A 365 day art project… one drawing a day
I saw these beautiful tulips yesterday at a big annual yard sale we attend each year in historic Hilton Village:
And came up with this little sketch based loosely on them:
A few things I don’t like much about this, but I still love the way the QoR paints inspire play, and the lovely granulation coming from the tiny addition of EEM’s ‘Tia’. (See my previous several posts for more about Eventually, Everything Mixes watercolor paints.)
Today I used a couple of QoR colors with the handmade EEM paints. I love the combination of dispersion and granulation…
Ohhh, that lovely QoR dispersion… this brown was just the tiniest dot of color added on top of the wet EEM paint, ‘Tia’.
Look at this intense granulation, from the little dabs of ‘Tia’ dropped in here and there.
Yum.
A quick sketch using the same four “Eventually, Everything Mixes” (EEM) watercolor paints, in my 5″x5″ khadi watercolor journal.
There’s no excuse not to paint everyday, when in five or ten minutes SOMETHING can be done. And every little bit of practice teaches me something.
“Eventually, Everything Mixes” (EEM) is a site with unique handmade paints.I visited the site in search of some extremely granulating colors I saw reviewed on Youtube, but they had sold out by the time I saw the review. (IMPORTANT: I hope you make more, EEM!!!) There were two paints left, Burnt Sienna and Mais, which I purchased. Included in my package were two generous sample dots of copper blue and tia, beautiful coordinating blues (on the green side). Tia is one of the AMAZING granulating paints I want… it is gorgeous. I love the copper blue, too! The full (sized) pans arrived from Germany looking very full indeed and professional executed, along with some German sweets, and 2 large swatched cards of the two purchased colors. In a fancy little box, too. 🙂
Once more colors are up, (if it coincides with the money in my bank account being up!), I hope to be able to purchase many more colors. Very nice. The paints rewet easily and are bold and vivid, without noticeable color shift upon drying. And even with shipping they were reasonably priced, for so much paint.
My quick sketch:
So, SERIOUSLY, April 9th was my last post??? Good grief. No wonder I’ve been feeling stressed. I did some playing around with paint late last week, which I didn’t post, but this week I’ve done NOTHING, and been irritated with myself for it. I want to say I’ve been working too much. And I HAVE. But honestly I have also binge watched the new Lost in Space Netflix series so… yeah. Choices. And moderation. I do poorly with either.
Yesterday I completed an outfit for the paper doll I drew last month for a children’s event at Chick-fil-A. We are having a beekeeper come in tomorrow to talk with the kids about, well, BEES, and keeping them. Among other things. So The Cow now has a lovely beekeeper’s suit. Woo-hoo! Not exactly fine art, but really fun to draw anyway.
Remember this Cow paper doll?
Now he (??) has a St Patrick’s Day outfit and a beekeeper’s suit. We may need to develop the wardrobe a bit. I’m thinking a dress for Mother’s Day and a suit for Father’s Day. After all… a cow is obviously a She. Yet we often refer to this one as a He. And the kids can dress him/her however they like, and pretend it is male or female or neither or both…. Ooooh, I think I’ll make some superhero cow clothes as well!!! (Hey maybe that’s what I’ll make for Mother’s Day…) Wonder Woman for Mother’s Day and Superman for Father’s Day??
Well. That pretty much says it all. Except… QoR watercolors, on my LAST piece of Winsor & Newton cotton watercolor paper. I hate using up the last of anything.
My tape tore the bottom of the paper off… even though I first put it on my shirt to make it less adhesive! I may need to find different painter’s tape.
This was just a quick fun low-pressure scene. I added little flowers with a white gel pen and with “fluorescent chartreuse Golden High Flow Acrylics” (only because both were right there on my desk and readily accessible!) Not much to it, but fun to do!
So I made this from a fun paper bag:
…adding space for a chatty letter, two ATC’s (as yet uncreated), and another pocket or two for flat goodies. Mail like this is always so surprising and fun to receive! THEN I realized it would be too small to mail, not being five inches long, so I found an old Graze box (healthy snacks I used to get in the mail) and made a folder out of that, and sewed the letter in.
I added a little stenciling design (and also learned the spectrum illustrator markers I thought I liked are NOT quality… note the brush tip)
And last I glued in a fortune I love, and a couple of cut outs, and a sticker from an old art snacks box.
Hopefully whoever receives this will smile when they open it!
Some people participate in a letter-a-day-challenge. I intended to, but then forgot about it so missed the first week and am unprepared. Still, I thought I’d prep some fun lettersets so I’ll be all ready to write a few letters whatever day I am in the mood…
These are actually coloring book pages, so don’t be impressed by my artistic endeavors. I colored. And cut, and sewed. (I love sewing paper!)
Even if you don’t want to invest this much thought into creating a letterset… grab a sheet of paper and get writing. A real snail mail letter, that isn’t a bill or an advertisement, means so much to people. You could really brighten someone’s day. (Don’t remember chatty snail mail?? Yeah, it’s a dying art… pretend it’s a text message or e-mail… it will all come back to you once you pick up the pencil, I promise!)
Who will receive letters from you this month??
(For some reason this post was in the draft section of my blog, unpublished! So I’m posting it now, 6 weeks later)
My first attempt at “urban sketching”. It was so much harder for me to do on site than I expected! AND these ladies were much cuter in person.
Look how adorable this tiny little watercolor journal is. It has a nice leather-ish cover, a ribbon bookmark, an elastic band that holds it shut, and even a long fold out panoramic page in back.
This is the link to this 4″x4″ watercolor journal by Field Artist…
It is so nice, really heavy paper, under $15. ($12.99 right now) There’s a 5″x5″ one as well HERE, for $1 more, if the first is too small for you (The 4″ is VERY tiny… but also very portable!) And then this 4″x6.5″ watercolor journal from the same company… Right now it’s $14.95, and I do love this shape and size. Very useful. All of these are nice travel books. (although honestly I don’t take them anywhere often, I love working in them here and having them available IN CASE I want to go OUT and paint. 🙂
AND all of them will fit right inside the front pocket of the tiny purse I’m using as a travel art bag. (individually, I mean) … (The purse is a cute mini crossbody made by Vera Bradley, something from years ago that I really never got into. It is PERFECT)
Go paint something!
ThreeSixFiveArt 