A Little Late, but The Newest Sketchbook Entries are Here...

Sorry I'm a few days late this week.  We just got back from a nice 4 day trip to the Palouse where there was sun and rolling hills of green grain and sky...so much beautiful sky.  Hopefully I'll get the almost 400 photos I took edited in the next few days and put up the best ones.  :)

I have lots and lots fodder for new paintings so I anticipate fields and barns and grain elevators to be showing up quite a bit in my next paintings.  :)

My Latest Paintings...or The Good, The Bad and the Brainless

This last week of painting was all about being stubborn.  Last Monday, I really wanted to paint some daisies so I figured out how I wanted to do them and started painting...everything went well until I got to the background.  I made a valiant effort to make it look good but it turned out like most of the background foliage I've done; pretty craptastic. 

That's where the stubborn came in. I don't like being defeated by things or giving up so I decided to spend the rest of the week trying get better at negative painting--focusing on painting background foliage.  I think that day 142 and 143 turned out pretty well for that.

And, even though they aren't background foliage, I really like days 144 and 145 because I love seeing the texture you get when you add salt to wet watercolor.

But, the last two days--brainless.  I forgot to really think about what I was doing and it shows...I know that I'm not going to be happy with every painting that I do but I'd like to not keep making the same mistakes over and over again...sigh. 

I just have to keep telling myself over and over that I am getting better at this the more I practice...

New Drawings...Day 134-140

I played catch-up again all last week.  This time of year there is just too much to do and way too little time to do it.  :)  But, with a few late nights (including last night, which is why this post is a bit late) I managed to get everything up to date.  Hope you enjoy them.  :) 

The Latest Drawings from My Sketchbook

I did a lot of playing catch up with drawing this last week.  It seemed I spent the whole week at least a couple of days behind.  This week will probably be the same because I have band concerts Tuesday and Thursday evenings so I'll be extra busy.  Once I'm through with this week, though, summer "vacation" can officially begin...which usually means even more busyness--trips, gardening, family, outside projects.  :)



Latest Drawings / Paintings

This week I seemed to have a desire to paint buildings.  I'm not sure why but it's been good practice.  :)  I actually had a breakthrough with the second and third ones.  For the first time, I didn't overwork the painting.  Huge step for me.  :)  I would still like to be painting looser but one step at a time, huh?

Here they are.  :)

This one counted as two days--it took a lot longer than I thought it would.  ")

Drawings or May 2nd through May 8th

New Drawings are Here...

I had a lot of fun this week messing around with some pen and wash drawings.  I don't know why I love them so much except that the process of washing over the pen can transform a so-so drawing into something that looks really cool.  I even tried something that I always avoid--I drew a portrait.  It's not perfect (sorry Alex) but I got a lot closer than I thought I would.  Made me happy.  :)