Illustration Friday 'Juggle'

A little light relief from my anemone fixation!

Bobo wasn't the brightest and Harriett certainly wasn't the happiest.

Saunder's Water Ford scrumptious Watercolour Paper.

A few posts ago I was waffling on about expensive watercolour paper.
Well it turns out I was totally ripped off, I found the same paper for 7.95 euros a sheet, that's 5 euros cheaper!
No wonder I was shocked at the price.
So naturally I snapped up, what now seemed like a bargain, all the scrumptious paper they had in the shop and spent a small fortune!!
But you know the mind is a funny thing, well mine is anyway!
Having plenty of paper has given me a great sense of freedom, I'm not feeling so precious about the paper.
In fact the watercolour above is twice the size of my previous one and is done on the scrumptious paper, Saunder's Water Ford series, rough surface, 300lb.

Salted Anemones

I liked the composition of these anemones when I did them in pastel, so I went on to do them in watercolour.
The background has a lovely mottled effect, that gives it a nice depth.
This was a tip I picked up over the weekend browsing through the art books in town.
You simply sprinkle salt over the watercolour as it dries, just before it looses it's shine.
The salt absorbs the colour, leaving tiny crystalline shapes,like miniature snowflakes.
It's not hugely obvious in my painting 'cause I put another layer of colour over the salted one.
One thing I'd say is if you sprinkle the salt too soon it takes ages to dry out and if you get impatient, the wet salt can smudge as you try to remove it.
I learned the hard way!!

Shirley Trevena's watercolour

This gorgeous painting is by the artist Shirley Trevena.
I first came across her name on a great blog have dogs will travel
who highly recommends Shirley Trevena's book Vibrant Watercolours
I've just had a look at Ms. Trevena's web site and I'm very impressed.
So much so that I'm off out tomorrow to see if I can get her book for myself.

Chalk Pastels Anemones.

Anemones again but different medium at least.
Trying out different compositions.
I thought this one could do with a butterfly, so I photoshopped one in.
I think it works, I might pastel it in properly tomorrow.

Ok, now that I'm looking at it in the light of day, I think the butterfly is overkill and way too big.
So that's one less butterfly to draw!

Expensive paper

I know ,I know, enough with the anemones already!
But I feel I'm making progress, should bloody well hope so, this is the fifth attempt.
This time though I used expensive watercolour paper, I mean really expensive...
13 euro for a sheet of 20x30" 600gms weight rough finish.
It's the most I ever paid for paper but oh it is so worth it.
I like the way it bleeds the paint and soaks up the water without buckling, it just adds an extra dimension to the painting that I love.
It's a whole new learning curve but I'm not complaining, I'm thrilled about it.

Wedding Illustration Friday

Being the best man, Pete wore his favorite penguin suit and had his hair done specially for the wedding.

I was inspired by this Dude

The joy of masking fluid.

Sorry to be so obsessive.
Yet another watercolour of Anemones.
I went to the trouble of using masking fluid around the edges of the flowers, so I could put in a nice simple wash of a background.
I also masked the center of the flowers to keep the delicacy of the stamens.
It was worth the effort, usually I'm too lazy to mask and then when I do I get impatient and end up tearing the paper trying to remove it before everything is dry enough.
But today I took my time and I'm rather pleased with myself:)

New toys.

These are my previous post's Anemones reworked.
I went shopping yesterday and bought a tin of twelve Derwent Inktense water soluble pencils
Of course, I was actually shopping for new paint brushes, but you know how it is...
So as I wasn't 100% happy with the Anemones as they were, I decided to try out my new toys on them.
They're great, I love them, the colours are as they say Intense and vibrant.
And so easy to use.
I am really happy with the result, they've certainly given a new look to the Anemones and I like my background too.
Yahoo!

Anemones

More Anemones in watercolour, but instead of getting better, these just got heavier and heavier.
I kept trying to fix them with layer after layer of colour.
It never works.
Aarggg, when am I going to learn when to stop in time.
OK, in the words of my favourite anti heroine "tomorrow is another day"
And I will lighten up!!

momentum 3

Acrylic on canvas.
An old piece that seemed to fit the bill for Illustration Fridays topic 'Momentum'.
Just thought I'd post it even though I've already submitted to this weeks I.F.

momentum 2

Drat!

Momentum

I did this watercolour yesterday sitting out in the garden.
It was a beautiful sunny day and I was in my element until about an hour later I suddenly realised I was frozen, the sun had disappeared and all the colours and shadows had shifted with the light.
So I called it a day and packed up.

Anemone studies.

I've loads of Anemones in bloom in the garden at the moment.
They are such a pretty, delicate and happy flower, I just have to do something with them.
These sketches are a start, to warm me up for some watercolours next.

Angel - Illustration Friday

A is for Angel.
Alphabet is this weeks topic for Illustration Friday.
This piece started out as an ink figure drawing that I morphed into an angel in photoshop.

Sculptures by Jennifer Maestre

I came across these little beauties on creative evolutions blog, which is always well worth a visit.
These urchin forms are actually eggs covered in thumbtacks.



They're by Jennifer Maestre and you can see more and read about them on her website



I think they're exquisite.



She also uses pencils, as you can see above.
I like this character but overall I prefer her work with nails.