3 office girls

 Watercolours

Sketchbook entries.  All small, around 4 by 6 ins.  Using Japanese watercolours to get back into watercolours this week.

Have a good weekend!!

Watercolour sketch of Toby.

 graphite and watercolours.

'My yorkie dog, Toby'.  Watercolours, sketchbook page.

Playing with watercolour in a sketchbook this week.

This is a pose of my little dog Toby...now RIP.  He was a timid,  but loving,  little dog.  I miss him a lot!

Have a good week.

Bye for now!!

Meerkat on the manor.

Watercolour painting, mixed media journal pages.

 'Meerkat on the manor,' watercolours, 7,5 by 11 ins., paper

'Daily sketching,' journal page spread.

'Sisters', journal page spread.

1. Meerkat watercolour

A quick watercolour sketch of a meerkat on look-out in the Kalahari desert, inspired by 3 meerkat experiences I guess. 

1. Watching meerkat manor on TV; 

2. looking at meerkats in the zoo; 

3. Drawing meerkats for inktober last year.

As you can see, I am continuing with the abstract colour method for my watercolours these days.

As I practise with this method, hopefully it will improve, or maybe I will abandon it.  Who knows?

2 and 3. journal spreads

Mixed media, with collage and also Poscas in there.  

So nothing too finished in nature!!

The weather is improving, so it would be good to take a walk to the park at the weekend.  I think the restrictions on going out are being eased soon.

Bye for now.

Dog: study in watercolour.

Watercolours.

'Sam', my yorkie, now RIP. Watercolours, about 8 by 11 ins., paper.

It was International day of the dog on 26 August.  I painted this small study of my old dog 'Sam' for the event.

If you read my last post, you will know watercolour is not my favourite medium....mainly due to frustration in using it,  But I was quite pleased with the way this one turned out.  I used Bockingford 140lb NOT paper, and discovered it stood up well to rubbing out mistakes with clean water and brush.  Always a good thing to know about watercolour paper.

I also discovered that my preferred method is to do a light sketch on the paper beforehand in order to have guidelines for the washes.  I have tried painting without the structure of a line drawing but I find that whilst the wash approach is good for loose expressive art, its not so good for achieving a specific likeness...for me at any rate!!  Maybe I just need more practice.

Having said all that, it will be good to get into the collage and acrylic paint next week!!

Hope you have a nice weekend.

From me and Susie!!

A visit to 'Drawn of the dead' exhibition in Shrewsbury.

First a little watercolour study of an aquilegia (columbine) from my garden.

 'Aquilegia', watercolour, sketchbook.

 A visit to the 'zombie' exhibition in Shrewsbury Museum, Shropshire.

Although I only have a small watercolour to show this week; I do have a couple of other art projects at various stages of development, which I'll show later.

The 'Drawn of the dead' exhibition (photo 2) displayed the artwork of Charlie Adlard, an artist from Shropshire.  The illustrations were for a comic book ...'The Walking Dead'...now a successful horror/sci-fi TV show, which I've never personally watched; I'm not really into zombie dramas...but I may have a quick look now that I've been to the exhibition.

I had a great time in Shrewsbury, which has streets and buildings which seem straight out of Harry Potter.

Bye for now.

Continuing with tiger theme: sketchbook study.

Tiger in watercolours.

Watercolour sketch, art journal.

 Easter from St Peter's church, Wolves.

Art programme, painting by Cezanne.

Happy Susie.  She got the swivvel chair first!

Photo1

I did a watercolour study of one of my tiger photos from last week.  I'm hoping to eventually do a painting of a tiger for the wall from these journal studies.

Photo 2

Here is the main church of St Peter's in Wolverhampton.  The gardens were getting spruced up for Easter when I was in town on Monday. 

Photo 3

I visited the art gallery to see an exhibition of landscapes by pre-Raphaelite painters, such as Seddon and Hunt. And some French impressionist landscapes by Cezanne and Pisarro.  I loved the paintings...the English ones were very detailed and the French ones were so full of sunlight. I felt inspired to paint some landscapes sometime soon.  (No photography allowed, so I am posting the events leaflet).

Photo 4

Susie resting before Easter!

Have a lovely Easter!

Bye for now.

P.S.   Here's the link to PPF

paintpartyfriday

Red panda watercolours.

Watercolour sketch.

'Red panda eating bamboo leaves', watercolours, around 12 by 16 ins, paper.

An attempt at capturing a red panda in watercolour.  

I love watercolour paintings by other artists.  but I find them rather demanding to use. 

Unlike acrylics, where you can just paint over until you get an effect you like, with pure watercolour, I have to really think about what I'm doing, and even then it often turns out to be not what I wanted!  Probably, I need to use them more,  practise more.

However, I'm quite pleased with this watercolour as it turned out to look a bit like a panda.  I think I'll practise painting some more red pandas in watercolours soon.

Are you getting ready for the Christmas holiday next week?

I hope you have a relaxing weekend before Christmas day.

Best wishes,

June.


Link to PPF

paintpartyfriday

Kitty, watercolour practice.

Some watercolour daubs.

'Kitty', watercolours, sketchbook.

 A little practice doing watercolour with no under-drawing.

Not much ...but it is a little something at any rate.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.  And,   I hope the sun shines....now that it is the month of June!!  Isn't that summer?

Bye for now...

Journal pages.

A couple of journal pages. 

 'The magic of balance', art journal.

'Meerkat sentry', watercolour sketchbook.

1. I enjoyed the process of making the art journal page at the top.. this was for the FrancePapillon art journal group on facebook...the prompt being 'Balance'....where you have to do the page one layer per day over a 7 day period. 

I find this layer a day approach gives me time to think about the topic on and off over the week.  I try to let the page evolve rather than deciding on a plan from the beginning.... as this more intuitive approach  often means you get some kind of surprise at the end.  For instance,  I would never have thought of the magic in balance if I hadn't added the collage of the hare figurines and the hands to this page at an earlier stage which made me think of conjuring.  After adding the collage, the wording came naturally.

2. The watercolour sketch of the meerkat sentry was mainly to try out various yellow and brown colours for future paintings.  The meerkat is doing some balancing of his own...using his tail to help him perch.

In the past, I have enjoyed watching the group of meerkats in our local zoo,  as well as watching 'Meerkat Manor' on TV.  

Also the TV adverts Compare_the_Meerkat are fun to watch.

I hope you have a lovely and interesting weekend.

Bye for now.