Painting #30 - Cowboy Sam

The rodeo and cowboy parade were in town this last week so I decided to paint a cowboy whose image I found on Wet Canvas.

I enjoy painting interesting-looking people and am always on the lookout.

I am actually working up the nerve to tackle the painting of my granddaughter again but I'm not there yet.

100 Paintings Challenge - Milestone

I don't know if anyone else noticed ... but we just hit the 100 painting (blog post) mark collectively with the last blog entry from Elva!! While I know that we're each working towards a personal goal of 100 for the year.... I find it significant that even before the end of February that we have collectively posted 100 blog entries!! That's a milestone!  We're off to a great start and we're going to create and share quite a bit of art through this blog this year.  Just wanted everyone to take notice....    (now back to my art...)

#012 Yellowstone Dogs – no. 40 Wolf

Our daughter, Lita Judge, is a children’s book illustrator and writer. Cheering elephants, hatching dinosaurs, dancing sage grouse, and more flow from her brush and pencil. She actually orders pencils by the gross. When I explained my goal to sketch at least 100 wolves, coyotes and foxes in about 10 weeks, Lita suggested I try some in pencil and with a technique I haven’t used. When she finds the form of an animal, she holds the pencil quite differently. My best description of the technique is to hold the pencil as if I have a dainty Chihuahua on a leash, a leash that doesn’t have a loop for a handle, but rather just a little ball on my end. This position means I am holding my knuckles down and thumb up; and I hold the pencil fairly far back. It encourages me to draw loosely and find the line.

For more information go to my blog link at the upper left of this page.

Painting #29 Rose

I found a site that offers the challenge of doing a painting in 20 minutes so I did it.  I love challenges, gets me moving.

I had a rose in a vase to work with.  This first one is watercolor and I realized that 20 minutes is enough time to do a quick and easy painting.  

I used watercolor pencils on this one.  Although I have watercolor pencils I don't care for them unless I am trying to get a small area.

Gouache on black paper.  I keep practicing with gouache just to get used to it.

By the time I got done with those three quick paintings I thought I could just whip out this 'nicer' rose for this challenge painting.  Wrong!  I found that painting a yellow rose is very difficult to achieve any kind of depth (and yellow is my fav color).  Then I tried a darker background to bring the rose forward.  After I had overworked the whole thing I quit.

Next!

My Fiddler Crab - Claire 18

I chuckled as I started a recent assignment for my Trip to the Beach class. We were to sketch some "Beach Bugs" and the assignment introduced us to Fiddler Crabs. Sketching this crab sure was a different experience for me ... it was not an image I would have chosen myself. As such, I felt a little out of my comfort zone. But, sometimes it is good to get out of my comfort zone and try something different. The experience taught me about Fiddler Crabs and gave me a chance to think about beach bugs in new ways.

#011 Nene

No, I haven’t been to Hawaii lately, or ever for that matter. But this is a sleeping Nene, the world’s rarest goose and a resident of Hawaii. My photo was taken at wildlife Safari.

I’m trying to loosen up a little. It is harder for me to be loose than to handle detail. … This is still pretty detailed by most watercolor standards.

Resting by the bay - Claire 17

I remember walking by the water. I was fascinated by these two Pelicans guarding the shore. They looked at me with suspicion as if they were wondering how long I would stay. They seemed to be very protective about their private area at the edge of the rocks. It was fun to stop and watch them for a bit. 

A day at the beach - Claire 16

I think I've had enough of the cold winter days and nights for this season. I'm now craving a trip to the beach. In the meantime I'm dreaming of the beach as I take Laure Ferlita's An Imaginary Visit to the Beach class. It is lots of fun. This starfish page was my first assignment.

#010 Yellowstone dogs – Coyotes

Sometimes I think coyotes are the hardest to draw. They have so many characteristics of both the fox and the wolf … sort of half way in-between. I’ll probably have the most opportunity to draw coyotes when we are in Yellowstone, and then wolves. Foxes are the hardest to find.

Both drawings are done with a Pelican fountain pen. I wish its point was finer, but I love how the ink flows … and I love the soft wash I get when I come back with a wet brush.

I can already see that drawing, drawing, drawing is paying off. I’m doing a mix of sometimes penciling first, and sometimes just going for it with the ink. Robert Bateman is the person who convinced me to just go for it with ink. Actually he likes ball point pen because you have some control over value. I like working with a variety of drawing tools.

Mama coyote doesn’t make nursing easy does she! This coyote had four pups, a hubby and at least one other ‘beta’ adult who brought food in and allowed itself to be mauled by the puppies. I spent a fantastic two hours watching this family. They were visible for several days and well attended by several photographers. I keep seeing photos from this den pop up in a variety of places. I pinch myself that I am one of the people who got to enjoy them. ….. and even more exciting is the thought that next time Dale can do the photographing and I’ll be free to sketch. This den was too far a hike in for him…. But not now.

This challenge is good for me! …. Thank you, again, to Laure!

Painting #28 Plein Air Sketch

Last Sunday we went to a Fiddler's Contest in an open air park so it gave me a chance to do some plein air sketching.

We go to this every year and I always do some sketching.  The difference this year is, I did not use ink lines first but rather pencil to lay things out.  As I look at this I wish I would have used ink first.

I was intrigued with all the things this boy had laying around him and it became quite a challenge to get it all in.

Late morning brunch - Claire 15

I met my imaginary travel buddies at a warm cafe along the river in Paris. It was a nice leisurely beginning to a lovely day .....

Painting #27 Orchid and Sketch

I used a friend's photo as a reference for this painting of an orchid.  

A few weeks ago I did the lower sketch in ball-point pen in preparation for the painting.

I really love painting flowers.

Kelly - Painting #16 - Mingo

Painting #16 - Mingo

I had fun painting this lovely Pink Flamingo, but now I'm really longing for the warm beaches of Florida! :-)

Painting #26 Potted Cactus

This potted cactus sits outside the new Ritz Carlton near Tucson with Dove Mountain in the background.  We went to their open house several weeks ago and I took this photo and used it as an inspiration for the painting.  This is the same place where a golf tournament took place this weekend.  

I am trying to do more landscapes and each one seems to get just a tad easier and now I am thinking 'background' for each painting whether it is a landscape or not.  Before taking on this challenge I rarely gave the background a thought.

Hotel in Paris - Claire 14

Parisian Courtyard - Claire 13

Monets Garden - Claire 12

Dinner together in Paris - Claire 11

Another event on my latest trip to Paris with Laure. 

#009 Kingfisher

Here is another one I drew in my journal (the one with the rotten paper), scanned and this time I printed it out on Aquabee SuperDeluxe Sketchbook paper. Thank you Laura, for the Aquabee suggestion. It is pretty decent paper for a sketchbook. It takes a much nicer wash than my journal and even seems to hold printer’s ink better than the Aquarius watercolor paper did when I put miskit over the printer ink. Now I just have to remember to keep both journal and Aquabee within reach.

For more about my encounter with this fascinating bird, go to my blog link at the left.

Painting #25 Daisy Bee

I have painted this daisy before but the background was blue and there was no bee.  This time i wanted to try a different background, add the bee and have a line of light with a disappearing petal.

The background color was yellow ochre and yellow using wet-in-wet and while it didn't pop the daisy I like the softer look.  It isn't quite what I had in mind but it works.

Putting a bee on a flower head is always fun.

Here I am one-quarter of the way to 100 and I have really stepped out of my comfort zone, tried new things and have really taken the time to really 'look' at what I am doing.  I am doing more thumbnails also and find that very helpful.

Painting #24 Flower Box

This is from a photo that I took in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin on a day outing.

The window box was outside a restaurant and I was fascinated with the sky reflection.  I've been wanting to paint it for a long time.  After all the skies I did as part of this challenge I can definitely say this sky just fell into place.  Practice, practice, practice!