ALMOST THE END OF APRIL

Holding On


A windy day crow.  Almost the end of April.  Sorry, I missed yesterday but having migraines and, probably, allergic reactions (sinus headaches and pain) to all the pollen right now.  It is crazy!!!


At least one more to come to finish the month off, then I'll get the information together on all the paintings.  Then you can choose your favorite (which will be your entry into the give-away for May of one painting - hopefully, you'll win your favorite!).  

CAPTURED THE MOON

Captured the Moon





We're getting towards the end of April and the Crow Challenge for myself will be over. 

Then I'll repost all of the paintings with information about size, what paper they are on, etc.  Then we can have a give-away based on who wants one and wants to enter the give-away (I guess I'll do a random number drawing to see who wins and there will be more than 1 winner).  I'll send out the rules when all the crows are done :)  

CROWS HUNTING EASTER EGGS

Well, it was Easter and I was thinking about Easter bunnies and chocolate eggs - so I wondered if crow families hunt Easter eggs in the field?  


This one is on 7 x 10 inches Arches 140# rough paper.  And calling it

Found One!

SING OUT

On Stonehenge Aqua hotpress 140# paper






Sing out, Sister!

STILL PAINTING CROWS? YEP!

Painted on Stonehenge Aqua 140# hotpress paper.  Watercolor, fluid acrylic, playing.



The High Wire Act 

SHE SELLS

A sea shell drawn to practice observational skills.  


I had a set of calipers at one time, but can't find them anywhere to help me measure.  But not too bad on this one - a bit here and there until I build up more shape and shadow.  A fine natural illustration artist could make this seem like 2 shells sitting there on the paper, but I'm not there yet.

DRAWING

As part of the Natural History Illustrator's Course online I'm taking, I am trying to get out the graphite pencils and paper and draw more.  But also to make myself slow down, take my time, and do a little at a time (if I go too long or do too much, I just ruin it and stop looking while just making marks).  So...here's a beginning of a crow's talon/foot.  I want to try to get it right but I swear I want to just put it aside and paint something like it instead!  I must have been hiding behind the door when they handed out patience!

The paper is a dull warm white so it does look like this and I'll continue to share as I struggle along - if you can bear it!  This is just the first and second step, and you can see how messy I am when using graphite or charcoal (I get it all over my hand, arm, and the paper - I should put something down over the paper but never remember to do that).  

Oh, well.  I know I don't have the determination to put down all that leathery bit under the  talons but might hint at a few...
  

NO. 7 WITH NO. 6?

On Stonehenge Aqua 140# hotpress paper (I like that stuff!).  Drew the main crow, then did the stamp of the crow (I carved this myself a few year's back) using fluid acrylic.  Next = splattered with misket and watercolor all over (covered the stamped crow before doing that).

Now...where to go with this one?

NUMBER 6

Stamp, fluid acrylic on Stonehenge Aqua 140# hotpress.  This is going to be part of a larger painting - but I'll show you that other part soon.


I signed up for an online drawing course through a university in Newcastle, Australia - it's called Natural History Illustration and goes into observational drawing (which means slowing down, taking time, looking a lot and measuring, etc.).  I'm not taking it for a grade or certificate (so it's free!) but I will try to follow along (weekly lessons with videos and information). Not sure I have the patience for it, but it won't hurt to try to slow down and look more than draw (or paint). I got turned on to the course from Painted Thoughts Blog by Laure Ferlita and she talks about it here on her blog.  (Thanks, Laure!).

CROW NO. 5

Crow No. 5 on a scrap of Arches 140# rough (?) I think.  It doesn't seem to be coldpress and definitely not hotpress.


Fluid acrylic, stamp, and watercolor.




Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

CROW NO. 4 - ON ARCHES 140# ROUGH

Painted on Arches 140# rough, 7 x 10, using Daniel Smith Shadow Violet and a touch of red (the background stones were done using a new stencil and with black ink). 




Crow No. 4

ON YUPO - CROW NO. 3

As you can see, I got bored with just painting a crow and decided to add the feather stencil and then play with texture in the background just pressing things into the still-wet watercolor there.  What do you think?  


The third crow of April, also on Yupo.  

ON YUPO - CROW NO. 2

This crow is saying, 
What is that thing in the sky??

Oh, yeah, it's the sun.  It's been a while since we've seen much of it here in Kentucky so she's a bit confused.




Second crow of April - on Yupo.  I won't paint them all on Yupo but thought I'd start that way and see where it goes.  I will also do some on my hotpress paper, and maybe even rough Arches.  Or a print, or...so maybe days in April and so many ways to go with the crows.

ON YUPO - CROW NO. 1

Painted on my new Yupo paper pad of papers.  The first crow of April :)




When I first began taking watercolor lessons from Sandy Maudlin in Indiana, we painted on nothing but Yupo paper.  I didn't learn until weeks later (we met once a week) that others painted on watercolor paper! ha ha  She had a lot of grumbling in that class because some people just didn't like the way watercolor and Yupo worked, but I took to it easily and found it fun.  We finally started painting on just watercolor paper, and I didn't return to Yupo for a long time.  But a nice new pad of the "paper" came in the mail, so I thought I'd play a bit and what better way to play than with crows.

Look for more coming this month!  

A MONTH OF CROWS

Going to use my new art supplies and do a month of crows.  
So beginning in April, we'll see how it goes!

One crow for sorrow,
Two crows for joy,
Three crows for a girl,
Four crows for a boy.
Five crows for silver,
Six crows for gold,
Seven crows for a secret never to be told.


How many will I do and what will the secret be?  
Perhaps a give-away to you from me?

STRANGER THINGS

Well, it seems I can't post to some blogs - if I'm using my iPad.  But I can post to those blogs if I'm on the desktop.  So it's a blogger/iPad problem (probably a Safari/Chrome problem).  

 I'll just have to get more time on the desktop (although that's Sweetie's area and I have to wait until he's doing something else - like watching basketball!! - to get on for a while). 

ART SUPPLIES - MISSING MUSE

April is going to be fun - I've picked up a few more playthings for my muse (hope she returns in April or I may just have to go on without her!).

EASTER

Watercolor on all media art paper with a tiny bit of collage.





Calling this one 
Easter.

ACRYLIC AND COLLAGE REVISED

Another one - revised.  On all media art paper using acrylics and collage.  

LAST REVISION

The last revision of the acrylic and collage on all media paper.  

SPRING ABSTRACTION INTO BITS

Abstracted painting cut into pieces, then laid side-by-side to create something else entirely.  I could glue it all to a support but I just pinned all the pieces to the cork board in my little art room.  May use some of the pieces for something later.  

BLUE BIRD

Blue bird waiting for spring.




Painted on Stonehenge Aqua hotpress 140# paper.  

MIXED MEDIA PAPER AND WATERCOLOR

Wet and windy day...

ANOTHER ACRYLIC PAINT AND COLLAGE

Acrylic painting, then collage on top (cut from a pretty paper napkin), some Japanese art paper (dyed) added and finished with dark graphite stick (water soluble).  

HAPPY PI DAY!

PAINT AND COLLAGE

Acrylic painting, then collage pieces added (from magazine and the Japanese art paper I dyed with watercolor).  Then finished with some dark water soluble graphite stick. 

Still going into my little art room and just pulling out bits and pieces and doing...whatever. 

MIXED MEDIA PAPER

Watercolor on mixed media paper (not sure what brand).  The paper is a bit slick but not like Yupo - the paint doesn't sink into the paper.  Just flinging paint around with no plan when I go into my little art room.



Weeping Willow

IS IT BLOGGER OR ME?

I have had some issues with posting on friends’ art blogs recently - namely, Lisa, Bruce, Jennifer Rose and Myrna.  I post my comments and hit the send...and it just sits there OR I get through the send part and I have to pick the bus, the traffic light, the crosswalk in a set of photos OVER and OVER and OVER.  Don’t know what the deal is but just know that I do see what you’re doing, dear art friends, and I do want to comment but blogger is giving me fits.  And it’s not all blogs, just some, so what is that about?

Oh, well, just saying hello and loving your recent stuff Lisa and Myrna.  And saying hello I’m still reading your posts Bruce and Jennifer.

Have a good weekend - we Spring Forward here so everyone’s complaining already about losing an hour of sleep this weekend.  Well, guess it’s better than complaining about the state of U.S. politics!

JAPANESE ART PAPERS

A friend of mine (thanks, Jane W!) gave me some Japanese art papers she purchased and couldn't use (she's a colored pencil artist and these papers are too thin and porous for that).  So I have 3 rolls of interesting paper.  I've used them for batik in the past but don't do that anymore so...just decided to dye a few sheets using watercolor.  

Not sure what the papers are called - there are so many names of the art papers.  These first 2 have fine little bits included and the last 2 have larger threads.


I will probably use them in collage work at some time.  

Right now, I'm not really painting.  I think it's the usual winter blues that's got me down.  Not feeling very creative so burying myself in books for a while.  


I did order some new supplies from Cheap Joe and that may perk me up when they come in.

Sweetie likes this last one the best (this one is made by pouring acrylic ink from a pour bottle).  Sweetie says this reminds him of ice frozen on a window :)  If ice on a window was this colorful, I might not have the winter blues!




I hope you are all feeling well, healthy, and thinking about spring.  We're having snow again - Mother Nature doesn't know (or doesn't care) that it's almost spring.  Until then...stay warm and safe.

STONEHENGE

On the Stonehenge Aqua hotpress paper.  Just an imaginary thing.  Not crazy about it (looks too childish), but sometimes it's okay to just get paint on paper.

7 x 10 ROUGH BUT NOT A BIRD

Still playing in my 7 x 10 Arches 140# rough block and my Stonehenge Aqua 140# hotpress block.  


This one is in the 7 x 10 - but not a bird.  Just an imaginary landscape of sea and sky and grasslands.




I know Jennifer hates the pushpins in the edges but I'm no longer pushing them through the paper, just letting them touch the edges to hold it on the corkboard so I can photograph the paintings when they are done :)  

WELLNESS

Well, it's migraine season again for me.  So I'll be off painting for a while.  Just trying to get myself well.  Seems like this happens every spring but it's early for spring here with cold weather and snow flurries still happening daily.  So...I'll return when I'm feeling better for more than 1/2 day at a time.

MERMAID SONG

Mermaid, full length, not just the tail.






I used to love the Shel Silverstein mermaid song:

When I was a lad in a fishing town, an old man said to me
You can spend your life, your whole damn life, fishing in the sea
You can search the world for pretty girls til your eyes are weak and dim
But don't go swimming with a mermaid, son, if you don't know how to swim.

Cause her hair is green as seaweed
and her skin is smooth and pale
and her face it is a work of art
and you'll love that girl with all your heart
but you'll only love the upper part
you're not gonna like the tail. 

7 x 10 ROUGH SERIES

A white pelican from Florida.  
Backlit and shadowed.

SWIMMING ALONG

This one is on Stonehenge Aqua hotpress paper with watercolor.  Added a bit of silver and gold acrylic pen marks to make the scales and outline some areas.  The words are in silver acrylic pen. 


Time to get back to the 7 x 10 Series of birds...

RAIN OFF A MERMAID'S BACK?

With the words added.  Hard to see in the photo, but it says

Just keep swimming!


(I softened out the tailfin.)  This is on Stonehenge Aqua hotpress paper (I'm liking it more, the more I use it.)


And we can use that tagline now because we are having rain rain rain and more rain.  The Ohio River is at flood stage and overflowing streets in Newport and Bellevue on the Kentucky side.  

And more rain predicted this week.


So, keep your head above water (unless you're a mermaid) and more mermaids and birds to come...

UNDER THE SEA

Just another mermaid.

STONEHENGE AQUA HOTPRESS PAPER: MERMAID IN DISGUISE

Walking on the beach on Anna Maria Island, I saw this slender girl in white with bright red (mermaid) hair.  Had to snap a photo and then try to capture her.  Her shadow shows some of her "real" shape she's hiding by walking among us.

A real mermaid?  Or just my imagination?  

7 x 10 ROUGH SERIES: HUMMINGBIRD

Back to the 7 x 10 Rough series of birds in between other things. 

I enjoy switching back and forth between the rough paper and the hotpress paper.

This little hummingbird is from a photo Sweetie took from his trip to Costa Rica last year.

FLUID ACRYLICS ON GESSO BOARD: MERMAID

I thought I'd paint a mermaid on the gessobord I have in my art stash.  I like some things about it, but not all things about it so...

although I was going to glue the scrabble tiles down on the mermaid painting and call it finished, it just wasn't good enough for me to use the only scrabble tiles I have so...

it doesn't look like this because the tiles are just sitting on top of the painting.





Instead, it looks like the last painting and I'll do another on gessobord (I have 2 larger ones I'll try), and hope to be more pleased with the outcome.

The finished piece has some good sections (the blue looks fishy because I made a scale pattern in it: while the paint was wet, I dabbed with a textured paper towel and got the scaled look and the merge from golden to blue created a nice green at the base of the tail before the fins).


The writing was done with a gold acrylic marker.


I'll let this sit for a while and if I really don't like it, I can cover over it because it's gessobord for use with oils and acrylics.  I have a lot of fluid acrylics and regular acrylics I hardly ever use but this seemed like a good time to try them out - I obviously need more practice with the medium.

I should be outside because we are having a heat wave here after our Polar Vortex.

MANGROVES IN AUTUMN COLORS

The bright colors of the mangrove leaves are always interesting and tempting to paint.  I started this one on my hotpress to get the colors to bleed and run and mingle.  

(Not sure why the background looks violet because it's not - it's white paper:  Stonehenge Aqua hotpress paper, 10 x 14, 140#.)

SCRABBLE TILES, ANYONE?

First, another mermaid tail.  "Just Keep Swimming" is my own saying, and I put them on all my mermaid tail paintings.



This mermaid tail was painted using a photo from the Newport Aquarium mermaid visitors we had last year (the mermaids visit every year at the Newport Aquarium and you can get some good shots of them coming into the tank, leaving it, and swimming around.  It's pretty cool if you like mermaids - which I do.

And what does Scrabble tiles have to do with this?  Well, when we were in Anna Maria at a flea market, we saw vendors with loose Scrabble tiles for sale.  Then saw that they glued them to the little Scrabble boards to spell out Anna Maria or AMI or Beach Days, etc.  Cute idea.  But it gave me another idea - one I haven't seen.  Stay tuned and you'll get to see it soon.  I bought a few of the tiles and I'll show you how I'm going to use them.

I had a birthday day this month and got a lot of really great presents, too.  So happy to have my Sweetie, who treats me like my birthday is some kind of national holiday - only better!!  And family who knows I am happiest with books and art supplies (or gift cards for the same).  So another January, another New Year, another Birthday...here we go, 2019!!!

7 x 10 ROUGH SERIES - BIRDS

These white ibises have such long, curvy beaks.  Interesting creatures who can be found by the water or in a field, they aren't choosy about their food, it seems. 


My photo reference was taken in a field but I put these two in the sand by the sea because an artist can change their surroundings however they want to do so! 

7 x 10 ROUGH SERIES

Back (for a while?) to the 7 x 10 Rough series of birds.  This one is a great blue heron.  Got his neck a bit thick (perhaps he's been working out??).

ONE MORE TURTLE AND THEN...

This was done on a scrap of the 7 x 10 rough paper.  Just a little bookmark size painting of a turtle.  They have turtles come up on the beaches to lay eggs on Anna Maria Island, but only during the season of May - October.  

And then it's time for mermaids :)