Light Purple Iris from Life

 Light Purple Iris from Life, pen-watercolor

in pocket Moleskine Watercolor journal

Hen, Goat, Cat, Rocks Page

pen-watercolor in pocket Moleskine Watercolor book

Missed posting the Hen, Goat, Cat and Rocks page when I finished it. Switched over to my other pocket journal, the sleek 3" x 5" Moleskine Watercolor one. Still has 140lb cold press paper but the grain is a lot finer than the Strathmore, allows more detail and smaller sketches with fine point pens. 

Everything's from life of course. There's huge patches of irises coming up in the yard across the driveway, under and between the trees and on a hill that used to have a fountain. The first to bloom was that rich red-violet. The second is a light purple, bluer, a good tint of Dioxazine Violet with touches of blue here and there.

Now a third has bloomed with dark lower petals and light upper petals. I'll have to paint that one too, naturally! Kitten says there are bronze ones, white, pink, other colors, so I can't wait to see what blooms next. 

The jonquils are all bloomed out but there were so many of them I was thrilled. Bulb flowers seem to do well here! I hope my hyacinth survives to bloom again next year and maybe propagate itself.

White Hen from life

White Hen, watercolor on paper, 3" x 5"

Nothing yesterday, but today I was outside and saw the white hen "Sun" sitting and strolling on a short stone fence around the garden patch in the front. I was going to paint my hyacinth again since it's opened, but Sun grabbed my attention. Had fun mostly negative painting her with loose background greens and browns, then getting the rich shaded soft green moss on the rocks.

Will be doing more tomorrow, I think.

Jonquil and Rooster from Life

Jonquil and Rooster from Life 3" x 5"

watercolor on paper

They're not to scale, just two watercolor studies on a small Strathmore journal with my Sakura Koi pocket box watercolor set. I didn't use pen on them either, but did pencil the jonquil before painting.

It's been nearly a month since I did anything. I got bronchitis which turned into pneumonia and wound up in the hospital, which was a major bummer. Too weak to do anything, even sketch, I've spent most of the month sleeping or coughing and wishing I could paint this, that or the other thing. Today I felt up to doing so and am getting significantly better every day. The worst is definitely over.

I hate winter, but spring is here early and wonderful. Love the flowers coming up everywhere, jonquils abound around the farm house. Also the flock of gorgeous chickens including Black Marins, my favorites. They do get weird fluffs of feathers on their feet, the rooster in the painting has those fluffs.

Hopefully to be continued...

Animal sketches and nature

 Gum Ball, Horse and Rooster Page pen and ink

Horse and Goat line drawings, pen on paper

Pigma micron pens and a small Pentalic wirebound journal in hand, yesterday I got in some good drawings. The first 3 1/2" x 5" page has a Gum Ball - seed head from a sweet gum tree - drawn carefully in pen and ink with stark black shading for its shadowed half. It looked really interesting. Same page I sketched a horse from a small plastic model Sascha lent me and a rooster from my own photo. The rooster's fairly detailed and recognizable, he's the sweet tame one who's not good for breeding because he's an odd mix instead of a pure Lavender Marin. 

Unfortunately, roosters can't be neutered without an operation harder than spaying a female cat, vets just can't do it with how they're built. So he's probably for the pot since he shouldn't breed. Sad really.

Second sketch page has a horse from life just in a clean contour drawing above a La Mancha goat buck also in contour drawing. I could paint either with any color or markings I wanted but kept those drawings simple. I'm still familiarizing myself with their anatomy. 

As I go out on horse shoeing trips with my daughter Kitten, I'll be doing more horse gestures and other farm animals. This is fun. Got a cool photo of our own goat Kara, the pretty horned one. She's black with pale gray-white ears and a slightly crooked horn, all the other goats are dehorned so I'll be basing goat horns mostly on Kara's. She's a different breed from the others too but I don't remember off hand, will post when I ask again since I forgot. Heh, fibro fog zaps my memory on too many things but the body proportions of the farm creatures are starting to become familiar!

Pen and Watercolor Rooster

Pen and Watercolor Rooster

3" x 5 1/2" in large Moleskine watercolor journal

Today's art is small and refined. I didn't draw till late and then answered an art game of "the next sketch is..." with him as a black and white animal. Yellow feet and red face decorations didn't seem to break that up. Very tricky doing his markings justice. 

This one was fun. I do like doing accurate animals and birds. I've been a little more interested in chickens for the past few years since my adopted daughter got hers. They're fascinating birds. Very close to the lineage of dinosaur-birds, so hers have the nickname of "back yard tyrannosaurs" and are doing a fine job of eliminating spiders, worms, bugs of all kinds out there.

When I move back there with her I'll have other farm critters to sketch. Horses, lots, she has rescue horses and I'll also be riding around on her horse shoeing adventures with sketch gear in hand. Also goats, ducks, dogs, rabbits, grand kids and many assorted cats besides my own! It'll be fun.