Pomegranates

I wanted to paint my pomegranate before I ate it. (Hmmm, maybe I should paint it when it's cracked open too)! I grabbed my general journal and used a drawing paper page which worked okay but not great. I'd pre-prepped the page when I was with my granddaughters and thought it would make a good background for the fruit. The biggest problem was bleedthrough to the other side as you can see on the other pre-prepped page (showing my granddaughter that the cheap paints I had in a palette someone had gifted me were better than the Grumbacher ones she was using which is why I promptly ordered her professional watercolors when I got home. Never expect children to do well with or to love doing art if they don't have good tools. It's really worth the expense at this level in my opinion!) so I am happy with my page. The drawing paper took a very long time to dry which is unusual and then I remembered we are in the middle of a nice, large rainstorm :) and so I happily waited for some of the paint to dry but should have waited till it all did. Patience is a virtue and I am working on it! By the way, since I didn't have patience or correct pre-planning, I lost my highlight so I used some gouache that was sitting in another palette nearby to rectify that problem.

I WILL figure out a page that will go with the bleedthrough or cover it up. It's now a challenge page!

Autumn Fun!

Once again, a class of Laure Ferlita's is finished. These are the pages I painted for my journal. Don't you want to try this? A new Fall class started just today. You could join in right now and not miss anything! There are other classes listed on her site too. Check them out. You won't be sorry.

Gosh, Gouache Is Tougher Than I Thought

I found using gouache I'd dried in a palette hard to use for a picture. I've heard people use it this way and some are what I call terrific journalers and painters. So why did I have such a hard time. Well I got splotchiness in spots. In other places I couldn't layer or the color underneath lifted. I ended up accenting with ink to clean it all up. I could sure use whatever suggestions anyone has for using it.

Paper Try-out

I was getting ready to make a journal for the class I am taking with Laure Ferlita. I got the paper cut but since it isn't really watercolor paper and that is the medium I would be using, I thought I'd better test it out first. Hmmmm, the little pumpkin sort of came out okay but I sure didn't like the stripes on the wash. This is done on multimedia paper which I had read on some blogs was good for watercolor. Well, when you compare it to the washes made on watercolor that came out so smooth with almost no effort, I don't agree. I guess I'll make the journal but use it for colored pencil or something else but NOT watercolor.

I've got some Canson Edition paper in a dark beige and some Brockford paper in blue, torn down for a journal. I need to make a cover and then put it together which will be in the coptic stitch style for a change. I've never tried these papers or the journal type so it will all be new. I've heard good things about all of them. Hmmm, but I heard good things about the multimedia paper too. Well, that's why we should try different things at times so we know what WE like or don't like!

Love Those Grandkids!

My husband took us back to California just a few weeks after we'd come back from there. He wanted to fix up some of the family computers. While there I got my 13 year-old granddaughter signed up for Laure Ferlita's Autumn Class which just started (there is still room. Go here ). I helped her sign up in blogger and showed her what she'd need to participate fully. She wanted to try out the new watercolors I'd gotten her which would be used in the class so she and one of the other granddaughters sat down to paint. They didn't know what to paint though! So I put down my coffee mug and had them choose between it and a pink goblet that was already on the table. One chose the mug and the other the goblet. Then I showed them how to paint them and they did a great job. You can see for yourself they did a great job. Now let me tell you, these girls are 11 and 13 and this was their first try at using watercolors in a real way. If they can do it, so can you! So scoot on over and join in on one of Laure's classes. You won't regret it.

Wow, Another Page!

I got a new bird yesterday. Actually I got him a little over a week ago but when he didn't eat for 4 days and was sitting on the bottom of the cage, not even on his feet, I took him back. I was so happy to hear they'd take him straight to the vet. We hear such awful stories about the treatment of animals in stores and mills. When I called back later the manager told me the vet thought he'd make it and it was mites that were the problem. She said she'd put my name on him when she got him back so I could rebuy him. Then she took ALL the canaries for treatment. This was at PetCo so they really do take care of the animals.

Because I missed him after I took him back to the store I made a Zentangle with him. Now that I've got him back I made a journal page that I had pre-prepped with paint, about him. The zentangle is there rather than his picture. Now that I think about it, I should have had both picture and zentangle. Oh well, I guess I'll have to do another page sometime.

By the way, he is doing great now. He's hopping all over the place, eating the veggies I put in the cage and his seeds. He's even done some chirping. Cross your fingers he stays this way!

Helena ( Creating a Likeness )offered to make me some photo corners and I thank you for the offer Helena. As you can see, I made a couple for this picture and they are much larger than the punch cuts out. I appreciate your offer so much though.

New Pages

I made two pages for my journal. These were made loose to work on watercolor paper which my journal is almost out of. I'll use photo corners or something to attach them to a couple of pages in my journal. My next journal will have a lot more watercolor paper for pages!

Both of these are done lead-free with a Sharpie non-bleed-thru pen and then watercolored.