SOC 5 week 6, last week for this time.

Last week of Summer of Color.

This weeks colors is: orange + orange + blue.
I went with the first idea that came to mind this week. It's just a doodle, but very fun to do. Below you'll see part of my piece, how it looked when the paint was down.

It really doesn't look like anything special, but this is when the fun part begins. Now I'm going to add alot of lines to give the shapes a bit more life. The tip of my black pen was a bit ruined so my lines are kind of rough in this piece, but I don't think it will matter much for the end result. Below is how it looked with the line work done. I forgot to photograph before I added the finishing layer, so I had to cover it up a bit, sorry for that.

Now it's time to lift it up from the paper by shading the shapes. It always surprises me to see what a difference shading makes. It's so fun to see the 3D effect and how the shapes rises from the background.

SOC 5 is over for now, sad but that's the way it is. All we can do is to wait till next year. It has been fun, even though I didn't quite like how the colors were combined this year. But, as I always say to myself, a challenge is a challenge.

Thanks alot to Kristin and to all the lovely people who have been taking part of it all, not least thanks for all your inspiring and lovely comments, it's a thrill to read them all.

SOC 5 week 5

Green - green - pink.

I knew excactly what to do this week when I saw the colors. But, as often before, it turned our much harder than first thought. Actually I left my idea and did something else instead.

It's pretty hard to paint a rose in one pink color only, and many times during the painting process I wanted to add yellow/orange to it. But, I didn't because a challenge is a challenge and I wanted to stay true to it.

The pink I used was Pink Azalea, Twinkling H20 and the greens are Cobalt green and Forest green, both in regular watercolors. White and black pens and Paynes grey for shading.
On a certain stage I only wanted to leave it and start something new, but I kept going and the result is the best I could do with three colors only.

I am surprised on how hard it feels to use this limited palette, and I'm sure it would be much easier to use a triad instead of two colors in the same color group. Triads are very fun to play with, and they give lots and lots of  possibilities.
I hope everyone had fun playing this week.

A bit too ambitious,

I said I was going to start sketching city scapes,

well more correctly I meant street views. So, I had this photo from a street I wanted to try. Very soon I saw it was too ambitious to start with.

The buildings had too many details, and to finish it the buildings would be too small to add all. I just did the first two, and put down some colors to it. Even though I didn't mix any colors, it's quite amazing to see the changes in a sketch when it's colored.

I started over and sketched our garden house, more familiar and easier done. I did this same sketch a year ago, and it's so much better now. I still need to practice trees and hedges, but it's kind of a  promising result.

Uplifted by this result I sketched our house as well. It's wonky and many details not quite correctly done, but I painted it and it's good enough for a start. As you probably know, we have several buildings on our property, so I have many opportunities to practice.

When I look at this sketch now, I see I've told just half the story. We do have neighbours, and in a new one I'll add more of the surroundings too.

One of the warm and sunny days we just had, I actually sat outside and sketched the entrance in more detail. Wonky as well, but I can feel this will become something I'll love to do.

I'm not showing these to tell you all how good they are, it's more to show that it's possible even if the result isn't all that good. One has to start one place, and this is where I start. Now I can only hope to improve, perhaps in a year I will have a better grip on it.
That's all for now, have a fab week all.

Finally summer

It's warm, warm, warm and I love it!

Class work has eased up and I have been practicing some more loose style this past week. It is incredible how much more relaxing it is to not think of an end result. Erika asked me, in a comment, last week, if I felt it hard to let go of control, and no, not at all but I still need control from time to time. But to loose up is a good way and one do not have to choose between them. Each technique is better for certain things.

My banana is very loose and I was experimenting with the black ink. I really think the ink can become part of the artwork itself, not only an addition to it.

Otherwise I have been thinking of sketching cityscapes, and for that I'll need to add people to make it more realistic. So, the other day I sat down playing with some left over colors in my palette and made people. Color and a brush and just do, it was fun and two three of them are really good. I think I'll make it a habit to use left over colors to make people, one day I might have it in my hand to make them. In a painting I'll have to use different colors on their clothing, if they're not just black "shadows" to fill in the picture.

I also did some sheep experimenting. Sheeps are a big issue where I live and also they have an easy shape to draw/paint. Once you find the typical lines for a sheep, they're very easy to do. I did these in less than 30 minutes, but I had done some studies earlier on.

In class I've done the red peppers or capsicums as I understand they're called as well. Not as loose here, but I got caught up in thinking perfection. 

Mid spread in my booklet, and this time I used a few words from a Norwegian song to follow the painting. I'm happy with the result, but also learned (Tracey told me) some important stuff. That pomegranate was beyond the stage of being rescued, so I turned it into a laughing face instead.

Linking to Paint Party Friday.
And, once again I will thank you, lovely fellow bloggers, for your inspiring and kind comments. They're much appreciated.

SOC 5 week 4

Red + red + metallic

YES, I love reds so this wil be fun. This were my first reaction to this weeks colors, but then..........
A rose and no greens?......... no. What excactly can I do with two reds and a metallic, and I do allow myself to use white and black/grey in addition. It was hard to come up with something to do, but finally I had an idea coming my way.

Some glas balls would work. I prepared a "canvas", one hard cover from an old book covered with old book pages. My intention was to make two balls in an orangeish red and two in a more pinkish red and the last one in gold. It turned out being a mess and I added red to the gold one too. Not good, so I started a new one.

This time I went for some real marbles, all red but still marbles. And why I didn't think of doing one marbel in gold I can't understand now. It was probably because of the first try, I guess.

While in the phone with a friend I added gold to the background, and regretted it the minute it was done. Wash over with clean water and pick up as much as possible. It is not the result I had hoped for, but I'm not going to do it all over once more.

I will do a piece with marbles again, but then I'll use colors of my own choice. It was much fun painting them, but the background should have been left white. Lesson learned. And as said, why didn't I add another marble and used gold for that?
Except this weeks colors, I've used white and paynes gray.

Good luck everyone! Linking to SOC 5