Colourful Bugs part 2

I told myself that after this, I was done with this colouring page but now that I see it here on my monitor I definitely want to go back and make all of the legs black. Plus tidy up a couple of the red beetles. Just not happy with those. 

My faves are the indigo ones but that's a no brainer because in my world indigo sings. 

Okay, it looks like there'll definitely be a part 3 to this post. It's a particularly miserable, rainy, trying to be warm but too damp to get there, kind of day so I my even get it done today. We'll see. Or I may need to go and paint some happy tulips! 

Hoppy Easter

I so love the style of painting very loosely with watercolour, leaving a good bit of the painting up to the viewer to piece together and yet it is so difficult for me to do. I literally have to make myself walk away from a piece to stop myself from filling in 'just a little bit here' which leads to a little bit more over here. That's where it would be wonderful to have a magical undo' switch, sigh. 

Hare (c) Susan Langdon 2016
140 lb CP 5 x 7

This is painted with permission from  Peter Winshaw"s photograph from the Photos for Artists facebook group. It is done in a limited palette of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue. I'm really pleased with his face and ears, which is what drew me to the photo in the first place. 

I'm still working away at the colourful bugs seen in my last post and also have the acrylic piece and another watercolour on the go. So lots to work on at the moment, depending on my mood LOL. 

Colouring Bugs Part1

This is the underpainting of a colouring page my sister gave me from the Secret Garden colouring book, artist edition. First, I must say the paper is lovely to work on, tolerating this amount of wet media. I imagine it could handle a wash fairly well as well, given that it feels comparable to 140 lb HP paper. 

The concept of a rainbow/colourwheel theme came to me as soon as I saw the page and since the weather persists in giving us an overabundance of greyness - well this just seemed the perfect time to hit up some colour! 

My plans for the next stage are not as clear cut - I can continue on in watercolour or I may delve into a mixed media approach using either my tombow markers or a bit of acrylic. Hmmm, it's a mystery to even me at this stage LOL. Stay tuned for part 2!

Spring Cleaning

Yes, it's that time again - the temps are warming, grass is greening. I did a major purge of my art supply cupboard just last month so no need to change anything there. My studio is pretty darn tidy if I do say so myself, well, within the parameters of being functional which is key. 

So what''s left to be done?? That seemingly never ending problem of the cat hair to pigment ratio in my watercolour palette. It finally got the better of me while I was playing in my paints this afternoon. 

So, time to scrub it out and lay out fresh paint. This is also the time that I make brutal decisions as to what pigments stay and which are relegated back to the cupboard. 

Indigo has long been a favourite of mine when you need that perfect hit of dark but sadly, it just doesn't play nice in my palette. It somehow manages to ooze it's way into the other paint wells during the wee hours of the morning and continues to do so even as I try and clean it up. So, back to the tube for you!

Undersea green is another one that may be put on time out, especially since I plan to bring Q gold back to the palette - mix it with some ultramarine blue and boom howdy!

But the cat hair really has to go.

Cyclamen

Came across a lovely painting of cyclamen in Ros Jenke's journal and I was inspired to try and paint my own version. 

This was both drawn and painted very loosely - it wasn't a completely blind contour drawing but pretty close LOL. Colours used are Sap green, ultramarine blue, quinacridone magenta and just a few touches of raw sienna. Took about 30 minutes in total, including drying time. 

Quick sketches like this are an excellent way to warm up my painting brain and to remember to not take myself so seriously sometimes. I need to remember to do more of this. Yeh, yeh, I've said it before but I'm going to really try and remember it this time LOL. 

Painting Triad

I decided I would try a different approach to today's effort. I wanted to work in a very limited palette using a triad of raw sienna, quinacridone magenta and Payne's grey.  

They made an interesting grey leaning to the brown side which is what I wanted. So, I put out only those three pigments on my palette and set out to see where I would end up. 

Payne's grey is a relatively new pigment for me and I was taken a bit surprised by it's granulating quality but it actually suited this application I think. Note to self: you need to learn much more about pigment properties beyond ooh, that's pretty LOL!

Back to the bunny - reference photo credit to Cindy Fry from the facebook group Photos for Artists. I'm going to post this to the group as soon as I figure out how to get it to the appropriate spot and before I lose my nerve. 

Although in looking at this here, I don't think I'm done just yet. I want to darken the background behind the topline for one thing. I also am not happy with the closest ear - right now it looks muddy and overworked to me and I think I should darken it. Will definitely need to darken the background then, especially in the upper left corner for balance. Also, there needs to be some colour modeling to the body to give it some dimension. Okay - definitely not done. 

Better, but not 'there' yet.









Okay, time to put this bunny to bed. I'm just going to ignore the halo around his backside. Think I'll go change my blog theme to something more springlike!

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!