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Oil painting from a bloom we had in the front yard a couple weeks ago. I was pretty worried about the colors on the petals to start with. Initially it was a little pale, but somehow it seemed to work out. These cactus are incredibly vibrant, and a camera struggles to get the pink color.

 

The problem with watercolours is when it just doesn’t quite work, there is not much to be done. Here I got the base of the left flower off center. I don’t know how much it really matters, but I’m going to have to live with it >.<That being said I am really excited still about this painting. This is one of my favorite cactus, and a reliable bloomer ^_^

My husband has been taking time lapse images of some of our cactus blooming, the other night we had a visitor! The hummingbird moth was blurry in  most the images, so there was some creative license taken in getting him “in focus” for the painting.

 

Some small watercolours of pets from the clinic. Painting animals you know is always a little different than just working from a stock image, or even a wild animal. I feel more obligated to work on the face in particular.  I think this is even more true of human portraits (why I am not brave enough to delve into that! )

Its been a while since I picked up a paint brush so this was a little rough. Hoping for more time next week to attempt a larger watercolour!

From this morning’s hike up Sabino Canyon. If you haven’t been you need to go!

 

I think the pre-water sketch with the watercolour pencils really shows how much of a suprise you get when you add water! I really regretted some of that blue! Obviously there were some errors as well, the emerging water lily blossom over the orange fish appeared because I make a rather large green smudge on his face. Still it was a fun little project, and a painting I would have loved to have in my room as a child.

It has been years since I have used watercolour pencils.  Even with this little imaginary dragon you can see I was struggling a  to balance shading and color.  You really can’t go back with this medium once you add the water!  I have always used the approach of drawing the whole picture, then going back and using water to mix the colors and add texture. Does anyone have a different approach?

There is just something wonderful about spring in the desert. These strange hardy little plants display the most garish blooms, sometimes only for a day. I’m not a botanist, but it seems like this must use up an incredible level of their energy reserves. It always feels like a privilege to see. When ever someone tells me that the desert is is just brown, I know its because they have never seen the likes of these ^_^ These are a sampling of paintings that extend from high school to last week.

 

I think one of the hardest parts of water colors is stopping. When laying down the color I often try to start with the lights and build to dark. However if you do too many layers it loses the delicate quality of water colors, and can become grainy. My favorite part of the painting is the stem  of the flower. The flower itself is nearly a lost cause. Next time I need to do some experimentation on another sheet to get the right red before I start! You can see the worst area of too much paint is the group of petals right in front.