A magic horse and washable markers... a test

As in my previous post, the creative impetus for this comes from Carla Sonheim's 2014: Year of the Fairy Tale.

Never having worked in washable markers where I add water to them, I thought I'd do some testing.

First, sketch an imaginary magic horse in graphite and then color with markers.  Use a brush to add water:

Get the colors down.

Next, more layering and blending:

Add the eyes :-)

Then details with graphite and charcoal:

Finis

These washable markers are a bit difficult to blend using water but they are easy to clean up and very inexpensive.  This was a fun experiment.

"Walkies" and some happy news

Yay, "Walkies" is done.  This is the next interim picture:

If you want to see more of my process, check out my two previous blog posts.

And the completed drawing:

"Let's go 'Walkies'".

The pastels were fussy to work with compared with colored pencils, but in the end I like the result.  I think I will use them again, too :-)

This sort of landscape really pulls me in - I get lost in imaginary structures and creatures; so I have to ensure that I stop frequently to assess it over all and then decide whether to proceed or not.  I think I stopped at a good point...

And the happy news?  My painting, "Flowers In The Mist" sold a few weeks ago:

It is a great feeling {big smile}.

Brushing paint

I am having so much fun applying acrylic paints with an abandon that I usually reserve for abstract painting.  Diane Culhane's techniques from her online class, "Paint Your Garden"  really encourage me to use a lot of dry brushing, leaving underpainting and other layers only partially obscured.

The assignments are great exercises and I am getting the hang of using a rigger ("liner" brush) to define little characters.

Some vignettes from a couple of days ago:

Very green sort of flower...

Is there a flower like this one?

This is also a flower...with fireworks :-)

Some "brush"-ier birds:

Brushing, layering, masking and some sgraffito.

I added line work. (I really like to add definition.)

Well, time for an iced Americano and more studio time. 

Painted a little painting...

using techniques I learned from Diane Culhane's online class, "Between Speech and Silence". I enjoy painting this way; it's very liberating and forgiving :-)

"Meeting"