I thought I’d show you the progress on my illustration of the ‘mouse family’ and some other little studies.
(click on them for larger view)
Work in progress, adding watercolor to the ink drawing.
It looks so different than it did as just a pen and ink drawing! They are starting to come to life more with the added color and fur. I’ve been so busy with other things that this illustration is going slowly. What I did here I did in one evening while watching a movie, if I could just sit down one more time it’ll be finished. So she says!
I’ve run out of opportunities to paint from ‘real’ colored leaves as they’ve all gone to the dark side in my yard, they’re all brown and blackish. But I did take lots of reference photos and that will serve me well as usual. I have a decision to make about the leaf in the mommy’s hand, it blends in with her and the baby maybe a little too much? I may add a purpley maroon, something with alizarin crimson? I’ll be adding just a touch more color to the leaves but I don’t want them to overwhelm the mice either. I do like the touch of blue in the background, it helps to show the mushroom better.
Before I forget I’ll show you a little study I did after Beatrix Potter’s mushrooms.
Watercolor study after Beatrix Potter
It’s from a painting with more mushrooms but this little one and the grasses were all I needed to study the colors she used. This was great for me to do before diving into the color of my painting, especially because I wasn’t working outside from real life. I just love and adore her paintings!
A small watercolor study of Moneywort done in springtime.
This is a small study I did in the spring of Moneywort. It likes to grow in wet areas so my land is filled with the stuff! Wonderful in late spring as it covers itself with little yellow flowers; my ditches along the lane seem to be filled with gold! I don’t know if the name refers to the yellow flowers (like gold) or the round leaves looking like coins? I found out something interesting, it’s a native to Europe and was introduced to America for use as ground cover and as an indoor hanging plant. Ha! I never would have thought to use it inside! Well anyways, I remember sitting in a lawn chair on a cold spring day, in a flooded area of my yard when I did this. I watched the little Nursery Web Spiders scampering over the water and over the plants. How great it is to study from life! That’s why I love Nature Sketching so much.
Study of a small wildflower (weed) that grows in my grass.
And this is another favorite ‘weed’ I like that grows around anything not moving! haha…It seems to grow at the edge of everything but I don’t mind, it has tiny pretty flowers and neat rounded leaves that remind me of a tiny geranium. I haven’t yet looked it up, guess I should. Oh by the way, the bees love it! Don’t go killing everything that grows in your grass, as long as it’s green it looks fine! Look closer at some of those weeds, they can be pretty and the bees need them.
I just thought I’d show these because I feel it’s important to always study from real life. Even if it’s a tiny study done quickly, it will help you to look closer at what’s really there, and you will remember it. Especially when it comes to color, the photos you take will not be as accurate as what your eye sees at the time, in that lighting.
Well I hope you enjoyed seeing my progress and other studies. I’ve been playing around with adding some new colors to my watercolor field palette, so we’ll see how that goes. Leave me comments if you like, I always love hearing what you think!
Mary, I love, love the mouse paintings! I also love the mushroom, but that’s always a given for me. You spoke of Beatrix Potter who brought such life to the books and memories I have as a child!! I always loved her illustrations that were so natural and realistic bringing her landscapes and subjects to life for me. Your gift and talent is so similar bringing us into your pictures with such a warm feeling!! Love your work! You mentioned that the first mouse picture was a pen and ink drawing which you then added color. My question is do you sketch with pencil first and then enhance with the pen and ink or do you go at it straight away with the pen and ink first? Just really curiosity for me. I find that I am not as confident to go straight away with the pen first. Do you think that is just an art maturity thing that will grow as I continue or do you think its ok to operate that way due to my “OCD tweeking” nature as I draw??? LOL! Just a thought? Thanks for allowing us to join in your fun!
Love your cute mice and nature paintings with lesson tips!
Felicia, sorry about my delay replying! Been so busy and my laptop crashed! Thanks so much for your ‘love’ of my mice! haha…they are fun to do! I do adore Beatrix Potter too, as I’ve come to learn more about her life I see similarities with myself. She was such a talented watercolorist, I love studying her paintings that aren’t for children’s books too. I’m honored you compare my work to hers!
About the pen and ink technique, make sure you read my last post where I talk about my steps in drawing the mice in ink. At first I just started drawing them with no sketch because I was just going to ‘diddle around’ and test the paper. Well as it started to look pretty good I decided to continue by sketching in pencil, so I could plan more. Most illustrators and artists who want to do detailed work, will use a pencil sketch first and ink on top. Nothing better or worse for using a sketch first or not. You WILL be able to do more without pencil sketches as you draw more, if that’s what you want. If you want to feel ‘looser’ then just put light pencil lines to indicate general placement of things, no detail, then draw with the ink on top. This ink drawing I did is pretty ‘tight’ and not free and loose; that’s ok, it’s just the style I did. But I loosened it up a bit by adding the dashes of ink around it…the paint also helps to loosen it as you make your marks. Do you understand that? One more tip, if you pencil sketch first, make sure it’s with a light hand, then just before inking take your kneaded rubber eraser and gently tap on it to lift most of the pencil.
I hope you keep reading my posts, commenting and please share my blog with others! Great to have you visit!
hi Lynda, thanks so much for your comment. As I have time I like sharing my process to help others with ideas.
Hi Mary….THANKS SO MUCH for your response!!! Sorry, I didn’t do my homework and look at the previous blog for a little more detail. But it is always nice to get the general technique of an artist that would be helpful to someone like me who loves to put expressionon on paper and strives to gain more technique. My journaling is usually only seen by me, but from time I show others and it’s nice when they can actually decipher what I have expressed…HA HA HA!!! Your general style is one that I love and draw from as I learn and I love what your eye sees in your photos as well. I love being outdoors and particularly hiking, so a lot of your photos remind me of some of my jaunts. That being said, I have sketched/painted from one of your photos that I loved. I hope you don’t mind! Its just in my journal, for my eyes only, so no worries there! I use pencil with water color pencils and then I love to go back in and use black ink to draw the eye or add detail and make things pop. Its just a nice look to me. Again, its ALL experimental, but I am learning!!
We are a camping family and will be going camping next week for the holidays and plan to take lots of pix to start some new sets in my journal. Your suggestions will surely help on this next set and I look forward to trying them. Again, thanks so much on that score!!
By the way, how is the move coming along? Hope your are further along in your journey!! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
Hi Felicia, I’m so glad my ‘pointers’ are helping out! I’m curious what part of the world you live in if you’re going camping next week? It’s pretty darn cold here in NY! I’d love to see some of your sketches from your trip; it’s exciting to have a new journal ready for a new trip! Do you get your kids to try it? Send me a picture of your sketch from my photo, I’d love to see how you translated it! Everyone has their own style and that’s an important thing to discover about your own work.
About adding the ink, yes, sometimes I add ink after to bring out detail but I find my ‘field sketches’ are mostly done as drawings in permanent ink first then colored with watercolor. I am experimenting now with that in my illustrations…seeing how it looks if I approach it with ink before or after. I hope I get time today to work on my mice.
Keep me posted!