Glass Bottles in Watercolor….2

I’ve been a little ungrounded lately, because I don’t have a major project I’m working on.  Then I remembered…..



My glass bottles from July that I have been neglecting.



I’m using the watercolor pencils and to get rid of that graininess, I need to go in with a bit of water on a small brush. 



Unexpectedly, my favorite part of this is the cork in the green bottle!  A cork!! Go figure

Glass Bottles in Watercolor

Since I’ve never drawn an inanimate object…..or even a still life.  I thought it was about time.



I picked up these 5 glass bottles at Hobby Lobby a few years ago.  Clicked a pic of them on a cool January day in 2011….this is probably my favorite people-less picture.



I’m starting to get the hang of watercolor.  I did the wash first then I went in with the w/c pencils.  So much flexibility in these pencils….still learning it’s limits.



The nice thing about inanimate objects is the lack of perfection….I don’t have to be so exact!



I must’ve been avoiding something…..cuz I started to play



Don’t worry that red bottle is not done…that interior line wobble is bugging me too.

Colorful Contours

Needed to step back from my sketch that I’m working on and get some COLOR in.



So, I thought I’d have some fun with contour drawing.  For me, the first step is to get that contour down.



I used watercolor pencils for coloring in the clothes.



It was time for markers in the background.  There’s no better way to fill up that white space than with some definitive pattern…..which I get to color in.



I love those little thought bubbles.  I knew what I wanted to say in the right one.  Wasn’t so sure what to say in the left one….I debated with “I like people that can cook” with “I like people that make me laugh”…and then I thought I’d use “I like people who don’t take themselves too seriously”….but nothing stuck so I’ll leave it blank for now.

I’d love to hear your ideas for what that second thought bubble should say

I believe in Angels….

I spent an hour today searching for the “perfect” journal entry to go with my new drawing.  I love going back thru my old journals.  It’s amazing how the same themes seem to keep re-occurring.  What surprised me the most was how shy I was just 5 short years ago.  I wasn’t shy in a “too scared to speak” way, more like private.  I just didn’t bother saying much about myself to others (you know acquaintances, co-workers).  Yea, I was probably a big bore too!  It can get tiresome if someone else has to do all the talking (tiresome for the speaker). LOL!

After that hour, I still hadn’t come up with any journaling blog-worthy enough for the drawing.



I really want to sketch right now…cuz I’m due….but I haven’t found anything that’s inspired me in that way.  So, instead I pulled out my stencils and watercolor pencils and played.



I’m such a sucker for color!!  Gotta have my whole spectrum!



Since the black/white doodling has worked with other watercolor drawings, I went back to that technique.



If you’ve been following my blog then you’ll probably remember the above journaling.  It’s from The War of Art and it reads:

I believe in Angels.  They work for God- it’s their job to help us.  Wake us up.  Bump us along.  They shout “Evolve! Evolve!”….Angels are like muses.  They know stuff we don’t.  They want to help us.  They’re on the other side of a pane of glass shouting to get our attention.  But we can’t hear them.  We’re too distracted by our own nonsense.  Ahh, but when we begin.  When we make a start, when we commit and face our fears- a crack appears in the membrane.

However, I ran out of room up there and couldn’t journal the entire paragraph. Shoot!

Who Says?

I got the inspired to draw a peacock from this post.



Then I thought it would be cool to write in the different feathers.



They say it takes intelligence to hold two opposing views in your head at the same time…well, I don’t know if that’s true but it is something I do a lot.



After I drew this little guy, I thought he resembled the little gecko from those geiko commercials.



I thought this view was pretty cool.



I think I like the way these art journal pages look with the watercolor as the base.



And this is what all that ramblin’ reading says.  A fun collection of little quips people say.

Artsy-Fartsy Foto Day

There’s just something about looking at art supplies that revs-up my creative side.  And there are so many people out there that take such wonderful pictures of their supplies in use and/or a beautiful mess of color. 

Well, since I don’t really paint, it’s a little hard for me to take a picture of my paint brushes and palette.  But I’m not gonna let that stop me from taking fun, artsy, pictures when I come across them.

Above, is a picture of my liquid acrylics ink.  I haven’t used them much lately….but now that they are out…I’m seriously considering it!!  I love the white one which is Dr. Ph Martin’s Bombay White India ink.  It’s basically white-out for artists!!  LOL!

And below I’ll show you some of my other favorite artsy-fartsy photos that I’ve taken over the last year or so.



You’ve probably seen this a time or two, since I’ve put it on my blog header before.



This one just makes me want to learn how to draw with colored pencils.  The pic above is of my watercolor pencils which I’m just starting to figure out.



Took this picture in January on my deck, around 4-5 pm.  The sky was gorgeous and the sun was bright.  I’m pretty proud of this shot.  It even made it on Flickr Explore/Interesting list (top 500 uploads) for January 5, 2011.  It made page 41…..so it’s ranked around 410-420 that day!  Woo-who!

I would love to see shots you guys have taken (or been inspired by).  Please post a link in the comment section and I know I’ll go take a look

Zelda Zany on Duty

Every now and then a Bird Drawing just screams to be brought to life.  That’s what happened here.



Armed with my handy-dandy moleskine, my black pen and a ruler…..I straightened things up a bit.  I would’ve drawn more birds, if I had the room.  For the coloring book print of this.  Click here and download.



Here’s Zelda in all her zentangle glory.



Good thing she uses an umbrella, didn’t know where else I’d bring in those rainbow colors.



This was a fun one to color in.



Macro detail.  That black line was bugging me, cuz I couldn’t pull off the black-stripe-on-the-bottom-of-the-lane-look.  Photoshoped it out in the final version.



Zelda Zany…..she was so excited when she landed her first job.  There was a certain status to being a lifeguard.  Some of the younger birds liked to get her wet which broke up the monotony.  What surprised her most was how utterly bored she was while working.  To help keep the boredom at bay she would imagine “worst-case” scenarios as she watched the kids.  In them she’d be needed to help or save a life.  As she clocked out, she had to smile because she saved 3-4 lives that day (even though they were all in her head).

Have a safe and fun summer!  Hopefully there’s a Zelda watching you at the pool!  LOL!

Zander I. Zany

I think you’ll like Zander I. Zany.  What does the “I” stand for you ask??? Intellectual, intelligent, inquisitive, incoming……



I think it’s fitting that this guy is in a wing-back chair, reading in his library.



I don’t think he even noticed that his favorite chair is covered in a floral print.



Personally, I really like that chair.



I wanted to avoid drawing in All.Those.Books, but I couldn’t figure out a way around it.



Zander I. Zany……being the Patriarch of the family, he has earned his right to his own room and his own time.  He’s always been one to keep to himself, he is a very curious sort.  He remembers everything he reads (and almost everything he hears).  He’s won many bets and would do very well at Jeopardy.   But game shows don’t interest him much.

A dancing Zany Bird

These Zany birds are addictive, what can I say?  I just had to draw another one.



I seem to like to draw ballerinas.  I get to add another one to my collection.



This is a better look at her pose.  Decided against drawing ballet slippers, after all those little bird feet need to breathe.



It starts to get busy fast once I start coloring in the background. In the picture below, I wanted to show the birds reflection in the mirror behind her.  Would’ve been easier in photoshop.



I’d like to introduce Zamora Zany……She’s had butterflies all day due to anticipating the Try-Outs.  But once the music starts the butterfiles leave her alone.  It’s just her, the music and the dance.  She loves losing herself this way.  It’s just plain fun to move!