was a Gocco. Up until that day I didn't realize this printer would be one of those objects I would desire. Gocco is a rather cool way to print up your own designs...check out this website and learn more about the product http://www.gocco.com.

Since my husband tends to tell me I'm hard to shop for...which is true...I decided I wanted one of these gems for Xmas. So I'm now waiting for my present, which I'll wrap and put under the tree...won't my husband be surprised at the great gift he gave me!

Yesterday

Yesterday was my birthday...I won't go into how old I've become because I stopped counting!

To celebrate my husband took me to Santa Barbara. Had a wonderful time, even though it was windy and a little cold. Got to explore all the shops and I was surprised that I didn't come home with bags of goodies, but I did get something special to add to my rather large collection....David Yurman earrings. Also discovered on a side street a rather large art store. They were having a sale, so I got an additional 20% off on my purchases.

Summertime Fairy

I've been reading this book titled :How to Draw and Paint Fairies by Linda Ravenscroft. The book is a good read with lots of demonstrations using various mediums. I've been playing around with an idea to do a series of Dog Fairies, so I thought I try my hand at doing one of her tutorials. I modified my painting a little bit, but I'm pleased with the way this turned out.

Black Woody Completed

I finally finished painting this black woody station wagon.

Arches cold press block 9 x 12
Daniel Smith Watercolors