What a rainy morning can bring.

I couldn't quite like to paint on black paper in class,

while many of my fellow students were very excited. So the other day I found it was time to do another try. No expectations and no rules, my approach was to let loose and let the imagination and intuition take control.

What an adventure! I found myself both excited and thrilled. I used Clear Tar Gel from Golden to, quite
randomly, make the outlines of my rose. I wanted it to be a loose style rose and concidered it all to be a test. I let the gel dry well before getting on with paint. All my color choices were made by intuition. The reason all the lines are so black is the paper. The gel is clear but shiny, and makes it look like black paint. Have a look at the photo below, can you see it looks like fabric in the background?

With the paint dry, I added pan pastel to the background. One layer of Ultramarine Blue. I spent a long time concidering whether to stop at this stage, but my curiosity won and I added a final layer.

I used different colors of pastels and made lines. I think these lines add movement to my piece, but I'm not sure if this was the best piece to add them to. But, the flower stand out well because of it's shimmer. To use pastels together with Twinks is a fantastic combination. They both accentuate one another well, and it creates lots of  interest.

So far I've learnt many new things and I'm definitely going to do more of this. Suddenly black paper became an interesting substrate for me. Isn't it strang how little it takes to make a big difference?

By the way, can you see that the line work is a little inspired by Van Gogh.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you've enjoyed your visit.

Some old tools

For many many years

these were among my most used tools, together with a bunch of different sewing machines. I'm a trained tailor, and when in school, we were forced to use a thimble. It was a hard job to get used to it, and now I can't make a single stitch without it. No matter what I need to stitch, my thimble is a must.

That's the reason I have three, one quite small if my fingers are cold, one for warm hands and the fancy pink one were bought last summer in the US. I think that will be a good one, but I don't sew much these days.

My left hand pair of sissors is an important tool too, and as a tailor I do keep my fabric sissors away from all kinds of different use. I have one for paper use, one for kitchen, some fabric sissors and a couple of thread cutters. All for left hand use or universal.

This sketch were done with black pen only and watercolors.
Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful weekend!

I'm linking this post to Friday Sketching and Paint Party Friday.

Work in progress.

I'm working on a piece

that I have envisioned to be a great one. I'm sad to say that every piece I make never ends like I have envisioned.
I start by drawing my complete composition, and I have learnt that without a good drawing, my end result won't be good either. I'm not the kind of painter that can paint without any drawing. So, I put quite alot effort in to get it where I want it to be. In this particular piece, the birds are what matters for me, and I want each of them to have their own specific expression. Below is my drawing, this is how it looks when I'm ready to start painting.

Unlike what I have done in earlier works, I start with the birds this time. Normally, I paint the main subjects in the end of my work. But this time the other way around.

With all my practice lately, I've seen that the fear of getting started has disappeared. Any mistake is possible to fix, so it's just to get started. What I've also learnt is that to start with very light colors is smart, and that has now become a habit for me. Just to add more and stronger colors as work progress.

My birds turned out just as I wanted, and I'm very happy with them. It does remain to see how the background will affect them. Hopefully it will turn out well.
Thank you for visiting and leaving your comment, it's much appreciated!

Playing with ink

I was playing with ink the other day.

My sketch book has become a great place to play and test new things. Subjects I want to make a larger piece of are often first tried in my sketch book. This particular day, I was testing ink and how it would turn out if I let it bleed with spraying water onto the lines before painting anything.

As you see abowe, the ink spread out too much with spraying, so I changed my method by using a brush dipped in water instead. I liked that much better, since I had a bit more control with the bleeds. It was fun doing, and I will definitely do this more. The ink I used was water resistant,(?!) but that is when dry. I manipulated the ink when still wet.

I've learnt a whole lot about shading during the class I just finished, and I want to try more ways to use that knowledge. There is also a lot more I want to practice more, so my days will be filled to the brim of fun. My three roses in a vase are not excactly a masterpiece, but they served the purpos.

Because of the angles when photographing, the ink seems to be blue. It's black though. Do you have a sketch book? Why don't you join the Friday Sketching challenge Dion Dior hosts every Friday? It's much fun and one can link up the work every day during the week. There are no rules except your sketch has to be in a sketch book. Each Friday Dion announces a theme for coming weeks sketch, but we can do our own choices. It's easy to link up your work, just by copying your post address and add it in.

Give it a try, I'm sure you'll enjoy it too!

Tiny garden house.

 HappyFriday Sketching.

This weeks theme isn't excactly my cup of tea. I find it so very hard to sketch houses, and houses were the first thing I thought of when reading the theme.
I tried several times to sketch our house, but I had to let it go. Instead I made this little sketch of our tiny garden house. It's wonky, but still, it's a sketch.

Handyman built this house for us some years ago, using some windows which once belonged to our house. Together we planned the shape of the house and he built it.
Normally these little houses are painted white, but I didn't want it to show off that much. With this green color it flows with the rest of the garden.

We have some outdoor furnitures in there, and this time of year it's lovely to be there having some coffee. One gets closer to the garden this way, and many times I can sit out there watching lots of different birds. I have a bird bath on the deck, and the birds love it.

Notice the little lace border hanging down from the roof, I spent quite some time to design it, and handyman spent equal time to make it. We've had lots of positive feedback from our neighbours regarding this little "garden palace" of ours. The door is from somwhere in between 1900 and 1910, and was given to us from a neighbour. He changed all the doors in his house, and this one were the only one original from back then. I'm glad I did this sketch, but I'm not sure I'll do it over again untill I'm better doing it.
Thanks for visiting and enjoy your weekend!

What to do with the water?

Happy PFF everyone!

Let me start todays post by saying thank you all for visiting and leaving me a comment. I'm so thrilled to read all that you have to say to me, and now that my class is over, I might be visiting you too. Thanks!

I were playing around with my brushes, trying to paint some realistic water, using acrylics. As kids we just paint something blue and called it water. Oh my, how easy most things were in childhood. My sister always jokes about her childhood, she's saying : Childhood was a gorgeous time...................... afterwards! Yes, we tend to forgrt the problems that might have been.

Well, my water, I mixed a color that looked like water and started turning my brush, oh my it actually looks like water. Ok, lets do the land and the sky while luck is still here. One could, possibly, point at the lack of white reflections on the water, but hey, look at that water! One can't expect everything in a first try, eh?

So, now I have this fabulous background, how should I use it? What about a dragonfly? Wouldn't that be pretty close to normal? I think so, lets draw a dragonfly. With pen, right on top of my teriffic water????? Well, actually I sketched the dragonfly on paper before I transfered it to my page. I use my pan pastels at the back of my sketch, easy way to transfere. Black pan pastel most times but white if I use black or tinted paper.

I picked the colors I wanted to use on my dragonfly, Twinks watercolors. Now, watercolors on top of acrylics isn't excactly a chess move, the acrylics behave like resist so I had to be patient and put on lots of paint. But, it ended well and later I've found some lousy acrylics that works super together with watercolors.

What did you say??    a bit too large compared to the pole.................... pffffft, can't you see it's a pretty close close up?! A pole in the middle of the ocean, you say. Oh my, it's a lake and it's close to the shore, THIS side!!
No matter what, I'm very happy with my result, and I found the image of the dragonflt on the net. This was made in my art journal which is an old book I'm altering.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you've enjoyed your visit.

Towards the ending of class.

I am about to end my class,

just a couple of exercises left. What I've been learning is unbelievable. A year ago I would never have thought I ever could do a piece like this. In fact I would've been willing to bet that it was never going to happen.
Dion Dior was my teacher, and what she knows and willingly are sharing in these classes is much more than one could expect after paying a low price for each of the two classes. The fact that she were present, guiding and sheering, during the whole periode is another strong and important element if you concider taking these classes.
My fellow students were teriffic too, we shared,  discussed, advised and commented on each others work. Many of the students were very skilled and willingly shared of their knowledge too.

I were completely unfamiliar with watecolor painting before I started these classes. I had used them as a child, and tried them a bit lately, but I didn't know anything of techniques and how to. Now, I do.
It's up to me now to keep practicing, to gain some experience and become more secure in my painting. I highly recommend Dions classes, she's really skilled and know how to teach.

When I did this piece I drew the lilies and covered them up with masking fluid before I started the background. The "yellow" leaves were drawn in before another layer of paint. I did this many times, a layer of paint, drew in new leaves.

In the end I painted the lilies.It's quite some work to do a piece like this one, I used at least two full days to paint it.

When everything was dry, I added some minor details using my watercolor pencils. Looking at it now, it's sitting on my shelf, I can't believe I did it.
It's beautiful, it looks like it's made of a professional artist and it has some kind of excitement to it. And I did it, Yay! I'm quite proud and I'll frame it.

Thanks for popping in, I hope you've enjoyed your visit.