Monday's watercolor sketch

Today I decided on the second photo that Karin Jurick offered on her Different Strokes blog. I really liked this photo, the relaxed feel of the beach and the sand... the sky... all of it, but even with doing this sketch, I wish I would have slowed down some and given more thought to what I was painting ..... maybe next time.

A Sunday Sketch: Jack

Today was a good day to look through some reference material for something that might motivate me to sketch or paint. I found a photo that Karin Jurick offered to artists as her week #1 challenge. I haven't been able to keep up with these weekly, or bi-weekly challenges lately, but thought I'd try sketching her dog Jack today. Can't say that I think this looks anything like the photo, but I like that I was able to retain the looseness I was after.

Plein Air with a twist

These two works are really from one original plein air painting I did some time ago. I was never happy with the painting but for some reason I didn't throw it out like I should have. I had seen a painting in a gallery that had a similar treatment done to it where with every tonal change on the painting a gold line was drawn around it. (I wonder if the artist was as unhappy with her painting as I was with mine?) It was really quite attractive so I thought I'd see if I couldn't save this painting by trying the same method. I didn't like the original composition so first I divided the painting in two and found I liked them each better apart than one painting, then used a gold gel pen to show the tonal changes. I don't think it helped the painting much but I did enjoy the process. Click on the bottom photo to enlarge, for some reason the other photo doesn't ... not sure why.

Sketch: Another House

Another House - using aquabee

6" x 9" sketchbook

I'm still enjoying the 'no pressure' sketching. I decided I'd once again to use my sketchbook for some watercolor sketches, but each time I'm sorry because the paper isn't made for a lot of washes. I think I need to write this in the sketchbook in large letters because I always forget that.

Sketch - Sailboat on Buoy

Sketch - Sailboat on Buoy, 4 1/2" x 5"

Going through my reference photo's this one caught my eye. I was still using my 'no pressure' talk to myself, but found I was starting to get a little nit-picky. This was actually sketched on Sunday but didn't have time to post it.

Again yesterday afternoon we were hit with at least an inch of snow. This caught most of us off guard, but I was already thinking I should take some more photo's of the snow. Fortunately when I awoke this morning it was just about all melted.

Sketch: Near Chesapeake and Lagoon

Near Chesapeake and Lagoon, 4" x 4 "

watercolor sketch on Arches scrap

This house looked cozy with a light dusting of snow covering the roof and ground. I seldom draw buildings but sketching and telling myself 'no pressure' made this fun to get on paper. After, looking at it on-line I'm not sure now if I was able to properly indicate snow. Also, the odd shaped roof and the angle I took the reference photograph made the perspective a challenge ... but, I really had fun painting this.

This is another scrap of paper I had taped to the same piece of foam-core as the last sketch. After painting these two sketches I'm finding these small scraps of paper are fun paint on and allow me to lighten up and paint more loosely. I'm now looking through my paper pile to find more.

Winter Snowfall

Winter Snowfall 3" x 4" Arches Watercolor Paper

After receiving snow the night before we were happy to see sun shining on the newly fallen snow as we took our daily two mile walk.

I'm trying to get into the habit of sketching with my watercolors. This was done on some Arches 140 lb. coldpress watercolor paper I had taped to a piece of foam-core earlier last year. I'm pretty stingy with my paper, never wanting to waste even a small piece.