Watercolor Landscape

"Watercolor Landscape" 6" x 8" sketchbook, watercolor paints 5-23-2015

Just messing around with the paints, an imaginative landscape with a sunset sky. The dark green tree in the foreground was much darker in the wet, but dried lighter.

Puget Sound

5" x 8" gray toned paper, watercolor paints. August 3, 2013

I painted this on gray paper, it is very monochromatic, so it was a challenge to get the subtle contrast and color changes. I kept adding more and more pigment in layers to get the darker colors, and I am surprised the white paint showed up so well. When I used the white, it just looked like wet paper, no white, until it dried. I did not paint the sky at all, the gray fit the mood, and lots of times, that is the color of the overcast sky. I used a magazine photo for inspiration.

Bird in Tree

8" x 10" double journal page, B & S watercolor paints. March 16, 2013. A practice landscape from my imagination, using the Binney & Smith watercolor set. I tried to get good variety of dark green on the pine trees, and do something with the foreground, It is ok for just playing around.

Garden Cherub

5" x 8" journal page, pencil sketch, watercolor paints, Pigma pen. Dec 27, 2012.

Drawn and painted from my original photograph, wandering the neighborhood on my morning walks. He was just tucked back in the shrubs, peaking out at me.

Practice Trees

5" x 8" journal page, watercolor paints. Oct. 2012.

Just Practicing more trees, on the left side of the page.

Goose Crossing

Every Day Matters #86 - Draw a traffic sign. 8" x 10" double journal page. Pencil sketch, watercolor paints, Pigma pen. Oct. 27, 2012.

I have photos of the signs, at the South Jetty at Bandon, Oregon, there is a little pond on the left, and housing on the right. I think the people feed the ducks and geese in their yards. There are lots of seagulls also. This was kind of bland before the ink, it perked it up a lot and added detail.

End of the Road

Double Journal page, 8" x 10" watercolor paints, Oct. 16, 2012.

I started out, just practicing making more background trees and the sky, as I added more and more trees, I thought I needed to make a finished piece. The foreground took a lot of thought! What to do, this did not start as a finished scene, so making up the rest was difficult.

Practice Trees

Journal page, 6" x 8" watercolor paints. Oct. 7, 2012.

I am practicing the trees, in the background of "Skies, Light and Atmosphere, in watercolor" by David Bellamy. I need to improve my foreground, my tree shapes, and colors. I like the faint conifers in the background, I realized they were not green, but blue gray faded into the distance. The closer ones can be dark green. A few bare branches, and a scene with background trees, individual trees, and meadow and grasses. It is just a small part of the page, I'm amazed I got so much detail in the bottom half of the page. I really like the way it all turned out.

Sky V, Moon

5" x 7" watercolor paper, watercolor paints, masking fluid, white gel pen. Oct. 5, 2012

I used masking fluid on the moon and tree. That helped me make a smooth dark sky around the moon. I went back and added a wash to the moon and the color to the tree. I did not get enough contrast on the trees, as it all blended together wet. But I really like the mood.

Sky III & IV

Both, watercolor paper, watercolor paints, 5" x 7" and 6" x 8" Oct. 3 & 4, 2012.

From my imagination, watercolor paints, I'm not sure how good a job the scanner did with the lighter one, it was very subtle. I tried to increase the contrast in photoshop. These are fun to do, I'll try to get more interesting foregrounds.

Sky I & II

Both, watercolor paper, 5" x 7" no sketch, watercolor paint. Oct. 1 & 2, 2012.

I got a new book called "Skies, Light & Atmosphere, in watercolor" by David Bellamy. It is a wonderful intro to painting skies, clouds, shadows and backgrounds. My first few came out good, but don't quiet know what to do with the foreground yet. It is all wet on wet. The scanner is not picking up the subtle colors very well. I think anything goes as far as skies, it is mostly from your imagination, unless you really want to try to reproduce a photo, or are on location. I was just trying for different lighting.

Ben Irving Reservoir

Every Day Matters Challenge #15 - Draw a tree, branches or leaves. 2 Journal pages 8" x 10" pencil sketch, collaged into journal, watercolor paints on sketch and background page, Pigma pen. Sept. 3, 2012

We went to Ben Irving Reservoir on Labor Day, almost no one was there, so not much to sketch. I did the picnic table, then some trees and the trees across the water on a full sheet of paper. I hated most of it it was all scribbled, but I did detail a dead tree and the one next to it. So I decided to cut it up and just use the good parts, so I decided to collage it into my NEW Artists Loft brand Journal(Michael's House Brand.) I put it on a 2 page spread and did some watercolor painting on the background, so the white cut outs would show up. I even added blue to frame the pieces of paper. I added watercolor to sections of the sketches, just to highlight some of it. So it is my first collage, my first two page spread and my first use of my new journal.

Sewing Room View

Every Day Matters Challenge #18 - Draw the view from your house or apartment. 8-31-2012 6" x 8" drawing paper, pencil sketch, watercolor paints, Pigma pen, white gel pen.

"I was going to draw this with a window frame, but I like the grid better. There are two distinct areas of my garden, and they weren't fitting in the window view. I like the balance and the tree tying the areas together. The painted white trellis was hard to do, I had to put in a background wash, and go over and over again with the white gel pen. The grids let me label the plants, which I would not have done on a landscape view. I love watching the birds in the feeder and bath, we have sparrows, finches, blue jays and squirrels. The deer nibbled the aster last night and I think they are drinking from the bird bath. The area is drying up before the fall rains, there are a lot more deer, down in the neighborhoods."

Bullock's Bridge, Tyee, Oregon

Every Day Matters Challenge # 83 - Draw a near by body of water, ocean, lake, pond or river. 5" x 7" watercolor pad. Colored pencil, watercolor pencil. Aug. 19, 2012.

"Bullock's Bridge as seen from Tyee landing restaurant deck. A beautiful day, 70' sunny, cool breeze, watching kids and dogs swimming in the Umpqua River. Fish and Chips and Chas had a BLT, extra ice tea, only place on the river from the coast to Crater Lake. The only colored pencil I had that was sharp enough to draw with, was the blue one. I really need to carry a regular pencil and a sharpener. I added a wash of light blue and green watercolor pencil, wet with a Q-tip, when I got home"

Autumn Trees

5.5" x 8" brown craft paper, watercolor paints, Pigma pen, July 18, 2012

I was just playing with the watercolor paints, spreading brown and orange paint on brown craft paper, trying to be abstract, and create washes of color. I put a few printed circles of orange on, because the monthly challenge for sketchbook challenge was "Circles." Then I remembered, that I thought it looked like trees on the right with vertical streaks in it, and the autumn colors on the left could also work into trees. So I started to free hand sketch some trees, foliage, ground details, until I had a workable landscape going, it was completely unplanned. I used Pigma pens to ink the drawing, out of my imagination.