Lots of fun this week

Happy Friday sketches and PPF everyone.
Let me start this post by saying thank you for all your lovely comments on last weeks post. It's so enjoyable to read them all, and how creative you all were. Many times it can be hard to leave a comment that's fresh and feels new when the list of comments is long as a good week.

In my sketchbook this week, I have tried to capture some of the most loved flowers in my garden. When I was finished painting them, the usual thought I'll just......  arrived and I topped it all with a glaze of gold. I'm not sure that made my painting any good at all, but that's how it ended. By the way, I actually sat outside sketching these, but I prefere to work at my desk.

I've also been into a roll of making flowers in a more free line or freestyle. It all began some time ago when I was making this rose.

Some time later this one emerged.

And a couple of days ago I made this one. This last one is the main flower in a piece that I love and it has to be framed and can never leave home. LOL.

Yesterday I started playing with different flower shapes, to simplify them, and that's what I'll do this weekend too. I hope to find some really good lines which will make beautiful freestyle flowers. Next week I hope to share with you a piece made with this type of flowers.

Right now, this is how far I've come. Still just at the stage of experimenting.

Thank you for visiting and have a lovely weekend!

The process

I had this wonderful day yesterday.

I was experimenting and ended up creating a beautiful piece of art. It all started out with a thought, what if.....
and I had to try it.

I drew my subject, and masked out all the lines. For me it was important to keep the lines slim and as even as possible. Next time I might vary the lines as I saw that can be beautiful too. I picked my colors, Twinkling H20's and some flat Senellier watercolors. I had nothing planned, so I just followed my intuition while doing the background.

Masked and ready for paint

Let me tell you something, almost always when I'm creating something (when painting) I end up rescuing instead of creating. I always feel I'm about to ruin my piece and have to take serious steps to save it. Anyone else that feel the same way?
With this specific piece it was the background that came out so very wrong. I was thinking to use negative painting as my technique for the background, but decided not to use my pencil to outline the leaves as I went on. That was a mistake. Flat watercolors and freehanding the leaves, I'm just not that good yet.

Disaster

As you see above, most of the leaves looks weird and I were close to give it all up. But in a strange way while painting the flowers, my brain worked on its own and came up with some ideas. With acrylics, I reworked the background. I kept the leaves I liked and painted over the weird ones.

It's always so exciting to remove the mask to see how and if it becomes as I had envisioned, and this became even better. The upper leaves is greener than my photo shows, I don't know why they turned out so pale.
I simply love my end result, and this piece has to be framed.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.

Apple blossoms

It's past time for apple blossoms this year.

We have 6 appletrees in our garden, and they all act differently. This year 3 of them had a normal blooming, one was so loaded with blossoms that I've never seen it befort, and two had no blooms at all. They are all old trees, and the apples aren't especially good to eat, but I use them in cooking.

It's truly a beautiful sight when they bloom, all the pink color turning almost white when the flowers open up. There's so much going on in the garden right now that I have no chance capturing it all in my sketchbook. That's when the camera comes in handy. I have hundred of photos for later use.

It's really nice to to draw and paint, all the beauty from the garden, in winter. Wind and snow howling around the corners, and me sitting longing for a new spring. That's the time for using all the photos, picking a subject from all the beauty that was in my garden last season.

Happy PPF and Friday Sketches everyone, and thanks for checking in!

Documenting the garden

This week I got some Zeta journals in the mail, and have been very eager to try them. This painting were made in one, and it's goooood. So smooth, easy to draw and easy to paint on. I love it.

I'm thinking of documenting our garden in it, when things bloom and so on.

In my package I also had ordered a pad og Yupo paper. I made a first try on that as well, but have to make some more to be able to tell if I like it or not. It has to be over the weekend, tomorrow we're all celebrating our constitution day. I have lots to prepare.

I also got myself some new Twinks this week, so I'm well prepared for any art adventure. Right now I'm watching my peony tree. Last year it had one flower only, this year it seems there will be six. Flowers as large as my hand. I can't wait till it happens.

It's this peony tree, or bush will be more correct right now, which is my first entry in the new journal.

I'm linking this post to Friday Sketches.
Thanks for visiting, you're much appreciated.

All week about nature.

All my work this week has been related to nature.

We kept on weeding last weekend, and luckily we're almost finished. Just one more flowerbed remains, but the rain came and now it has to dry up a bit.

All year around we have magpies in our garden. I think they are bautiful birds dressed in white tie and tails. They always seems so happy except when they're arguing.
This week we've had four or five of them in the garden and they got me thinking of my paternal grandma. She was born in 1891, and she didn't like the magpies at all. It was something old I believe, about the magpies came just for stealing.

The funniest thing she said  though, was that if one had magpies in the garden and they became noisy, one would have visitors to the home before the day ended. My grandma had lots of storys to tell, she died in 1995, 104 years old.

I made some other birds as well this week. I saw the idea over at  Stefanie's blog and couldn't resist making some.

Cool and happy birds, lovely for decorating and lots of other stuff. I might be back with some ideas later on.

I also tried my hand on making a landscape, using pan pastels. It isn't the worst I've made, but I need alot of practice to be good at it.

It's made on black paper, and I had to add more light to it in picasa. Well, that's about it.

Happy Friday Sketches and PPF everyone, and thank you for all your lovely comments. It's a thrill to read them all.

Mandala fun.

Yesterday evening I was reading some blogs of friends,

and found this super cute idea. Make a mandala and turn it into a bird. I had to try this first thing this morning, so I used a copy mashine paper just for the test.

How cute is that?? Now, remember, this is just my first test. Neocolors 2 is used for coloring, but I can imagine how beautiful it will become with using twinks. I highly recommend you to have a look at Stefani's blog to see and read how to make these birds. She did them a little different from what I did.

I'll have to make a few of these to have in our garden house, and how cool wouldn't it be to hang them in the trees in the garden. The possibillities are endless.

Guess what I'm going to do today??
Thanks for visiting, I hope you enjoyed it!

Go Wild

Happy PPF and Friday Sketches!

I was in doubt on what to show today, but that was untill I saw Dion's suggestion. Tea/Coffee cups/mugs is always a good alternative, and there is so many fun to choose from. This specific one is on my wishlist.

Now, why don't I just buy it, you might think. Well, I have to go to the gallery that sells them, and that's far away from where I live. But, I hope to be able to visit there one day. This mug might not be available at that time, but I'm sure there will be others that I may want to buy.

I have seen many different mugs, and quite a few I wish I had. It's so fun to have extraordinary mugs/cups. This black and yellow Zebra mug is so much fun, and the tail as handle. What's your favorite cup/mug?

As I decided on sketching this one I felt for making jungle like border to match the theme of my mug. I'm not sure who the designer is, but I have the name written some place.
I really don't have time to write this post, there's so much gardenwork to do right now. Handyman is out there weeding already, I better go help him.
Thanks for visiting, I appreciate all of you!