Giraffe

I have tried to draw animals before, but some move around more and faster than others.  The chipmunks in our yard don't stand still for more than a few seconds.  These giraffes didn't move much at all.  I had to draw a neck and head over a few times, but the body pretty much stayed put.  These are baby giraffes.  I wish I had an adult so I could see the differences. I didn't finish the one sketch as I was getting very hot in the sun.  Drawn with a 4B mechanical pencil in my Stratmore visual journal.  I may add a touch of color later. I decided to all color.  My camera didn't pick up the green of the grass and made it somewhat yellow.  Oh well...

Garden Bound

 When I found out the Arches watercolor paper would crack and fall apart if I folded it and bound it into signatures, I knew I needed to find a different way to put my journal together. I cut all my pages in half (7"x7") and used them to sketch out the different assignments and figured I would have them bound with a spiral binding afterwards.  It was very hard for the lady in Kinkos but she was finally able to get the holes to line up.  It didn't help that the pages are all warped from the watercolor.  (They are now becoming flatter since they were bound.)  The cover is crescent board in black with gold lettering with Gellyroll Pen from Sakura. I drew the bamboo in dashes to simulate an embroidery technique in Japan called Sashiko.  I hope to do another journal this way, but I think I should get the paper bound first.

Pallet from Japanese Garden

Decided to do a sketch of my watercolor pallet that I used in the Japanese garden sketches.  I am going to include it in my journal when I bind it. I found it fun to do and a nice reference for later. Done on Arches 140 pound cold press watercolor paper and Daniel and Smith watercolor paint.  I also included my water brush, watercolor pencil I used to sketch the outlines, bamboo pen, and stick erasure.

Vegtables-graphite

 Sitting on the deck this morning I decided to draw our garden.  It is beginning to ripen.  On our deck we decided to pot up a tomato called the Black Krim.  It is growing crazily and this one is almost ripe.  The eggplant is growing and is heavy with eggplants.  They are small ones only growing 4" lone, this one is almost ready. They are stripped in purple and white.  I may try a sketch in watercolor next week.  Now to look for new recipes. drawn in moleskin journal using 4B Creatacolor graphite wood less pencil.

Japanese Bridge

This is my last sketch for my Japanese garden journal.  I like the way the water turned out and yet think it might be too green.  In the picture the water is green but maybe not a vibrant.  I also like how my background turned out.  The plants close by having more detail than those that are more distant.  Painted on 140 pound cold pressed watercolor paper using Danial and Smith watercolor paints.  Now I need to bind them together.

Finished Japanese Garden Page

I was planning on making this my last page of my Virtual Trip to a Japanese Garden journal.  After looking at it I thought it would be better as my first page.  It shows a sketch from each lesson plan and would nicely fit as the first page even though it has sayonara on it.  This was sketched on Arches off white 140 pound cold press watercolor paper.  Watercolor paints are from Daniel and Smith.  The bamboo is drawn in copper ink with a  Pelikano Junior fountain pen, and the writing was with a bamboo pen and watercolor pigment. Just want to thank Laura for letting me know about the class.

Painting White Koi

I decided to work on sketching white koi.  I was afraid that the other colors would cause the fish to look off, but I like how they turned out. I used Arches 140 pound cold press watercolor paper and Daniel and Smith watercolor paints.  I used Mineral Violet for shading the fish in the blue water and Perylene Green for the fish in the greenish-yellow water. The first fish on the left I made ripples by painting French Ultramarine Blue mixed with Neutral Tint over the fish and water that had previously had a wash of the same color lightly pulled over the fish.  The center fish I made ring like ripples by using the same mix as above, but making the sharper edge ringlets.  On the final fish I used a mix of Perylene Green and Hanasa Yellow to try and show reflections.  The last fish had some problems of the orange spots wanting to lift off with the final wash.  I have learned so much on using watercolors with taking the Stratford free workshop class and Laura's Imaginary Realm class.

Quick Sketch Temple in Watercolor

This temple is part of a combination page for my imaginary trip to a Japanese garden. I am planning on adding other garden structures to this page by the end of the week. This temple is in Vietnam, I like its cap stacked on cap look  I used a pencil to do a rough sketch and then applied the color. Sketch is on Arches 140 Pound cold press off white watercolor paper with Daniel and Smith watercolor paint.