"Drawing from the mind, Painting from the heart" by Ann Compton... this is part of an exercise in her book... pick three of your primary color paints, red, yellow, blue... then mix them to fill out the wheel. She suggests that you do this with several different color triads from your palette. These 3 are colors in my travel pallet, Permanent Rose (red), Lemon Yellow and French Ultramarine Blue.
Office building on Faber Place has a bronze statue of an Egret on a bird bath/fountain... it has this lovely green patina... don't have that green in my box of colors...
This was a fun exercise from the book I'm reading. Pick your 10 favorite colors... draw a random line... fill in a space with clear water, then drop in the almost pure color and watch it spread out and do it's watercolor magic.
I got a book from the library by Annette Compton "Drawing from the Mind, Painting from the heart" This was a exercise in that book... it didn't quite work on this paper ... I'll try it again on watercolor paper.
My books on drawing buildings arrived today.... I've skimmed thru them... now I need to study them.
I'm registered for a 4 week class on water and skies... I'm tying to decide what I want to paint. Ron has to work this weekend, If the rain holds off maybe I'll get some reference photos taken tomorrow.
Today it hit me... I'm in a RUT... I was looking thru my Flickr photos of my journal pages... and the sameness of them screams BORING! words on top, picture on the bottom, weather in the corners... so I tried to do something different... and other than drawing a box around the drawing... I ended up with exactly the same page. I'll try harder tomorrow.
This is a little painting I did for the ID&P forum Watercolor Challenge... from a photo... it was a fun exercise... I tried some new techniques... some worked... some didn't (as usual).
This purple bucket and red/orange shovel lying abandoned on the beach... caught my eye and I snapped a photo of it... used that photo to do this little sketch.... Isle of Palms beach... our favorite place to go to the beach here.
I bit the bullet and drew our house... I left the cars out... I have enough trouble drawing the house... the cars would have been too much.
Nice cool weather today... a welcome taste of Fall to come. My brush made a mess of this marsh drawing... I take no personal responsibility for it at all LOL
Ah Charleston a city where you will find a pale lavendar house, next door to a pale pink one... and lots of cool porch lights. Break over, I'm heading back out to work in the yard a bit more.
I worked so hard on the pier/bridge.. I messed up the Egret, he looks a bit squatty.. he was very elegant in real life... I suppose he was 'fishing' not just hanging out.
This is a pretty park, but only from a distance because of the geese. These are not wild geese, they are domestic geese... the sidewalks are covered in bird poop..as are the grass and even the street. I can't believe they don't round them up and feed them to the poor or something.
South Carolina does have some BIG bugs, and some tiny ones. In our back yard now are these HUGE Banana Spiders.. Spiders body almost an inch and 1/2 long and they weave HUGE webs 4 to 6 feet wide... they are amazing and creepy at the same time. Of course mosquitoes and fleas, and deer flies, and "flying teeth" no see ums... I never leave home without bug spray or deet towelettes....
Had a very good shoot tonight, only 2 misses out of 30 rounds.... and thankfully the Gun Shop was a fairly easy, box like building to draw. I ordered 3 books from Amazon yesterday, 2 on drawing buildings, and 1 that Danny Gregory had recommended on drawing... I think my drawing skills need a lot of work.
Anybody know of a good book on drawing buildings? They are such a struggle for me... even the simple ones... the complicated architecture in Charleston is beyond my abilities WAY beyond.
Let's see today I tried to draw a section of rainbow row.. erased it, tried to draw the draft horse pulling a tourist wagon.. erased it... finally settled on this urn that I had photographed during a Charleston Outdoor Painters outing. Thank goodness I was able to get it drawn... this journal is going to make me stretch.
Rainy again today... so I drew this based on a photo I took of a door way in downtown Charleston on Church Street. the arched door and the flower urns caught my eye. I need to study up on how to paint a brick building without having to paint each stinkn brick LOL
Starting smaller than I wanted... but it is part of my house... and thus qualifies as a SC thing :-)
Book 7 Title page... In this journal I'm wanting to do more drawings from life around Charleston and SC.... that's the goal.
Book7-cover, originally uploaded by CaptElaine.
I got this handmade journal from www.books.beetlelady.com this is the second journal I've gotten from her. I'm planning to do a South Carolina theme in this journal.
Stopped by Michaels today and bought frames for my two paintings... they look good framed... I'm quite pleased... Tomorrow I start my new handmade journal, gotta do a cover page, and take a picture of it... I love handmade journals with watercolor paper in them.
9x12 Arches Watercolor block... didn't leave myself anywhere to sign it... eek... I think it turned out really well... the orange is much richer in person than on the computer.
This journal only has one more page left... I'm looking forward to the next one, and hoping to move in a different direction in it. I have enjoyed these cartoon characters... and I think my drawing has improved doing them these past few months.
9x12 Arches Watercolor block, Sea Oats background washes in Quin. Sienna and New Gamboge... yummy colors... hope I don't mess up the sea oats now LOL
I'm going to miss the gators... My experience with them, they were quite shy maybe they grew too bold and scared someone. It's a shame.
Momma (or Poppa) Gator... off to a new home today... after the DNR guys got her hog tied. Hope she likes her new place, I'll miss her.
Remember last year at my old office (just around the corner from where I am now), the baby alligator I played hide and seek with? Well he's all grown up now, and scared the current residents... so they called DNR and the little fellow and his momma got relocated today... makes me just a little sad.
There is a pretty large swamp behind our office building... I've scared up deer in the swamp before walking to my car in the parking lot... I missed the wolf/deer chase today... by the time I jumped up to run to the window, they were out of sight back into the swamp.
Ok... now it's not totally in my head... I don't know how other people do this... but here's my way (such as it is)... ok the name of the painting (already given on application).. is 'Sea oats'.. I thought I'd do another sunset sea in the back ground oats in the foreground... But I can not get the ocean to look right ... so I'm going to ditch the ocean and just do a dramatic sunset sky, maybe some dark clouds... with sea oats in the foreground... practiced doing those on this sheet too, and I think they turned out looking like sea oats. I'll paint another concept painting in my Strathmore WC paper pad 9x12 tomorrow... and if it looks like it'll work that'll be what I do. So does anyone else do this or am I the only one?
I think my Kiawah Island painting #2 will be one entry... the other entry is still only in my head... eek.. Guess I better get busy huh?
Well this one turned out ok, I was able to correct some things that I didn't like in the second version (like people thinking the ocean was distant mountains...eek) but I don't think this palmetto tree has the punch that one did...I also think the landscape version is more dramatic than this portrait version.
At first I thought it was a gator, we rounded the tree line onto the pond, and a big Splash, followed by ripples on the lake... we froze, hoping to see the gator... but it wasn't a gator, it was 6 or 7 huge turtles, who'd been sunning on the opposite bank, and dove in the water and swam across the pond to us.. little heads sticking out of the water looking at us... then we felt guilty for having no food for them, we figure the people in the office building near by must feed the turtles... because they didn't jump in the water to hide from us, they followed us... and begged LOL.
It was VERY hot at the gun club this morning... and I managed to tangle with some fire ants, allergy pill aided LONG nap this afternoon... then dinner at the local steak place... perfect end to a perfect summer day.
9x12 140lbs Cold pressed Arches watercolor block. I like this one, so much so I can't decide whether to do it again or not... I'm thinking I might turn it to a portrait format, and try to do the sky totally wet in wet instead of trying to glaze it in layers.
I picked one of the hottest days this week, to take the test... but except for getting outside the lines once... I did ok the officer said... and I PASSED the test... so I have a motorcycle license now... this grey haired granny is feeling pretty darn spry today... LOL
Charleston Artist Guild meeting tonight has put everything behind... I hope I have time to work on my painting a bit.
We have a Eugene the Jeep doll that rides in our spare tire when we go on Jeep trips... you'd have to be my age to remember Popeye cartoons with Eugene the Jeep...
9x12 Strathmore 140 cold press Watercolor spiral pad...I'm not particularly happy with this one... it was the 'test' work before the 'real' work... I'm not that pleased with the sky on the 'real' one yet either... so I may end up doing this three times. I did watch a Sterling Edwards video on doing sunsets today... so I now know what I've done wrong on both paintings... and have a plan for the third one... I am pleased with the Palmetto tree, I've been practicing painting them and I think I've got a method of doing them now that looks pretty good.
Summertime, summertime, sum, sum, summertime.. hazy, hot and humid... thunderstorms brew every afternoon... so it's a gamble everyday on whether I'll manage to dodge the storms on the scooter... did it yesterday... and today... woohoo... I'm feeling lucky, maybe I should buy a lottery ticket. LOL
All my tests came back clear... so I can breathe a sigh of relief. Now it's time to go paint... I've spent a year taking a course where the instructor told me what color to use and what to paint when... now I'm floundering on my own trying to figure out what to do... it's fun, but not much worth seeing is coming out yet.
So glad we did our picnic ride yesterday, storms are really brutal this afternoon... at least I don't hear the fire trucks anymore... my dogs do love to howl with the sirens.
What a great way to spend a Saturday... we'll miss the Neal family... but hopefully they'll keep in touch and go to the mountains with us from time to time.
