For One Moment - Little Snippets of my Life and Art...

Life has been hectic the last year or so, and I have missed my blog and my creative community.  I hope to get back to blogging and sharing my creations on a more regular basis.  I had planned to clean and organize my desk, but just couldn't resist a bit of play with my stencils from  A Colorful Life Designs  and the Tim Holtz Distress ink pads, rub-ons and Chit Chat stickers that were laying on my desk while I sorted and put things away.   I started with a gelli print from a stack that I had in a basket on my desk.  I just chose complementing colors of Distress Inks and used what was within my reach on my desk.  Nothing special...just a little bit of play time.   It felt good to just play and make a mess, since I knew I was going to be cleaning it all up in just a bit anyway. I'm trying to start going through the piles of stuff in my corner (half) of the living room and throw away, organize, pack and put away...

Tiny Dots and Doodles... I always carry around a little Fluid Watercolor Block with me when I take kids to appointments, and a few pens and my Peerless Watercolors.  Usually don't get a lot done in the time I spend waiting, but over time it all adds up to a fun little doodle.  I seem to be into tiny dots lately...

Still having fun with flamigos... Spent the afternoon sitting along the water at a local restaurant listening to my friends' band play. I always take my watercolors as it is so fun and relaxing to sit and listen and paint while enjoying the music.  Tried a bit of different palette for this one. Holbein and Daniel Smith Watercolors. 

Watercolor Play     Just a bit of watercolor play tonight. 

I joined the Facebook Group called Every Day in February and we are visiting a different country every day.   As always I am running behind, but I'm enjoying seeing all the wonderful drawings and learning so many facts about each of the countries we are visiting. Time to plan my sketches for Days 3 and 4! Days 1 and 2 EDiF Group C - Day 1 Antartica I got waylaid at the beginning of my tour when I was invited to join a scientific team in the deep ocean off Antartica to watch a brinicle form. It took a while for the conditions to be right but it was well worth the wait to see it being formed right before our eyes. "A brinicle (brine icicle, also known as ice stalactite) forms beneath sea ice when a flow of extremely cold, saline water is introduced to an area of ocean water, being the undersea equivalent of a hollow stalactite or icicle. When it touches the sea bottom, it spreads across the bottom freezing everything in its path." ...

I'm on vacation in Panama City Beach with my friend  Sandee  and we have been spending the week relaxing and painting.  I've been wanting to paint a Whooping Crane for quite a while and I decided that this would be the perfect time. Whooping Cranes are endangered and many people  are working tirelessly to bring these beautiful birds back from the brink of extinction. If you would like to learn more about Whooping Cranes, check out  Operation Migration , which is just one of the organizations working to save these wonderful birds. You can also learn how you can help save these beautiful birds that are 5 feet tall once fully grown. I volunteer and act as a moderator in the Operation Migration chat room and also to drive the camera at White River Marsh during training and it is one of my favorite things to do. The colts are being trained to migrate south, by following ultralights and you can follow along with them and watch them live on ...

Every Day in August -Insect This little bug is an Air Potato Beetle and was introduced into Florida to eat the invasive Air Potato plant. 

Blueberry and Plum I am so far behind on my ICAD prompts but I keep plugging along.   I had to think about this one a bit to decide if I wanted to to go with realistic blueberries, or just use the color reference. Since I had just recently picked blueberries and have three nice big containers in my freezer, I decided to go with realistic style blueberries with a hint of a plum. LOVE blueberries! YUM! I am new to watercolor and I'm just finding my way as I go. This was my first time using my Holbein Watercolors. I have the tube paints and I put a bit of each of them in a travel palette and let them dry...and worked from there. They are SO rich in color.  It only took a tiny bit of color and it went a long way! They definitely have a bit of a learning curve. Blueberries and Plum Here are a few step-out photos of the process... I drew my sketch lightly and then masked off the stems I used Compo...

Parsnip and Kiwi Neocolor II, Watercolor pencils and Rapidograph Pen

Mango and Lime Some more watercolor fun!  I used a combination of Kuretake Gansai Tambi pan watercolors and Neocolor IIs for this little mango card.   I really like how this one came out. Here's the little sketch and first layer of colors using the pan watercolors. Added a bit more color with Neocolors and started shading the mango and its little leaf. Then a bit more layering and subtle shading and added the spattering of color to the mango and countertop. Then I titled it and signed it and called it done, before I could go back and overwork it.

Eggplant and Ginger  I got my order of the full set of Neocolor IIs in this past week and thought I'd take some time to play with them and see how far I could push them . No step-out shots this time. My carpel tunnel is acting up, so I ended up working on this one over several day as my hand would allow. I lightly drew the swirls directly on the watercolor paper in eggplant and ginger looking colors and then wet and smoothed them with a #8 round brush, and then from there I started to play. I used many methods of layering the colors besides the direct to paper method like I mentioned above. I used both a water brush and a #3 round brush for most of the work, alternating to use the one I felt would create the effect I was trying to achieve. One method was to take the crayon and color on my craft mat and use a wet brush to mix in a bit of water to create a wet wash.  The more water you add the thinner and lighter the wash. I also used a wet brush to take...

Carrot and Lemon "Split Pea Soup with Carrots and Iced Tea with Lemon" Just a preliminary sketch and color using watercolor pencils.  Made while sitting and waiting with kids for doctor appointments. Finished it off once I was home by adding my watercolor using Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors.

Grapefruit and Cherry "Grapefruit on a Cherry Red Counter" I was demoing at Stampfest Summer in Lakeland, Florida this weekend and I had a little down time on Saturday night.   I pulled out my watercolor pencils and sketched a little scene for the ICAD Challenge on Daisy Yellow.   I'm on day #8 and the prompt was Grapefruit and Cherry. I found this little excerpt from a book, that seemed to fit perfectly!

Periodic Table No step-out photos tonight.  I decided to just take the time and enjoy the process.

Taxi Some more watercolor and sketching fun today. Drew my sketch and started laying down color. ...a little more shading. Then I used a Pitt Pen and started outlining the little details and now I have a Rickshaw "Taxi"

Owl I had a couple of busy weeks and have fallen a bit behind on my ICADs, but it's all good because I finally had a chance to play in my watercolors today. For ICAD #5 I pulled out my Winsor and Newton Watercolor Palette and some Twinkling H2Os and my little watercolor block.   I'm enjoying practicing and building my sketching and watercolor skills. I masked my little owl and tree branches and started layering watercolor washes in shades of blue for the night sky and shades of yellow for the moon. After that layer dried, I started layering in darker blues and blue black for the night sky. Then I let that dry and started with the dark greens and blue greens and giving the illusion of leaves in the moonlit night. A bit more layering of colors and it's starting to take shape. Now to let it dry so I can rub off the masking and add color to the branches and the owl. Next I peeled off the masking fluid so I can add color to the limbs...

Mailbox Had this one halfway completed for a couple of days, but got crazy busy with life...so I finally finished it up today. Now on to #5.

Map "My Town" ICAD #3  Pens, Doodle, Map  A map of just some of the things that can be found downtown on the waterfront of "My Town"

Carnival ICAD #2 Carnival I did today's card about a local hometown festival. This year marks the 113th consecutive annual celebration of GeorgeFest.  It is the longest running festival in Florida.  The theme this year was “From Sea to Shining Sea”.