Another Study

my watercolour study of a Carl Purcell original

This is a study done of the art on the back cover of Carl Purcell's book - Your Artist's Brain. 

Unfortunately, the colours in this image are less saturated than in my original. The roof on the building near the upper right corner is a light blue- grey in reality but looks totally washed out here. Oh well. 

I'm relatively pleased with the perspective of the buildings. The wonky stairs up from the harbour could benefit from a sturdy railing LOL. Also,the darks could stand to be a bit more balanced, mostly in the foliage in the lower left hand corner. If I go back and fiddle with it, I'll add i here.

Catching Up with some more orphans

I love just about everything about blogspot except my inability to put pictures where I want them to be. This layout doesn't make me happy but it's the best of what I can come up with! You'll just have to use your imagination and move the cat up to the big open space at the top middle, where she belongs LOL. 


I was going through a few of my old sketchbooks looking for some small images to put into Cooking at the Hedge and found these few, that with a few adjustments, would work nicely. So here they are here first. 

Gothenburg, Sweden

Today I decided to work on finishing up some old pieces that have been hanging around waiting for some attention. 

This is a street in Gothenburg, Sweden that I did as part of the September 2014 Virtual Paintout destination. 

My perspective is a little wonky but given that the original is 4 x 6 inches, I'm going to cut myself some slack about that. 

If I were going to change anything it would be to lighten the window in the front door of the first house - the contrast against the bit of white from the porch pillar really draws the eye and I'd rather the eye go to the bow of the boat against the reddish purple foliage. 

Gloomy day doodle

This is my version of a piece I saw on Pnterest called "Red Robin, Red Berries" by Yorkshire artist Rachel McNaughton.

I've always been intrigued by these little guys, so dainty and reserved compared to our North American Robins. I first saw them on my first trip to London in February 1986. OMG, that's 30 years ago!

2016 First Work

Inspiration - mixed media 12 x 16 on canvas

It's a new year and one of my goals in my art this year, as well as my life in general, is to push myself out of my usual comfort zones. 

This piece definitely does that. I don't have much experience painting in acrylic and boy, does it feel different than my usual watercolours LOL. But it is definitely something I want to do more of this year.

The other change, besides working on canvas, is the size. At 12 x 16 inches it's considerably larger than anything I've done in wc in quite some time. I still have another this size as well as two 16 x 20 canvases just waiting to be used. I'm working my way up to art that's measured in feet! 

This piece is also meant to serve as a daily reminder to me of where I want my focus to be as I head out to begin my day. Sometimes I forget that. 

Abbeydale xmas card

An Abbeydale Christmas (c)Susan Langdon 2015 watercolour and graphite on Strathmore CP paper 8 x 10 inches

Everybody made it in except for the chickens! From left to right that's Minx, Flora, Fauna, Tabby, Halle and Itty Bitty up on the roof. 

In Gratitiude

InkTober update

Have continued to meet the daily (mostly) challenge of an ink drawing a day. It's day 9 and I have 9 drawings so that works for me LOL. 

This one doesn't look like much now since it's the barest outline at the moment. When it gets painted in January hopefully it will more closely resemble the image that inspired it - a windowbox of pink petunias against white clapboard and black shutters. 

Most of my subjects have been floral but I've also done an old pair of boots, a peacock feather and two sheep together. Will be interesting to see what draws my attention (pun totally intended) over the course of the rest of the month. 

Day 2

Poppy seedheads (C)2015 Susan Langdon - 5x7 Strathmore CP

Today's drawing done with Pilot V-pen, which does wonderful things when you wet it. 

I may or not post every day, I'll see how it goes. I may choose to do a mass posting once a week of what I've drawn.

Inktober

Decided to participate in InkTober this year. I've read about this daily drawing challenge in the past but usually well after it's over. This year I put it on my calendar ahead of time so my aging brain wouldn't forget and it worked! 

In 2009 artist James Parker started the InkTober drawing challenge

My participation serves two purposes though - I do a pen drawing every day during this month which then provides me with at least 31 drawings that I can paint in January, a time of year that I often find myself lacking in motivation because it's not Spring yet. Win-win in my book.

Mason jar flowers pen and ink (C)2015 Susan Langdon 8x10 Strathmore CP

This one doesn't count towards the challenge as I drew it quite a few weeks ago but it gives you the idea of what I'm hoping to stockpile for the upcoming Dark Time.  Hey, it's no secret; I'm not winter's biggest fan. 

Started working on today's entry and ran into a little problem. Since I've been busy lately planning an upcoming bathroom reno and mucking out my closet, I haven't had my paints out for a couple of weeks, so of course I had to throw some on. I'm writing this post while I wait for it to dry LOL. Oh well, will just have to do another drawing to put away for January.