Here is the blue vase with a glaze over it. 

It looks better, right?

Due to my daughters upcoming wedding, I haven't had a chance to get back to oils since I did this one. When she moves out I will have my own studio! Yay! And then I will be able to really delve into the oils!

So back to the watercolors.

Here is a landscape where I tried different colors over a wash of manganese blue.

And here I was just playing with made-up flowers, trying to get a good mix. This is raw sienna and indigo blue. I used a little bit of windsor yellow over indigo for the leaves.

Here is some more fruit. I started this one in June and just finished it the other day. It pretty much sat idle most of the summer until I finally came back to it. I like the lettering. I just bought a new script liner brush so I want to try the lettering again using a proper brush this time.

Rose Study 2

On 90lb cold press watercolor paper from Fabriano.

Rose study 1

Painting number 2, a rose study. 

This one is a watercolor.

We are having a nice cool day today.

 Spent the whole morning processing tomatoes from the garden and making spaghetti sauce. Once I get it all cooked down and ready I will can it so we have great sauce for the winter.

It really takes forever though! 

:)

Advice Cards

My advice cards I painted for my daughters bridal shower. I printed them on my new Epson Workforce and they came out beautifully. I then cut each in half and had twice as many cards. Some of the advice, especially from the littlest girls was priceless!

Cherry pie

We got the most delicious cherries on our vacation in Michigan. 

Gotta make one of these:

Yum!!

Summer morning

OK!

After a good and restful nights sleep I am up early, said my morning prayers, took the dog for a long walk while its still sort of cool(not!) and now I'm ready for this:

Oh gosh-its not showing up too well. Gotta work on the photo editing a little more I guess. These are all little watercolors I did while I was on vacation.

If you were here girlfriends, I would offer this one to you!

 And we could sit on the back porch while the morning cool inches away from us

 and discuss the garden. 

We pulled 3~ 12 inch cucumbers off the vine last night! 

Yay!

 The summer bounty is beginning!

 I have 2 wonderful basil plants too, and I'm going to try to make my own pesto.

I love summer!

xx

~Annie

Poppies

The whole time I was painting this I kept hearing the wicked witch from 

the Wizard of Oz saying,

"Poppies...poppies will make them sleep..."

hehe!

I'm painting my way through an instructional book on 

how to paint flowers that I bought at Michaels.

Learning is fun!

Watercolor poppies

Got the scanner working!

My first attempt at poppies.

My palette

I got my new palette from Cheap Joes yesterday, and spent all morning setting it up and painting a picture of it. I put this painting in the scanner and it is just coming out so bright, it really looks better in real life. Maybe I should take a picture instead of using the scanner.

Anyhow,

 this is the way I have set up my palette for now. A lot of my colors are Koi and Cotman, and I would eventually like to replace them with Windsor Newton. Some of them are just not as transparent as WN.

I need to add a violet next, so I don't always have to mix it.

I love my new palette and I am learning so much about color mixing from this book:

It really explains everything so clearly.

A peach

A peach!

Brushes

I didn't produce much blog-worthy art over the weekend. I spent a lot of time watching watercolor videos on youtube. I still have a long way to go! LOL! This is the only one I really like from the last few days.

I ordered a bunch of books on watercolors from the library that I will pick up today. Our library has this awesome drive up window, so you can go online and choose books and they are waiting there conveniently at the window. It so totally rocks!

I am still waiting for my round palette from Cheap Joes, I hope it comes today!

Red Pear

I had very little time yesterday, but I did manage to get this one pear painted. I still think more contrast with the shadow. I do have trouble building up some very darks.

Still, I like the pear. Its a good pear.

I used quinacrodome  rose, vermillion hue, some glazes of windsor yellow and some carmine red.

I want to try again when I get some more reds, like alizarin crimson and the coveted quinacrodome coral! :^)

3 Pears

Working my way through the Pear-ology workshop this is my work from yesterday. I still want to go in and add some darker tones in the shadow, and perhaps more shadowing between the pears. I have always had trouble building up enough contrast in my work.

I also want to do a study of the red pear-I feel like I could work up a more vibrant red somehow. I don't have the quinacrodome coral that Martha uses in the example, but I definitely want to get it. It is only sold at Daniel Smith, so I have to order it. I will have to wait until the budget allows. I am really pining for it because coral is my all time favorite color! In fact I am pining for ALL of the Daniel Smith quinacrodome colors!!

I hope I will have time for painting today. Not sure I will because the youngest has an awards ceremony at her school and I have to run my mother around on errands a little bit.

Have a wonderful day my friends!

Pear-ology

I am taking a workshop from Martha Lever Of Red Door Art Studio called Pear-ology.

 It is all about painting with glazes in watercolor.

 The subject is, of course, pears, and the techniques she teaches are wonderful. 

I love her cute southern manner and her straightforward teaching style.

 I feel really excited to learn some techniques for watercolors. 

I have always, always been drawn to them, and it is exciting to finally be unlocking some of their secrets!

Here are my beginnings:

I still need quite a bit of practice, and I am slowly building up my supplies of paints and I just ordered a new palette from Cheap Joes!

This one is round so you can set it up like a color wheel. It helps visually with mixing colors. Since I am so visual and I can never remember the rules of color mixing I thought, this is the palette for me!