Deception Pass WIP #3 and Finished Piece

I am very glad I decided to do this piece in stages.  Using the whole sheet of paper is still kinda scary and I loved my pencil sketch so much it was hard to add color.  I kept thinking that I was going to ruin it somehow.  After I did the mountains, I worked on the sky, trying to get the fade to almost white towards the horizon to look natural.

I was still rather unhappy with the mountains' color... a little too green.  So when I took up the painting today I decided to add more browns throughout and I think it looks more like the real thing.  I also decided to try wax to create the reflection of the sailboat in the water as well as the crests of the waves left by the faster passing ships.  I found that layering the blue after amble drying time got the color dark enough finally.  Overall I am pretty proud of myself.  I really like it.

I am already trying to find another larger subject to paint so I can feel more comfortable with a whole sheet of paper.

Deception Pass WIP #2

I have finally conquered  my fear of putting paint to paper on this one.  I decided that I will do this in stages, especially because the color is a little too mossy green... I need to add some more tanny browns for the rocks on the far shore, but I didn't want to overwork the paper.  Anyways, less chat more art.  Here it is.

Some of you may notice that I have no ink on this painting.  I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  First off, the bridge is green and I don't have a green sharpie that dull industrial green color- or anything even close!  Secondly, I kinda am feeling more natural colors and textures would best suit this landscape.  So after staring at the sharpies and the drawing for a long time, I decided to be brave and not outline anything on this one... though I'm still not sure about the sailboat which was all white with white sails.

Deception Pass - WIP #1

Last February I got to visit Deception Pass inbetween Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island in Northwestern Washington State.  It is beautiful there, though I must say I didn't venture out onto the bridge by foot.  It is amazingly high and my fear of heights stopped me in my tracks.  We hiked down to the strait's shore and I got this amazing photo:

I decided about a month after this visit to try to do my first full page watercolor (ordinarily, I fold the page in half because for some reason a whole page is just too scary :-).  So here is the pencil sketch I have done so far.

Now that it's all sketched out, the paper doesn't seem so big and scary anymore :-)  I hope to have the inking done soon.  Then I plan to watercolor the whole thing.

Some of my first doodles

I did these two doodles while waiting for my online game to load between zones...which can sometimes take a while.

Both are done with whatever Crayola crayons I could find in the computer desk drawer, a medium point black Sharpie, and generic computer printer paper.  Not the fanciest, but they definitely got me through those long zoning times.

My latest EDM Challenges

As I said in my last post, this summer has been crazy, but I have still managed to do some art!  I did a bunch of EDM challenges recently in my watercolor moleskine.

#6 is of a glass horse figurine I've had since I was very little, maybe kindergarten age.  I had a rather large glass object collection, of which only this piece remains.  I've never been a horse girl, but for some reason this horse was special to me.  It has had its leg broken twice and fixed with glue, the lines of which are still visible.

I won this coffee tin in the teacher's egg-on-a-spoon race 3 years ago.  I was first place which can only be described as a miraculous win!  I have no idea how I managed to keep that thing on the spoon!

I bought this necklace for $3 at Payless cause it spoke to me.  I drew out ever single stone or doodad on each string, really trying to pay attention to each stone's angles and the overall spacing of each item.  I got to listen to KSER 90.7 Everett's Nordic Root and Branches via the interwebs while drawing this one, which made the fiddly work rather enjoyable.

The school year has started for me, and while the kids and parents may only see the well oiled school day, the planning is pure chaos, loosely held together by memory and this planner.  I am lost without this thing during the school year.  I honestly don't think the year would go as well with it and copious amounts of post-its.

Boulevard Park after the job interview

So I haven't been posting as often because this summer has been very crazy for me.  I have been trying to relocate to Bellingham for a while but teaching jobs are not easy to come by anywhere.  I finally got the calls I had been waiting for and was quite the jet-setting commuter for a couple of weeks as I went to a couple of interviews.  On the last trip, I had lots of extra time to actually enjoy the town I want to move to.  So I went to Boulevard Park, found a bench, and managed to get a whole painting done before the call to sign a contract came in. (In an non-art related update, that job didn't pan out, but it's okay... next year it will work out better.)  So here is the inspiring view:

And here is my interpretation:

I learned a lot from this painting (which is water color and sharpie on kinda cheap 90lb water color paper):
1. 90lb paper doesn't allow much reworking.
2. En plein air only really works when there isn't so much wind :-)
3. Colorless colored pencil isn't good for masking unless you want that spot to be permanently white (I've since gotten masking fluid).
4. Mountains, especially those in the distance, are hard!  What the heck is that color anyway??  I ended up using a light purple, then yellow, then neutral tint, and it still didn't look the same... any ideas?
5. I would like to practice landscapes more. It was fun to do this, but I tend to only draw one or two objects at a time, so I will try to do more of these wider views.

I like to remember what I was listening to and where I was sitting when I make a painting... this one was particularly meaningful because of the fond memories I have of the park and the reason I was there in the first place.  But I love the people around me too... there were these 2 women who were meeting to do a bible study together (they had beautiful covers for their bibles!) and they decided to sit on the rocks somewhat in front of me.  They only lasted for 5 minutes though as the winds were crazy and they finally gave up.  They mentioned how brave I was to stick it out and that I was smart to wear a sweater for the chill. Despite it being late July, I have found it's always best if I pack a jacket.  The bench I was sitting at was dedicated.  I don't who the man was, but it's such a nice bench with a beautiful view, I thought I'd share the plaque too.