More sketching

Over in our Painting Friends forum, we're having a daily sketch challenge.
So far, I am enjoying the discipline of knowing I ought to pick up the sketchbook every day and do something!
Some will be whimsical and some more traditional, whatever takes my fancy on the day.

I am approaching this with the idea that it should be fun and not a chore.
Yes, we could all do with improving - me included- but I don't want to do that at the expense of losing the joy.
Surely joy was the reason we all came to painting and drawing anyway - wasn't it? 

What brought me to drawing and painting? I can't remember if I told  you.  In a nutshell, I had started a new business, wasn't very busy and looked to drawing and painting to fill my time because I loved art at school. So I took a class and off I went. I'm still going :) 
How about you? What made you decide to pick a brush or a pencil up?

The Alphabet Paintings: R

The alphabet paintings continue with the letter R and a memory from childhood...

When I was growing up, I remember reading a whimsical tale of how God named all the flowers. When He was walking in the garden one day, he came across this pretty blue flower and asked for its name. The blue flower bashfully replied that he couldn't remember. So God whispered to the flower, "remember that I love you, forget-me-not"

Remember that I love you

The journey continues

As my sub heading to the blog says, " a journey with watercolour and my dog"
I thought to show you a little more "journey" work today.


Yesterday was a foul day with storms and high winds, so we didn't go anywhere for fresh air and sketching possibilities, we stayed indoors!

These are my sketches, the first in my new journal book, a present from Beryl at Christmas - and the others are two painted sketches of the same subject.

What started me off on pears again was an informative technique post on Painting Friends, by Mollie Jones.
Mollie is very generous in sharing her knowledge. 
She even does so on her blog!
So for those of you who haven't seen it, her blog is HERE
Scroll down from the first post - and there is the technique "smushing"
You're in for a treat :)

Happy New Year

Happy new year, everyone!

Hope this year gives you health and happiness .

These are a couple of painted sketches I did yesterday.

The painting bug rarely leaves me, though today is dedicated to clearing up the house, so that we can have a restful day tomorrow, before the return to work Tuesday.

Whatever you're starting off your new year with, I hope you have a great one!

a very happy Missy

Christmas Eve Missy had an end of year check at the vet's surgery.
Everything was well, she's in fine physical shape, with only the beginning of slow growing cataracts. That's probably due to her age - she's 14 now!
But, they show no signs of stopping our darling girl enjoying life - as you can now see :)

Here's my Christmas goodies!

I particularly like that one - there!

How did mummy miss the hedgehog out?

wrapping paper's all mine too!

You're not tidying my hedgie away!

All that playing makes a girl hungry!

After a good lunch comes a snooze! 

We're fortunate to be off work now until the New Year, when we'll be back and ready to resume normal blogging. Have a great time all, til then xx

Ding Dong, Merrily on High

 Ding Dong, Merrily on High

In Heaven the bells are ringing

Ding Dong, verily the sky

Is riven with angels singing

Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis

A very Merry Christmas 

to all our friends

much love

Pat and Missy

xx

Year of Painting, Rose.

On the Painting Friends forum, its time for the Year of Painting. This month we had a white rose as a reference to work from.
The idea of painting once a month is for you to analyse your work and grow from the experience.

Today, I thought I'd share the whole post with you, not just the final painting, as I did with V: The Other Side of the River.

Year of Painting (YOP)

Number Nine, Rose

Personal Goals for this Painting:

Firstly I set some goals for my thumbnail sketches.

These were :

1. do a thumbnail showing the scene as is.
2. on the other thumbs, show different crops and ideas
3. Paint all four thumbs.

I chose to paint all four thumbnails. Why I did this was to push myself to get more out from these YOPs. To try each technique and crop. To find something in each I could like and learn from.

So, here are the paintings:

Dark Rose 

 

8 x 11 Arches 140 Rough

I changed the colour of the rose. Solely because I'd not long since painted a white rose in “The Shadow of Your Love.”

I like this rose in parts. I love the bud and the background and leaves. Also the outer petals of the rose, but I feel I made a mistake to paint all the petals because I feel I've lost it in the inner shadows. I've painted in glaze after glaze to give a richer colour, therefore I can't lift the shadow without ruining the petal. A lesson learned – plan more if you want to be that literal and paint your shadows first!

Christmas Rose

8 x 11 Arches 140 Rough

Love the richness of this impasto version, it feels like a oil. That's probably because for the first time, I've painted it completely with a palette knife.

Its taught me that although its ok as a small painting ( 8x11 ) it would be stunning as a large, full sheet version.

Rosebud

8 x 11 Arches 140 Rough

This , I love everything about it. Lesson learned, take an element of a photo, that really suits me better than using the whole!

Sweet Rose

8 x 11 Arches 140 Rough

I love pointillism, it feels like meditation to me when I work in this way. Love the way this came out, reminding me of a sugar frosted rose. I wouldn't change it at all, I even like the way the petals have different colour variations.

Challenges Faced

Painting all four thumbs and trying to be creative with them all. Hardest of all was to paint the “as is” thumbnail, when it was never a photo I'd have chosen for a reference.

Share Personal Goals and whether you felt you Met Them

My personal goals were to be creative in all four paintings and to learn something from each, which I have done in varying degrees.

How I created the Paintings.

Multiple glazes in Dark Rose on the rose. Some negative painting in the background.

All impasto using aquapasto as well as watercolour and a palette knife in Christmas Rose

Loose background wash for sky in Rosebud and merging wet in wet washes for the rose and shadows.

All pointillism in Sweet Rose. A dot at a time. It took the longest time of all.

Size of Painting, Medium, Palette and Brushes.

The paintings are on Arches 140 Rough and are 8” x 11”

The medium is pencil for the under drawing and watercolour for the painting. (addition of aquapasto for Christmas Rose only)

W&N artists quality paint.

Palette colours used : transparent yellow, cadmium red, french ultramarine, sap green, olive green, indigo.

Brushes: round 12, round 6, round 2. palette knife.

Hope you've enjoyed this peek into my thoughts and practices.