Wild Poppies

It's been awhile since I posted anything here for the simple reason that I have not finished a drawing or a painting for a very long time.  Or, at least not one that I felt was worthy of inclusion in this blog.  Below is the painting that has changed all that.  Wild Poppies is acrylic on canvas, with silverleaf accents. The original is 11 X 14 inches.  I had fun painting this one.  As usual, you should be able to click the small version to see the full-sized photo of this painting.

Colored Pencil Drawing

Prismacolor Verithin Colored Pencil on coldpress watercolor paper. My finished piece is 9 inches wide by 6 inches high, yet would also work as a vertical display. The basic line drawing I used here was inspired in part by a lesson from Watercolor Painting for Dummies by Colette Pitcher, although I didn't trace, so my freehand drawn start is different than hers... and of course, I listened to my own muse rather than following the instructions given in the book... I like how this turned out. As with most of my blog entries, you can click this image to see the full sized version.

Notes: 

1. The background appears darker here than on my original... darned scanner.
2. For those who haven't used them, it should also be noted that Verithin pencils are harder and sharpen to a finer point than the basic Prismacolors do, hence the appearance of scratch-marks near the center of this piece.

Bottle Blues

Called Bottle Blues for obvious reasons, this watercolor painting was a class assignment that, I think, turned out well. This picture was painted from a still life setup; only four of the bottles were in the setup, I added the others...

Stuff You Can Learn From Kids' Paints

I'm painting now, with watercolors... but one of the first experiments was with Tempra paints.

Sharpie markers - like you can buy at most office supply stores in the US, and Tempra paints - some of you might remember those from school. Three primary colors, three secondary colors, plus black and white... or essentially the colors you'd get in a box of 8 crayons. Some of what you see below is mixed colors, and some colors straight from the factory-mixed bottles. I learned that small amounts of a darker color added to a lighter color change the hue much more than you might think.

Signing your name with a paint brush is an acquired skill that has not much to do with how well you can write with a pen or pencil... My signature was cloned out of the graphic below both for asthetic purposes (it's horribly sloppy)... and because I don't like posting my real name online.