Stormy Sunset -- Opaque Watercolor/Gouache

This one I did a while back. I have only painted in gouache a couple of times. Most of my watercolor work up to now has been using watercolor pencil. Gouache is interesting to use. You can use it like regular watercolor when you use a lot of water, or it is a lot like painting with acrylics with a dry/dryer brush. Gouache allows you to paint light over dark (with a dryer brush), which is the opposite of regular transparent watercolor. The colors can be much brighter than transparent watercolor. This painting was done in the watercolor mode - lots of water.  I put the dry watercolor paper on a pliable plastic cutting board (Walmart sells them - or you can use a plastic table mat), and soaked it with brush and water. As the paper becomes wet and stretches, it may try to buckle. Just lift it up and lay it down flat again. The paper when totally soaked will lay flat and hug the plastic board. Then you can have fun with lots of paint (wet on wet). I deliberately added extra paint and water to make the paint to "bloom" or move around on the paper. I did have a deliberate picture of a sunset in mind as I worked on this. It came out better than I expected. It was a fun learning experience. (My gouache hydrangea picture below was painted wet on dry. I used regular amounts of wet paint on dry paper. I blotted the sky and green hill to soften them. The hydrangeas have three layers of paint, getting darker and darker. The hydrangea white highlights were done with a totally dry brush.)

Hydrangeas -- Opaque Watercolor/Gouache

This is my first attempt at trying to paint Hydrangeas. I love them. They are one of my favorite flowers (after roses). This was also my first attempt at trying to paint a picture I completely made up out of my head. Found out also that it is easier to paint from a photo, as the highlights and shadows are there to copy. Here I had to make them up, and with limited success. It's not a masterpiece, but it was still fun-- I was playing with paint.

Blue Moon -- Watercolor Journal

This is a painting I did last year and posted on another group site. Therefore some of you may have previous seen it. However, I never got around to posting in on my painting blog.   This was originally painted in my watercolor journal. I deleted what was previously written on the side. It needed a new quote since it was being used in a new way. The inspiration for this painting  came from a photo that  caught my attention. The glowing of the moon illuminating the building and the sky created such a wonderful effect and beauty that I had to try to copy it in paint. Also, the glowing blue of the night sky really drew me in. This was done with Reeve's watercolor pencils.

Pots Still Life -- Colored Pencil

The inspiration for this still life came from a book on colored pencils. The  subject and the colors caught my attention. I fell in love with this last year, but did not get up enough nerve and determination to do  it until now. There were a lot of directions on how to do it, but it seems that directions are not enough sometimes.  On a couple of the pots I could not produce the exact finish of the original, but have learned from painting things usually work out- just not in the way you originally thought it  would. Over all I am content with the result.

Since people are asking-- This was done with prismacolor pencils (the 120 pencil tin set with all the grays) on plain printer paper. I also use the prismacolor colorless blender.

Water Lilies -- Watercolor

This is one I did previously.  The picture I was using for inspiration was from an art book, but the original was done in acrylics. I had to experiment a lot to figure out how to reproduce that picture in watercolor. There are lots of layers of color in the picture to try to reproduce it. Was a lot of fun and learning.

Grapes -- Colored Pencil

These were actually done for practice before I did my Four Fruit Still Life post. The inspiration for these came from an art book. Grapes are a challenge as you have to try to make each one look unique. I had at least seven different purple and red pencils blending these into uniqueness. You definitely get a lot of practice blending and burnishing colors when you do grapes, but it was rewarding to do.

Four Fruit Still Life -- Colored Pencil

This inspiration for this came from a drawing prompt from the Draw-This art group. This past week a different fruit (colored) each day was our drawing prompt. The final drawing prompt was to do a still life with the four fruits we previous drew. I have wanted for a while to practice colored pencil fruit. This answered the desire.

Victorian House -- Watercolor

Though I used a picture reference for this, I had fun redesigning the placement of the main house windows (and doors), and supplying the bottom fourth that was missing in the picture. I then printed the scanned pencil sketch onto watercolor paper, and painted it with watercolor pencils. The yard I did with  graphite pencil just to ground the building.  The color of the house scanned in a little stronger than I originally painted. I had a lot of fun with this one, because I love architecture. If this looks a little familiar to you, I have previously posted a pen & ink version of this before. (If you would like to see it also, click here.) This current version was not done overnight. I worked on it on and off for a few months. Some things I can do in one sitting, but some things get done a little at a time for a variety of reasons (I get bored, the piece is complicated, it gets lost and forgotten, lack of time, or  any combination).

Amber Glass Bottle -- Colored Pencil

 

This is another I did for practice to learn more about colored pencils. Since capturing glass in a painting has always been an interest of mine, it was fun to be able to combine both learning more about colored pencil and painting glass. This illustration comes from an art book.

Pears and Grapes -- Acrylic Still Life

This is one I did last year. I wanted to practice doing the fruit, texture, light, shadow, and depth of a still life. The inspiration  for it was a picture hanging on my kitchen wall. Parts could be better (as always), but I had fun learning from it.

A Colored Pencil Rose

 

I did this one because I love roses and it seemed like a good thing to practice learning  more about colored pencil. The inspiration for this particular picture came from an art book on colored pencil.

A Valentine For You -- Composition Art Journal Collage

I just wanted to share my thankfulness with all of you. Everyone has been absolutely great and encouraging since I started doing art again. Thank you everyone for being such a wonderful group of people.

My First Oil Painting -- Pink Sunset

All I wanted for Christmas was a set of oil paints, as I wanted to try painting in oil. The above is my first try (at oil, real clouds, and an ocean sunset). I painted it wet on wet at one sitting. I know it's not a masterpiece, but I am happy with my first try. The first several months I tried painting landscapes in acrylic, I never produced one thing that could be called even decent for a young child. I am excited that the first oil painting I did at least looks like a landscape. This was painted from a photo, and yes the clouds were even more unique than what I painted.

Misty Mountain Sunrise -- Acrylic

This was inspired by a photo of blue mountains early in the morning when it's just beginning to get light . One day last year I finally sat down and painted this photo. This was done with wet on wet technique using acrylic paint  at one sitting. I have tried several times before to paint various different mountains photos using the wet on wet technique. This is the first one that worked where the mountains and colors came out decent. However, when I first painted it I did not like it. When I sat it aside and came back to it a couple of months later I liked it then.