I’ve become infatuated with drawing flowers lately. I draw from several photos at a time in an attempt not to simply copy but to understand their structure. Then I redraw the plants using my drawings and memory of the structure of the plants. Here you can see a page of studies of various plants and a painting done from one of the studies. The scarlet pimpernel is a tiny plant you’d barely notice if it weren’t for its bright orange flowers. #watercolor#coloredpencil#botanical
More flower doodles… These are drawn with Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils on Tomoe River paper. The references for this piece are from Sunset’s Western Garden Book. You can see the tiny brush I use to activate the watercolor paint with water to blend the colors after I draw them onto the paper.
Caprifoliaceae (Abelia)
Yarrow (Achillea)
Pot Marigold (Calendula officinalis)
Snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus)
English Daisy (Bellis perennis) #coloredpencil#botanical#watercolor
Tinker & Sheep. This is the very last illustration I painted and then scanned. Now all my hardware is packed away for our move to Europe in just a few days!
I painted this last night with watercolor & ink, until 4 am, and I really like how it came out. The palette is right up my alley. That pumpkin pie too...
I painted this portrait of an old lady and her dog with handmade watercolors. I love that type of watercolor because it has a very matte, vintage finish compared to commercial watercolors. It's quite difficult to work with it using many layers due to its large particle size (it's ground by hand), but the final feel looks good.
Back to the cottagecore style, using only 3 colors in the gouache palette (raw umber, burnt sienna, and indigo), plus a bit of yellow colored pencil for the jacket. It's unreal how much more cohesive a piece looks when the palette is so limited. But while this can be a great tool, helping artists to not mess up the colors, it also betrays weakness. Getting very colorful and fully saturated colors to work cohesively in a piece (as seen in some uber-modern pieces), is an art in itself. An art I haven't mastered yet...
I think this is the most complex watercolor I made so far, at least in terms of sketching. I'm happy how it came out for the most part. I wanted to make it a bit funny, given that most families are kinda like that, each person living in their own little world, even when among loved ones.
This is my latest gouache. Due to my past as a surrealist collage artist, I don't quite like it making surreal paintings (I want the two art forms to feel different), but I liked the idea of this one, as it was playful and illustrative at the same time.
This is one of the first illustrations I made when I started painting more seriously in early 2020. It doesn't show from this scan, but it was painted with metallic/gold paint, so the original shines beautifully.
Here is an abstract painting to brighten your Monday.
I spend a lot of time and effort trying to learn to draw real things, which for me, is very challenging, and at times, frustrating. I want drawing to be easier, yet, I’m contstantly reminded of how difficult it is. So sometimes I just play with colors without any concern that my art portrays a recognizable object.
I love painting "cottagecore" themes these days... The style has seen a resurgence in the last 10 years, as more people are dreaming of leaving the big city, and living a more traditional life in nature.
Dream Path, colored pencil and digital art. I woke in a dream. Stone stairs I knew not beckoned me follow. Pondering I gazed. Magic danced in the sky, evermore enticing. What venture awaited me I'll never know, awakening too soon