open for delightful surprises

Drawing direct with a brush in watercolor is a huge challenge for me. I draw the frontmost things first, then wait for areas to dry and fill in behind them.

Not conventional painting technique, but that's partly why I call mine drawing. The media is secondary to my approach to the paper.

W/c on Strathmore drawing paper.

model ever present

When you have a minute, draw what's nearby.

Proportions not great, but the model doesn't complain when I make her more plump than she is.

Pen and w/c on Moleskine w/c paper.

Loving watercolor's flow

Dabbling with all colors in the mini-paintbox and making it yummy.














The pear and the closeup. In my world, pears *are* these colors.



W/c on Aquabee superdeluxe.

I stopped by the woods

Drawing the inside of the car door against the woods background.

One of my goals was to capture the difference between the view through the open window and the window, plus the various values in the door form.

Pen and w/c on Moleskine w/c paper.

Gimped again

Playing with pure color and digital effects. This one has been shifted through a random number of functions. This seemed a good place to stop.

The "Van Gogh" function is defined as "special effects no one understands." But all it seemed to do was blur out the pixels. Rejected as boring, which Van Gogh certainly wasn't.

W/c on 140# paper, originally.

Chart of pears

Idly painting pear shapes, I tried using w/c with almost no water--layering it like oils, though scans don't show the subtleties. Then I did a pastel one on lined journal paper. Shading is entirely imaginary.

Learning another Gimp skill seemed useful, so these are cropped from sketchbook pages and placed in a grid. Love Gimp!

making a random mess work

I was throwing ink and color on the Aquabee paper, idly making buildings and roofs, then tried some old masking fluid for a possible moon. Accidentally dribbled where a moon wouldn't be, too.

The fluid wouldn't rub off at all. But then the smears formed a face! So I continued to swoosh on paint, blur ink lines and make a royal mess.

But now I like the mood, the eccentricity, and the green moon man!

Listening to the Inner Creative

I'm reading "Finding Your Visual Voice" by Dakota Mitchell and have learned how to describe my favorite one. Imaginary, inner-sourced (instead of exterior reality), and emphasizing color over all other elements.

When I sing in that tune, I love the process and sometimes even the product. Like finding your place in the choir but not having to share the music.

W/c on Aquabee superdeluxe

Happy Feast Day!!

(Random color and form doodle with no relation to holiday, food, or sense).

Ink, w/c, and pen on Aquabee superdeluxe.

digital tweaking

I randomly striped a journal page with a range of colors using Art-Kure watercolor-ink brushes. It wasn't until later that I thought of scanning and playing with Gimp filters to do something with that page.

Under the original image are 3 of the things I turned it into. Fabric designs come to mind.

Gimp 2.4--love it!

red reaching

And another one: whirl and pinch.

pencil capture

I was reading a book on London and had a big need to draw instead. So I used a mechanical pencil to capture Jim in a rare moment of profile, while he read, too.

On the back flyleaf of the book--nice paper!

sienna striping

I draw (using paint, putting it down directly as the drawing medium) the cat in colors I like, not particularly real.

This sienna works really well for representing both the light and his striping. I did the dark first (least thinned with water) and then swished water into those dense areas to pull color into the lighter parts.

W/c on Aquabee superdeluxe paper.

always tea

My main interest in sitting down to make an image is in the process of flowing color onto the paper. If the shapes work out, that's a bonus.

I liked that the shadow of the blue mug resembled a pointing hand.

W/c and (left) art-stix on Aquabee superdeluxe paper.