10 Watercolor Squares

I am experimenting with watercolor and gouache for my “Square-A-Day” project for July since it is World Watercolor Month at Doodlewash.com

Charlie at Doodlewash has excellent creative prompts for each day but I decided to go with the flow and allow my brush (or imagination) tell me what it wants to do!

Below are my first 10 watercolor squares for the first 10 days of July:

Perhaps my inspiration will spark an idea for your art too:

1. New watercolor brush – #4 Raphael Kolinsky from Blick. First expensive watercolor brush I have purchased. I like the fine tip for tiny details like the petals on my imaginary flowers. I used gouache and added a few details with a black Micron pen.

2. Used dip pen with Saji nib to draw my sunflower and colored it with watercolor. Inspired by Susan Feniak’s  post on July 2nd.

3. Painted background in watercolor – looks like summer colors to me! Drew leaf with black .01 and .03 Micron pens using inspiration from Peggy Dean’s book, “Botanical Line Drawing.”

4. 4th of July! Ate corn-on-cob for dinner. Started by painting paper yellow, drew corn with a black Micron pen by looking at an online image. Added a little watercolor to some of the kernels. The actual corn was delish!

5. FINALLY a sunny day at the lake! I splashed in the lake and watercolors on paper. 🙂

6. Inspired by a pattern I saw in Uppercase Magazine. I painted in watercolor and added doodles with black Micron pen and a white Signo gel pen. This reminds me of summer camp and a badge earned… I never got to go to camp as a kid but I always thought it would be fun.

7. Eating creamsicle popsicles on a hot summer day! Watercolor and Signo white gel pen. It always amazes me how color and patterns takes me back in time…

8. Blueberries ripening in my yard. Love the sweetness of these blue gems! Messed up a little on the shading so added dots with a Micron pen.

9. Daddy Long-Legs – see my previous post. Nature inspires a lot of my art!

10. Wings from a Common Buckeye Butterfly – thanks Mike Powell for your awesome photo to inspire me on this one!

I hope you enjoyed reading what inspired me to create my first 10 watercolor squares!

I will post the rest of my squares at the end of July…

Happy Painting!

Cheers! 🙂

Dippity Do Draw!

I recently started drawing with a dip pen and waterproof ink and coloring my images with watercolor just in time for World Watercolor Month, hosted by Charlie O’Shields at Doodlewash.com

I enjoyed drawing these whimsical gals on ATC cards:

I learned about the dip pens from an online class from Cori Dantini, hosted by Carla Sonheim. Cori introduced me to Jetpens.com (Jet pens has great information and tutorials about a variety of pen and ink supplies).

I purchased a Kuretake Comic pen nib holder and Nikko Comic pen nib and three black inks from Jet pens.

Note: You want to make sure the pen nibs will fit the holder you purchase.

Always a good idea to create a practice sheet and test your inks to make sure they are waterproof if you need them to be!

I also purchased a Saji pen nib from Blick and a Kuretake “Zig Cartoonist” pen nib holder which is the same holder as the one from Jet Pens. The Saji nib allowed for a thicker line than the Nikko comic nib when I applied pressure to the nib.

Note: Pen nibs often come with a film over them so you will want to remove it with acetone (nail polish remover) and a Q-tip before using the nib. I learned this information from Jet pens.

Also, it is important to keep your pen nibs clean after each use. I cleaned mine with water and a soft paper towel.

I bought a pen holder for each nib but discovered this wasn’t necessary as the pen nibs are easy to remove from the pen holder.

A couple of animals showed up in my drawings:

And of course I had to draw a few “hat” birds!

I discovered that I enjoyed drawing with dip pens and permanent ink!

I could control the line with the pressure I applied to the nib. And coloring with watercolor was super fun!

I didn’t have a problem with the ink flowing into an uncontrollable puddle. I found the nibs easy to use. And they held a lot of ink.

I hope you give a dip pen and waterproof ink a try with a little watercolor fun for #WorldWatercolorMonth

Cheers! 🙂

Just Featured…

Sometimes I create drawing challenges for myself to make it more fun…

I created these faces by not filling in all the features with a Micron ink pen:

Next, I copied my original drawing and completed the faces on copy paper.  I created a couple of animals too!

I couldn’t stop at just one sketch, kind of like eating popcorn while watching a movie! Who can eat just one bowl! 😉

Just featured was very entertaining.  I hope you give it a try with your own drawings.

And if you are unhappy with a drawing, you can just cut it out of the picture!

It is a super fun way to develop a character or perhaps tell a story.

Who will you create?

Cheers!

Cactus and Flowers

Hello Friends,

Thank you for your good wishes for my recent surgery.  I so appreciate it!  🙂

I have been drawing Cactus and flowers in my sketchbook since my last post and coloring them with different markers such as Tombow, Copic and Artist’s Loft (an inexpensive brand from Michael’s Store).

Did you notice the paper collage for the Cactus planters?

I was excited to buy U.S. postage stamps with Cactus on them this week!

Happy Friday!

Cheers! 🙂

Safe!

Since Baseball season is underway, my husband is a big Seattle Mariners fan…

This weird bird came out of left field today…

And crossed home “plate” just in time to be called, Safe!

Baseball Home Plate Trivia:

Did you know that prior to 1899, any round object could serve as as home base?  (At times a dish even served as home base which may have led to its alternative name, “home plate.”

In the 1899/1900 season, home base changed its shape to a 12×12 inch square to match the other bases.

The pentagon shape that is used today was developed in the 1900/1901 season by Robert Keating.  The biggest advantage of this new shape was that it made the edges of the strike zone more visible to pitchers and umpires and therefore, improved the consistency of calling strikes.

Do you think this weird bird is a St Louis Cardinal or a Baltimore Oriole?

Hope you hit a grand slam this week!

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

An Inside View

Thank you all for your kind words of support for my hip surgery.  I am doing amazingly well.  I still get tired but am able to walk without any support and have very little pain.  I get my stitches out this Friday and hope that I will be given the green light for driving!

I have a little something different for today’s weird bird…

Birdhouses!

Our snow is finally melting and it looks like Spring is on its way!  This makes me think about birdhouses.  Plus, I have been making mini house collages in Carla Sonheim’s 2019 Year of the Collage class.

I created these eccentric birdhouses in my sketchbook recently.  I limited myself to using a circle and 2 other collage scraps for each one.  I randomly glued them into a square and then went back and added details with a pencil.

One of them looked like it had an inside view.

This inspired me to create this collage from a variety of magazines:

An Inside View of a Birdhouse

What kind of weird bird do you think lives here?  I know it is a bird with extremely good taste as the framed chicken is from a Klimt calendar!

Happy weird bird Wednesday!  

Cheers! 🙂

Outside A Window

I love the view of this crabapple tree outside my kitchen window:

This photo was taken in May when the tree was showing its spectacular pink blossoms!

I decided to add a photo of it to my mixed media sketchbook as the tree inspires me all four seasons!  I colored the photo with color pencils so the flowers stood out.

And below is the Robin that I painted and showed you in my last post:

Inspiration of place can sometimes come from what we see outside a window in our home… Below is a photo of both pages together in my art journal.

What view inspires YOU, outside a window?  I hope you share it with me!

Cheers! 🙂

Hang On!

Today I have a “gaggle” of weird birds!

I had so much fun making one that they quickly multiplied… kind of like a bunch of hangers on laundry day! Lol!

I drew these Hanger birds by looking only at my subject (a clothes hanger) and not at my paper.

I like how they came out a bit wonky…

Hang on!  And have a happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

Where Is Spring?

It is hard to believe that Spring will be here in two months where I live in the Pacific Northwest!

We recently got about a foot and a half of new snow!  So pretty when it is fluttering down from the sky but not so pretty when the snow plower piled the driveway with a huge berm yesterday…Ugh!

I finished my doodle from last week!  YAY! 😀 If you didn’t see that post, you can find it here:  A Little Doo-da-ling

It was super fun to work on it a little each day when I had a few minutes:

And the finishing touches:

I added two colors of color pencils to complete it.  I’d love to hear what you think!

Happy Friday!

Cheers! 🙂

Drawing From Memory

I prefer to draw from a reference photo but yesterday, I decided to try drawing from memory:

It helped to have a good teacher.  The teacher was Jeanne-Marie Webb from the online class:  Paint Your Heart and Soul 2019.  This year the theme is painting loose.

I drew two faces with charcoal pencil, Derwent Inktense Blocks and chalk.  Next, I fragmented the faces by cutting up the eyes separate from the nose and mouth.  I glued the features so they didn’t completely match on a separate piece of paper.  I collaged my Gelli-Plate printed papers with my drawings.

I am starting to see improvements in my face drawings… Hoorah!

How about you, do YOU enjoy drawing from memory?

Cheers! 🙂