Day #7: Camino del Diablo

I needed something simple to get my piece for day #7 finished this evening.  I looked through my saved pictures and found the photo for this painting.  It is one that I had saved from pictures posted by David Richman, a member of Watercolor Workshop.  He has been posting such interesting pictures of the southwestern U.S. and Mexico.  I loved this picture when I first saw it and thought it would make a nice painting. Once again, I drew this directly by looking at the picture on my laptop computer because I am still unable to get to my studio in the basement to print off a photo to work from.  My printer is in the basement studio and my back will still not let me do the stairs.   This painting is a watercolor/watercolor pencil composition.  I did the watercolor first and then finished it with strokes of watercolor pencil - sort of the frosting on the cake.  This is small - 4" x 6" and is painted on 140 lb. cold-pressed watercolor paper.  It will eventually be sent to another member of the SWAP group this year in the postcard swap.

Day #6: Changes

I have been wanting to paint these changing leaves ever since this fall when I saw them hanging on the tree - the colorful leaves overlapping the green underneath...one of natures most beautiful art works.

I created this painting by soaking the watercolor paper and then dropping in the colors wet-into-wet - dragons blood,indian red, sap green, indian yellow and pthalo blue to create various greens and fall colors.  After it dried well, I drew the leaves in with a #2 pencil and then painted in the background leaves with darker greens and dragon blood and indian red using negative painting techniques.

Day #5: Old and Falling Apart

As I started this piece, it was going to be a watercolor.  The more I worked on it, the more I desired getting out the watercolor pencils - I am spoiled!  I LOVE them!  I lightly drew this with a #2 pencil and then wet the entire surface of the paper and dropped in burnt sienna, paynes grey, davey's grey, naples yellow and pthalo blue, wet-in-wet.  At this point the watercolor pencils started calling to me and before I knew it, there they were - sitting on the table.  Soooo - this is a combination watercolor/watercolor pencil painting for day #5 in my quest for 90 works in 90 days!

Day #4: A Sketch of Rachel in Pencil

Today's art work is a pencil sketch of my grand daughter, Rachel.  I took some photos of her a couple days ago, and I did this drawing by looking at her photo on my laptop computer (below) while I sketched her on a drawing paper book  in my lap with  #2 and HB  drawing pencils.

Day #3: Dockside

This is the painting for day 3, a watercolor 4" x 6" painted on Canson cold-pressed watercolor paper.  I used analagous colors in a limited palette of blue-violet, violet, red-violet and a little ultra-marine blue

The painting was done basically all wet-in-wet, with just some details being added wet-on-dry to finish.

Day #2: Waiting for Spring

This is a small watercolor painting, 4" x 5 1/2" and it is painted on 140 lb. Canson cold-pressed watercolor paper.  In this painting I tried to set a mood with color and worked basically wet-into-wet for the most part.  I drew the trees into it using the sharpened wooden end of a paint brush dipped in watercolor - I created my  browns with yellow ochre and violet.The colors in this palette were blue violet, ultramarine blue, violet and yellow ochre. I used a burnt umber watercolor pencil for some of the reflections in the water.

The Blue Bowl: The first in the series of a work a day for 90 days.

This is day 1 of 90 days of creating a work of art.  It may not always be a painting - it may be a drawing, a sketch, colored pencil, watercolor or even oil.

This watercolor pencil painting is 4" x 6" and is a postcard that I have created for the SWAP website where we are sending hand painted postcards to 24 different members during the year.  It is painted on 140 lb. cold-pressed watercolor paper with Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils - my favorite brand.

When I designed this card, I was more interested in design and shapes than in realism so as you look at this, think "shapes"!

My news for this week is that my surgery for spinal stenosis has been cancelled at least for 3 months because there is some concern about the blood clots I had in my left lung in September.  I can respect the doctors decision and will make the best of a bad situation - go to therapy and take pain pills!