|
|
||
|
This is a watercolor I did of an iris that I approached spontaneously. No sketch, just direct painting with the brush, I did it rather quickly in a regular sketchbook (thin paper). I’ll have to get my chinese brushes out and ‘brush up’ with them, I used to paint everything with them!
This is a watercolor I did of the same iris as the previous post, but this time I approached it more spontaneously. No sketch, just direct painting with the brush, I did it rather quickly in a regular sketchbook (thin paper). I’ll have to get my chinese brushes out and ‘brush up’ with them, I used to paint everything with them!
Yesterday I had fun playing around with my watercolors, “can we say Avoidance Behavior?!” haha…well I should have been working on a painting but I wanted to test out some colors and tried an experiment with my field kit.  It might seem silly, but I think I can write a book for a hundred and one uses for ‘sticky tack’ or ‘blue tack’! I wanted to add more colors to my field kit but there are no more places, so I made some! Where the brush should go, I put three little blobs of sticky tack and smooshed them down. I then put just a bit of wet paint into the divided areas and let it dry. Then the little removable water pan (I mean LITTLE!) I’ve been using for black paint, so I added a little wall to that and added Naples yellow, I thought it would be good for grasses, people etc. I will let you know if it works, the stuff is amazing, really!  This is a page from a little sketchbook where I tested the colors out. I was comparing reds as you can see, which ones were similar so I didn’t have to order new paints. (it’s not cheap you know!) The colors at the bottom are tube colors I put into a plastic travel palette, (see it at the bottom of the photo of my ‘mess’) they’re like a repeat of the colors in my large studio palette. I want to see if they’ll stay put or will they flake off all over the place? The drawing of the beetle I did from a field guide. I always try to grab something to draw when I know I’ll be sitting, wasting time in a waiting room. I have a vinyl ‘bible’ cover that I picked up at Barnes and Noble that fits a 6″x8″ sketchbook and across from it a field guide or other book. I’ll post pictures of that sometime, it makes a great little travel kit when outfitted with my ‘travel art supplies’.
December 2007
This is a watercolor sketch I did from a photo of a sparrow. I used my small watercolor travel set for practice and did it while watching tv with my son. Trying to get artwork done at any time is a challenge so I practice when I can! Click on any picture to view larger. (the photos of me working are compiments of Daniel M. Cox, thanks Dan!)   Today I went to the Botanical Gardens with the intention to play around with my travel sketching kit that I put together. Well, being that it was my first visit, I found it very hard not to spend most of my time exploring with my ‘good’ camera (Canon 20D slr). So I did some tiny little sketches, tried out my watercolor pencils a bit, then ended with one or two quickie watercolor sketches. I scanned the 6″x 8″ page from my sketchbook for you to see. I don’t think I like the watercolor pencils as much as regular watercolor…when you wet it, the colors change so much, they get so saturated and vibrant, I don’t like surprises. I guess I’m just used to ‘what you see is what you get’ with regular colorpencils.  Here are some photos, so hard to pick from so many beautiful flowers and plants! Here’s a link to their home page: http://www.buffalogardens.com/    Today I went for a hike with my dog Ginger, the weather was so warm I couldn’t resist! I think the temperature today reached 66 degrees! It’s very breezy, clouds and patches of sun. So we wandered and I pretty much descibed things on my journal pages. Just click on the pics of my sketchbook to read my notes and see the small sketches. This first page I did a very quick sketch (7 minutes), click on it. 
 This is a photo of me and Ginger, I set my tiny Olympus FE 230 digital camera on top of the fence post and did an auto timer shot. I have my mud boots on, my small three legged stool over my shoulder, and an over-size fanny pack from LL Bean.
I wasn’t sure about wearing the fanny pack in front,because I thought it’d make my back hurt, but actually it was ok. It was nice to have it right in front of me to keep tucking my sketchpad and pens into as I walked. My cell phone is clipped to my belt loop.
Page 2 of the journal…I found this great moss…so green for such a dreary time of year. It was growing all over the bottoms of the trees, it’s very wet on my land.
 Page 3…I was picking up some dried oak leaves to take back home with me and saw a small spider on one leaf. It was so cool, looked like a little seed if you look quick. I did three little quick studies of it. It keeps raining off and on and I don’t have my rain coat.
Golden Field…  This is my three legged stool I bought at Walmart in the hunting/fishing dept. This stool is great but when the ground is wet…um, well you kind of sink in when you sit on it!
This is the back side of a fern stem, the tiny leaves are actually curled up and look like seeds. I think it’s a ‘Sensitive Fern’.
|
||
|
Copyright © 2024 Mary McAndrew - All Rights Reserved Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa |
||
