July Square-A-Day Project

Perhaps you remember my post regarding my inspiration for my first ten days of my July Square-A-Day Project? If not you can find it here: 10 Watercolor Squares

I created in watercolor for July but also some gouache for each day on a 1.75 x 1.75 inch square:

Nature was my inspiration for most of my squares. Yet, I did include a couple of abstracts and a little whimsy!

Painting outside at the lake was something I truly enjoyed! I encourage you to paint outdoors.

Cheers! 🙂

A Dog and Bird Show

I bet you were thinking a dog and pony show, huh?

Well, since it is weird bird Wednesday, I need to include a couple of birds!

But first, this Marshmallow dog showed up in my art journal last week:

It was Kid’s Art Week at CarlaSonheim.com Each day a new video for kids of all ages. And the best part it is free! (You can still sign-up if you are interested).

This year the lessons were finding imaginary creatures in sidewalk cracks. I was at the lake so I drew my animals by looking at the sidewalk cracks in the videos. I “colored” mine with watercolors and added shading with pencil and other details with a Micron black pen.

Sidewalk cracks are a lot like finding animals in clouds, like these puffy cotton ball ones at the lake:

It was an usually hot day so the lake water was very refreshing!

I must have had sun hats on my mind when creating this weird bird:

Who knew birds had teeth?

I don’t think my show is complete without this photo of a lovely lake sunset…

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

Sweet Summer Time…

Summers in the Pacific Northwest where I live, seem sooo short!

I can’t believe we are already in the middle of July…

The lake water is FINALLY getting warm with SUN at last!

I have decided to take a short blogging break and enjoy –

Sweet Summer Time!

And paint! I look forward to sharing more discoveries in my watercolor nature journal with you:

Happy Summer!

Cheers! 🙂

Eye-Popping Hoppers

Have you ever eaten a Jalapeño Popper?

Jalapeño Poppers are jalapeño peppers hallowed out, stuffed with cheese, spices and sometimes ground meat, breaded and deep fried.

Joey “Jaws” Chestnut holds the Major League Eating Record for Jalapeño Poppers, eating 118 in 10 minutes in April 2006.

For some strange reason…

Jalapeño Poppers came to mind as I was creating today’s weird birds:

Eye-Popping Hoppers

Perhaps these birds are taste-testers for a new “jelly bean” flavor, jalapeño pepper!

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

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! 🙂

A Firecracker

Did you know there is a Firecracker flower?

So I figured, there has to be a Firecracker bird!

This weird bird burst onto my paper just in time for the 4th of July celebration in the States on Thursday!

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

And happy 4th of July for those who are celebrating!

Cheers! 🙂

E, F and G

I have been adding collage to finish some of my watercolor alphabet journal pages from the month of July.

I thought you might enjoy seeing them – before and after collage photos:

Letter “E” is for eyes:

For the collaged “hair,” I colored Swedish tracing paper with Derwent Ink Tense Blocks, added water to blend the colors and let dry.  I then sewed them to my paper with a light gray thread.  Her eyes were a little more sultry than I intended!  😉

Letter “F” is for Fridays, frogs, flowers and ferns:

I stapled my handpainted collage papers to my watercolor paper.  I then covered the staples by gluing a circle over them.  The black letter “f” is a sticker.

Letter “G” is for mixing greens:

I attached the collage paper with a flower brad, glued a paper scrap with a square on top and added the “good” fortune:  You will hear good news today!

I hope to finish letters, “H” and “I” next week!

Happy Friday! Cheers! 🙂

Rocking It…

OK, I agree, my title is a bit punny for one of the last five watercolors I did in July:

Next, I decided to expand my horizons (so to speak) and painted this landscape:

Not a subject I normally paint, so I was pleased with it… below is my reference photo I used from a photo I took of a nearby creek:

We recently had a full moon that inspired these summer stars:

I enjoyed playing with a dagger brush and different color combinations for them.

Time was short so I experimented to create this fantastic feather:

I used a straw to blow wet pools of watercolor paint and gold acrylic ink to give it some pizazz!  The collaged letter, “F” I created from one of my leftover watercolor circles from a previous project.

I ended my last painting for July with this door and quote:

I was ready to close the “door” on this project and start something new!

Thank you ALL for your encouragement on this month’s project, as always, I appreciate your kind comments and likes of support… it means so much to me!

Cheers! 🙂

X, Y, Z And…

I made it through the alphabet for my art journal!  WHOOT!

And I completed 31 days of watercolor in July for World Watercolor Month!!

I thought you might enjoy seeing my finished alphabet pages…

An X-ray Tetra Fish for “X”:

“Y” is for Yellow:

“Z” for Zentangled zoodles… Which are zucchini noodles!

I still want to add paper collage and a few extra details to complete these pages… so stay tuned! 🙂

And I completed 5 additional watercolor pages to finish my 31 days – I will post them later this week…

I am happy to be done so I can focus on some other art projects.  Yet, I had so much fun!

I enjoyed my extra time at the lake last week... I think my highlights were swimming in the lake – three times a day, reading a super good book, painting outside daily, making paper butterflies with a friend, daily naps and cool evenings.

Wishing you a happy day doing what you love!

Cheers! 🙂