Creative Tuesday "Dreaming of Christmas"

 My first drawing for this weeks Theme "Dreaming of Christmas."

 I love the simplicity of this drawing, but the little girls feet, face and waving hand looked strange to me.

So I decided to give it another try and this time add a background to the scene.

 2nd drawing

Well..I didn't get to finish the revise as you can see. I had sketched out the background in my sketchbook and was still revising the children when I realized I wasn't going to complete the piece by today's dead line. I ended up cutting out the children and gluing their feet onto the background. My little girl seems to have aged and the little boys face got puffy. It still needs work but I made the dead line Michael.

Would you believe  I was thinking of calling in sick this morning just to stay home and finish it properly. I'm starting to take Creative Tuesday a bit to seriously. haha

I love my concept, it brought back so many fond memories of my own children when they were small. We always cut down our own tree and would dress up just to visit Santa at the Art Gallery. I remember their Grandparents telling us "This is the best time of your life, enjoy every minute with your children when there young."

I must admit, it is so true.

Happy Holidays

~Karen

Sunday Sketches "Holiday Baking"

Sketch #1

Sketch #2

Tis the season to firer up the oven and starting baking....

That's exactly what I did on Wednesday just like a thousand other people in the States.

It's also the day I decided to make a commitment to myself  to sketch something in my sketchbook every day for 108 days.

What ever gave me that idea you might ask?  Well another artist / blogger of course.  Marla Baggetta, of Painting & Pastels mentioned she was going to try sketching daily for 108 days and wondered if anyone else wanted to join her. You can read that post on her blog  Painting & Pastels.

I must admit  I've seen some amazing Art Journals in the past few weeks and have been toying with the idea of recording something positive each day in my sketchbook. When I read Marla's post I took it has a sign to do just that every evening before I drop into bed. ha ha. Please note that not all of my sketches will look as finished as what I posted today (I've been on Thanksgiving break) but at least one will be worthy to share on Sunday Sketches.

Have a great week and don't forget to follow the link above and see what the other artist are sharing today on Sunday Sketches.

~Karen

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