A cabin for scribble picnic @dotty-hill

I honestly do not think I have ever painted a cabin before. I rarely do houses or architecture, so I almost didn't play along with this challenge at the newly created "scribble picnic" @ Michael Macvean's blog

But I am glad I did, the first two tries were so horrible I couldn't even keep them, truly, I think I was trying too hard to be realistic and I guess that is not my style. 

 

Then this little cabin showed up and I liked it and remembered how to paint again so I did three more....

I liked doing them so much I have now even started a girl with a cabin in the background but don't have it ready to show yet..... 

So I guess I am saying... thanks for the challenge!

Happy paint party friday

Happy Paint Party Friday a day late.  Lots of alphabet pages to show today. I may even have them all done now, I just have to gather them all up and check as they are now scattered throughout 3 different sketchbooks ...

 

 

      I have been sick again, another stomach bug, like last month.  I hope that is done for the winter,  it was No fun at all. So Still feeling like hibernating a bit, and staying quiet and still. 

But I hope you are all well. 

5 things

Another busy week.

Here's 5 things that made me happy...

1. Going in to work early for some overtime let me see some amazing sunrises!

2. Going for rides with my son, I got to see some wonderful animals.... Deer, a bear just outside of town about 30 yards from a woman having a yard sale who never even knew it was there, bunnies, Hawks, cardinals, and this 

heron.....

3. Harvesting all this from my garden! My daughter is juicing 3 times a day while she quits smoking and will probably juice this all up in no time. She's made it over a week now so I am proud of her!

4. Searching through fabric for a new project. (I know... The voice in my head says "another new project! You haven't finished the last projects yet!") but I am shushing it because it is fun to plan, and technically it is not a NEW project if it has been rattling around I my head for over a year.

5. Playing in my sketchbook just for fun. I had no plans to do anything with this piece, I just wanted to practice more monsters, like I have posted the last few Sunday's to "Sunday sketches", but This time I wanted to start with random water colors instead of with a sketch, to see if that would change them up a bit and trigger some new ideas....

A color wheel of sorts

This is the Daler-Rownwy travel watercolor set I use all the time....I use the one brush that came in the set for EVERYTHING!

I have been meaning to for quite some time, but I have never taken the time to paint up a color wheel with it... Until now.

I wanted to see how some of the mixes would work, and to have a reference when I went to mix certain colors, especially violet as there is no purple in the set. 

So I traced a heart over and over on two pages in my sketchbook, then painted the colors straight from the set down the left side and across the bottom. 

Next I sprinkled salt in each while they were still wet to get an interesting texture.

Then I started mixing colors, equal parts of each, and lightly labeled the numbers of the colors mixed (example: 2+3) since I no longer know the names of the colors in this set. I tried to be neater than usual to get a true mix of the two colors. As you can tell from the looks of my paints, I don't normally worry about what colors get mixed in, I prefer to mix colors right on top of the paint instead of obsessing about keeping the colors pure. It seems to work for me and doesn't end up looking muddy as much as you might expect.

I like the end result and might try doing one up for a fabric like this, or wait till I get photoshop back and use this itself for the fabric, once I can manipulate it a bit so that I can get a repeat with it that will work.  We shall see...

playing in spoonflower...

sorry, no time to talk, but I wanted to show a quick fabric I was working on in spoonflower...
here's the original watercolor....

and here's the fabric...
still not sure it's the final product, may change the colors or even go backward and try to get the original watercolor look back...
and may change the  repeat style as it kind of shows the original shape too much...
so many ways to altar it and so little time...

see ya, gotta dash!

more alphabet kids...

This week I was back to drawing and painting alphabet kids.

whatever I am working on I am obsessed with working on...

until..

I am not. 

then I move to the next all encompassing thing. 

I did these for about 5 days and have even more than I am posting here... I couldn't wait to have a spare moment here or there to draw a few more, my new sketchbook is 1/4 full.

then I moved on to the novel and that is what I am working on the last two days.

Kara is actually the result of a dream. I dreamed I was getting remarried and hadn't planned the wedding or my clothes and people were arriving so I threw on a red leather fringe skirt (which truly I do not own) and red boots and a friend who saw my crooked veil, quickly glued a ceramic house on top of it to cover the faded flowers and down the aisle I went...
I have no idea what this dream could mean?!?
But it gave me an outfit for Kara....

 
I liked Opie but did not like his owl so I started over. The replacement is even worse in my opinion so I will do it a thrid time...
I liked the second one's sneakers better but everything else I hate.
argh!

Gotta run...

hello

Another friday has come again so quickly...

I thought we were due for spring, I had some flowers up in my yard, little crocuses and then we got snow...

inches of snow...

days of snow...

But it has all melted again now 

and I have been working on a mandala (still in progress)

 

 for my e-class; 

Falling Into Mandalas 

coming out in July, 2016

You can signup at coursecraft here

 (also still in progress),

and I have been working on little alphabet children

 (I can't decide between detailing in pencil.... or pen. Goldie and Tim are pen, and Annie and Meg are pencil.)  

.

And I have been working on some fabric too, 

for Spoonflower's "Sprout" contest...

they are looking for a fabric that would work well in a Kimono style pattern. 

See you soon,

announcing....

the winner of my book giveaway...

Linda Kunsman!

Congrats Linda!

the book is on the way...

This week I have been working on coming up with characters, little girls I like... and it seems to have evolved into an alphabet book, without even trying...

 

I have three or four more already but I don't have photos yet.
Gotta rush...
Happy Friday!