Bottle green

This little bottle really appealed to me tonight because of its rich color. Plus, I was able to practice rendering another cork. Watercolor and water soluble pencil and crayon, approx. 5 1/2" x 6". That weird pigment, phthalocyanine green, was actually the perfect color to start with here. I don't use it often because it's so intense and not really found "in nature," but I have been enjoying using vibrant colors more and more the closer we get to spring.

Double reflection

For these 20 minute sketches I often paint stuff that's just laying around. Why not? Ordinary stuff can be interesting. It isn't always, but sometimes the items are just fun to draw, and they might present their own challenges. This small hand mirror happened to be reflecting another mirror on the wall - which was reflecting my movable lamp. Kinda neat. Of course, I originally intended to do this as a pen sketch only, then when I added the watercolor quickly realized I used the wrong sketchbook paper, hence the wrinkles. Let's just pretend they add character to the image.

Orange-you glad?

Time for another fruit portrait, or as most call it, a "still life" (5 1/2 x 8"). I had a surprisingly hard time getting the orange color to my liking, even with all my watercolors, water-soluble pencils and w-s crayons at my disposal. If I skewed the colors just slightly more red, you'd believe I drew a tomato. But it's an orange, I swear! The cloth napkin does make a simple set up like this more challenging to draw - I can see why some artists pursue drapery as its own subject. But I'm not there yet... I prefer to have the fruit itself as the subject.

Details in a Jiffy

Practicing my quick travel journal sketching process for this 20 minute sketch here, and with the help of a good photograph, pretending I am in Florence, Italy (instead of cold upstate New York). Watercolor and water soluble pencil, 5 1/2" x 8". I used a large mop brush to put a very quick sky wash in the background, then went in with a pink pencil to add some detail. Color is fun used in surprising ways once in a while, so a smaller brush worked for the teal and purple details. If this was in my travel journal, I would add my text above the building, something like: "We're having a wonderful time in Florence. Continually impressed by the things I have only seen in art history textbooks before. Can one ever get tired of good art, architecture, and design?"

Finished Mural

This blog has been primarily a showcase for my small 20 minute sketches, but I really enjoy doing larger finished art pieces when I can fit them in. The house portraits I posted a short while ago are one example, and here is another - the finished mural I did for our church. It is located in the Children's worship room, and measures approximately 8 feet horizontal, painted with a combination of household interior latex and artist acrylic paint.

 detail views of the shepherd and the sheep

Obviously, its theme is "The Good Shepherd," and it also incorporates the other elements common to many of the children's Bible stories such as the sea, the desert, and the rocks. In comparison to my quick sketches, this mural took about 9 hours to complete.