Lily of the Valley for Sunday Sketchs

 I was recently asked how I start my watercolor paintings. This week I thought I would show some sketches.. This is called Sunday Sketch's. ha ha.

 I take all my own inspirational photographs to use as reference. Usually I pencil in my composition first so I can erase and correct things. Once I'm happy with the composition I like to start adding the watercolor, trying not to paint within the lines so that it doesn't look to tight and controlled.

 In this particular piece I added just enough color to see what I was doing. It was a close up photo and it was rather hard telling what was in the forground and what was the background.

I did start using pen at this point too.

Unfortunately I didn't take photos of how I layered the color for you.

But at this point I start adding more value contrast and building up the color.I love the transparence of watercolor and like to see the various colors used within the shapes.

The last step is adding more detail and value lines using the pen. 

 

Finally the finished watercolor that was started in the spring when my garden was full of beautiful 

   Lily of the Valleys.

detail #1

detail #2

detail #3

detail #4

The final piece

I thought you might be tired of seeing all my Holiday Acorns this week, so decided to post this watercolor which was finished in between doing all those acorns...ha ha

Don't worry next week your going to see all six finished Holiday Acorn designs! I even made four of the designs in two different color versions, and ordered cards which will be delivered November 26th. 

I'm so excited!!

Don't forget to follow the link to see what the other artists have created for this weeks Sunday Sketch's

Have a wonderful, safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

~ Karen

Creative Tuesday

 

I'm a bit late... But here is my submission to Creative Tuesdays.

Follow the link to see some amazing artwork!

Let the Holiday season begin!

                                 ~ Karen

Sunday Sketchs The Centerpiece

Well my still life is finally done but I'm sorry to report the photographs don't give it justice. I always try to take my photographs outside using natural light, but the weather combined with a busy schedule caused me to photograph when there wasn't sunshine resulting in flat lighting  The pictures look rather blue.
I tried my best to use Photoshop but I just could get them to look like the actual painting.
My husband, Chris is a commercial photographer so I asked him to scan the painting and do his magic in Photoshop. Unforunately he didn't have it done for Sunday Sketchs so I had to use my photos.:(
I plan on making prints and cards of the painting along with some very whimsical acorns for the holidays.
Chris is busy handling the scans and printing for those so we get the color just right.
Till then have a wonderful Sunday.

Karen

Sunday Sketchs and another Acorn

If you haven't noticed.... I really had fun taking pictures of the latest two acorns. Hope I didn't bore you with my silliness but it's that time of the year when its hard not to get a bit squirrelly.

Just Having Fun With Acorns

If you have been following my blog for some time you know that I LOVE acorns. I've been working on a series of whimsical acorns that  will evidently turn into greeting cards. This is acorn number four, and next Sunday I'll share number five. If you would like to see the first three click here.

~ Karen

A Peek inside my Classroom Halloween

 My day started at 4:00 am...

 A sample of what the students were creating.

 She was smiling at 7:30 am that's always a good sign.

 Students busy applying paper mache to their fantasy creatures.

 Living art work

Having fun with some of my girls. It was a good day.

Smitten with a Side Walk Crack Illustration

 It all started when I uploaded a photograph taken by Carla Sonheim of a side walk crack. Her challenge was to look at the photograph,  turning it all around until you saw an image.The next step was to sketch out what you saw and transfer it to watercolor paper. After transferring the image it was our job to create a drawing / illustration.

If your wondering if everyone saw the same image the answer is no. I gave a copy of the photograph to another art teacher and one of my students and we all had different drawings. How fun was that?

I've included this post with Alexandria's Sunday Sketches, follow the link to see what other artists have to share this week.