A 365 day art project… one drawing a day
My back steps seem to like the natural look. And… Virginia Creeper is hardy.) I like sketching without a pencil because you just have to live with proportional imbalances, and see them as part of the beauty of your work. Or something.
Ok, look how cool the green paint at the bottom acted… it just GREW ITSELF into tall grasses! I think a tiny yellow treehouse next…? [ I have “commissions” for four separate people waiting to be started… why don’t I work on THOSE?? (I think I’m afraid of disappointing myself or the people who asked for them…) ] Read on only if you want info on the colors I used. 🙂
I’m using Qor paints, and also these Daniel Smith watercolors… I love all three of these colors, particularly the Undersea Green. Mixed with just a touch of Daniel Smith’s sap green it is really extraordinary in my opinion, and I love it in those trees. The Undersea Green with just the tiniest touch of Qor Manganese Blue (which I purchased at Jerry’s Artarama in town nearby, because I couldn’t find it on Amazon :), makes the blooming grassy area in this treehouse… I turned the paper upside down and let gravity help. (a little hint… painting on an easel makes a big difference!) And the sky is the Qor Manganese Blue.
The Qor colors bleed and develop into the most interesting patterns.  They are really REALLY fun to use… if you haven’t tried them yet, consider starting with the  Qor High Chroma watercolor set , the colors are fabulous, and the purple in it is what I have enjoyed using in the trees so often. The pink, too, actually. The Green Gold is what I have been starting most of my trees with, adding dots of yellow and blue and even the purple. I watched a video recently suggesting letting colors blend on the page more often than mixing in a palette, and it does give satisfying results. The reddish brown of the tree and chimney are Daniel Smith’s Transparent Red Oxide, which I am enjoying very much, but is quite similar to other colors I already had. (Including the Transparent Pyrrole Orange which comes in the High Chroma set, I think.) The yellow is Daniel Smith Naples Yellow… which I haven’t quite decided about. I think I like it? The Qor and the Daniel Smith Naples Yellow are slightly different colors and I haven’t compared them much yet.
Begun while waiting at an airport, inked at home, and will be finished tomorrow!
Ok not NOTHING, but I only sketched a treehouse out, and I want to paint it before I post it. Sooo…. I will post something I did last year, way before I started my project to do something artistic each day. If I recall, I was copying wood cuts for these. So not an original idea and not technically part of my 365 project, but I’ll post today’s project tomorrow.
Baby eyes. Pencil on watercolor paper.
Tried it three times. It DID go from worse to better, but still stinks. I like the third try pretty well, though. I’m happy with what I learned from the attempts.
Trying a quick sketch of ellis and mommy. They don’t look like this. But at least you can see it was a happy moment. I’ve tried it twice and will try a third time, later.
Tried a masking fluid pen with good results.
Can it already be day 200??? (Have I counted correctly? Several times I’ve found and corrected mistakes in my count. We’ll know around December 31st, I guess!)
Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle pencils. These JUST arrived today and I am loving them already. Here’s what the packaging says …”not a watercolor pencil, it is a water-soluble in pencil form….100% water soluble, immediately and totally. Optimal transparency with no veiled effect. range of 76 brilliant and vibrant colors. Exceptional colour lightfastness applied wet or dry…high pigment density.”
How did I not know about these????
They are so smooth and creamy. Amazing. And absolutely brilliant when water is applied. I received 2 pencils in my “artsnacks” package last month, tried them and fell in love. I agonized over which set to order (they aren’t cheap) and settled on Landscape (thrilled with the set so far) I imagine Marine is in my future… one day… maybe… 🙂 I don’t even know what to say about these. I hope I can find exciting ways to use them.
Using watercolor paper, here’s my sketch… it could look less grainy with flat paper…
After applying just a layer of water over the whole thing:
Not thrilled that I’d lost a bit of lighter colored area I had left on the top of the apple, I tried pulling some color up by erasing… perfect! It removed just the right amount. I’ve read that I can also rewet it and lift color just like watercolor paint.
How cool is that???
You could even create a little travel paint set for a quick day out by scribbling colors on a flat page (they write on a plastic folder I have sitting here, so strips of an inexpensive plastic report cover set inside a small tin or even an envelope) then using a few drops of water to activate them and use like regular watercolor.
This is too fun.
ThreeSixFiveArt 