Adventures in Art, Product Design, Home Decor, Cooking, and Gardening
I hope everyone enjoyed the long holiday weekend. It went by way too fast and I didn’t accomplish everything that I had planned to do. But I managed to squeeze in a brief painting session this afternoon. Fall is the perfect time to plant tulips, and these Angelique tulips would look fabulous in my spring garden. Now all I need to do is find the time and energy to plant some before winter sets in.
My daughter painted this beautiful yellow Asiatic lily during a recent mother/daughter painting session. We haven’t painted together in a while, so it was nice to have my favorite painting partner join me for an evening of painting, small talk, and pumpkin lattes. To create the background texture, she sprinkled sea salt on the paint while it was still wet. It adds a lot of interest to an otherwise very simple painting.
As usual, she completed her painting first, so I’ll be showing my latest painting as soon as I finish it.
The gorgeous gold tone on the flower buds and stems is green gold by Winsor Newton–one of my favorite colors. It looks fabulous paired with the pink and coral tones in the flowers. I painted the veins on the leaves with white acrylic ink and a Number 1 round paint brush. This painting is based on a tutorial in Fiona Peart’s book, “Vibrant Flowers in Watercolor.” It’s a great book for beginning–or seasoned–watercolorists. Watercolors and acrylic ink on cold pressed Acquarello Artistico paper by Fabriano.
Here are some close-up views:
I thought it was about time that I posted something other than a watercolor painting. I picked this project from a book that I bought way back in 1998–Painting Garden Birds with Sherry Nelson–but never used. The book offers a series of lessons in oil painting but since I no longer have any oil paints laying around the house, I gave it a try with colored pencils. Prisma Color and Verithin colored pencils on gray Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper.
Keeping things simple today. No shading, no fancy watercolor tricks, just plain, solid color on a white background. The keep-it-simple (KISS) rule always works. This painting–which was inspired by a pillow case that caught my sister’s eye–is for my sister’s new home. She wants to add a touch of orange in every room, and I’m happy to oblige. I can’t wait to pull up a chair and have a cup of coffee with my sissy in her new kitchen.
My goal for this painting was to keep the subject simple so I could complete it quickly. But looks can be deceiving, and these water lilies proved to be quite time consuming and challenging. It took me several attempts to render realistic dew drops but I finally began to nail them on the leaf on the bottom right-hand corner. Once I figured out the technique, painting dew drops was surprisingly quick and easy.
The swampy water, on the other hand, was even more challenging. It’s definitely not what I envisioned; and I obviously need more practice painting water. If anyone has any tips or tricks for painting water that they’d like to share, I’m all ears!
This painting was based on a tutorial in Linda Ravenscroft’s book, “How to Draw and Paint Fairyland: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating the World of Fairies.”
My daughter went wild with color and decided to paint each petal a different color. How fun is this? She added texture using micron pens in colors that closely matched the paint color and chose to keep the background white so as not to compete with all the vibrant colors and fun texture.
Coming up next: my niece’s painting. I still haven’t completed my painting. Looks like I’ll be having another late-night painting session or two.
I really enjoyed painting this hydrangea fairy, although it was time consuming to paint all those petals. This is my first attempt at painting a red head. I was a skeptical that I could pull it off without ending up with a garish orange instead of lovely shades of red, but I think I pulled it off splendidly. For the fairy’s hair I used a combination of Indian red, Chinese orange, burnt umber, and caput mortuum violet, then added a light wash of Chinese orange on top, which really made her lovely red locks come alive. For the shading on the stem and dress, I used indigo and then added a wash of sap green. I’ll be using that combination of colors again–love it.
This painting is based on a tutorial in Barbara Lanza’s book, “Enchanting Fairies: How to Paint Charming Fairies and Flowers.” Here’s a close-up view:
It was a dreary day today–cloudy, cool, and drizzly–not the best day to be outside but a perfect day to stay inside and paint. The soft lighting allowed me to sit by the kitchen windows and paint for hours without interruption from the late afternoon sun. These pink miltonia orchids were a pleasure to paint. The variegated leaves were easy to paint and the brightly colored petals really pop against the dark green background.
This painting was based on a tutorial in the book, “Orchids in Watercolor” by Ann Mortimer.
I thought it was time to switch gears from painting fairies and focus on botanical painting this weekend. Variety is the spice of life, right? I’ve never painted orchids before but I was drawn to the soft pinks and purples in this variety. I think the natural touches of red in the center of these orchids add interest to the painting and keep it from looking too monotone.
I’m particularly pleased with this color scheme. The colors are bright and soft at the same time. For the background I dropped in cobalt blue, cerulean blue, aureolin, and permanent rose. For the flowers I used permanent rose, cerulean blue, aureolin, and Winsor violet. For the leaves and stems I used green gold, cerulean blue, and raw sienna. This painting is based on a tutorial in Ann Mortimer’s new book, “Orchids in Watercolor.” Here’s a close up view:
