Paint Party Friday: Painting for Advent

 A week ago I decided to do an advent calendar for my brother and his family, with handpainted minie watercolors and Christmas poems and stories for each day. So here I am. Four are still missing.

Candles for the four Advent Sundays. Is an advent wreath a tradition in your part of the world?

Hats and baubles and a tree.

Sweets and gifts and a bell.

Santa's hat, mich love and warm mittens.

And of course some lights, glitter and fun in the snow.

Happy PPF everyone!

Sharing with Paint Party Friday!

Paint Party Friday: Is It Fall Already?

Good morning for Paint Party Friday! I didn't share my art here for some time, as life got in the way. We're building a house and do the interiors for some weeks (putting up wallpapers, painting, laying tiles etc.) and my husband got injured in the process, so he can't use his left arm for some months. So it was all up to me and my lovely parents and parents-in-law, who helped us so much. We are very lucky to have them!

But back to art. Although I didn't have much art time, I painted and drew some things. For example this barn owl on Strahtmore Toned Tan paper. Got it yesterday and love it already. The pencils were Faber Castell.

Then I drew/painted some squirrels. On the parking lot in front of my office building, there are some nut trees and those little guys are busy right now collecting the nuts. This one is drawn with colored pencils.

And here's the same motif with watercolors. Fur is still my weak spot. :/

A Youtube tutorial and some fellow artists in Twitter made me try the salt technique on watercolors. I think it gives a very nice effect. I painted this leaf and while still wet, I sprinkled fine salt over it. The fun is, that the painting still glitters a bit, when the dried salt is removed.

Also painted this winter motif after a YT tutorial and sprinkled it with coarse salt. Love how the background turned out.

Made some of the drawings/paintings of the last weeks into cards for Christmas and for other occassions. It's always good to have some in store. :)

Have a great artsy weekend!

Sharing with Paint Party Friday!

Paint Party Friday: Regaining Confidence

 Hello and welcome to Paint Party Friday!

After my pencil desaster at the beginning of the week, I worked on some pencil drawing to regain confidence in drawing with pencils (and not being afraid to sharpen them! *LOL*). Derwent customer service reacted at its best and will send me a replacement tin of pencils right away. Didn't expect that, but LOVE a good customer service (as I couldn't find the receipt and couldn't remember where I bought the pencils).

Soooooo, here are some drawings I did this week. A pied wagtail with Derwent pencils.

Then I used a Staedtler pencil I found in my stash, as a fellow Twitter artist recommended them. Proud how this hare turned out. Isn't she beautiful?

I adore ravens and so I tried one late last night, but was too tired to get the shading and all his feathers right.

Lots of other art stuff besides drawing happened this week. I cut a passepartout and finally framed the birthday gift for a very dear friend. She paints, too, and I have one of her paintings, so it was time to gift one of mine to her, too. I painted this robin after a painting by Ralston Gudgeon, a Scottish wildlife painter I adore. Framed and with the passepartout it looks just perfect!

I also had a nice art exchange with a talented fellow Twitter artist and she sent me some amazing ATCs. The rabbit is too cute, but the lovebirds! You know I own a pair exactly like these two.

She also sent me some goodies: nice paperclips, some blank ATCs for paper tests, a nice card and some tea.

Last, but not least I bought myself some new pencils and a watercolor book with lots of small motifs, how to paint them and some basic knowledge about watercolor painting. I'm sure I will post some of the motifs I painted from the book. ;)

Have a great weekend with some time for art and stay safe!

Thursday Art Date with Rain: Weather and Weather Lore

 Weather and Weather Lore is this week's theme for Thursday Art Date with Rain.

Weather.....while in some places there are terrible wildfires due to heatwaves and months without rain, there are floodings in other areas of this world. The summer in Germany was very wet so far, so we are on the "flooding" side. If you don't want to see all the destruction, don't click on the links. I hope you are safe, where you are!

For myself, I like thunderstorms, storms in general and even high waves. I never was afraid of thunder and lightning, not even as a kid. Always loved to watch a nice thunderstorm, but Mother Nature can be destructive. 

For this week's theme I had to use the pencils my employer gave me and my colleagues some weeks ago (Remember the story? We each got a pack of colored pencils, but still don't know what they are for.)

I accidentally left all my art supplies at home, so I used what I have in hand in office during lunch break. I always wanted to draw/paint a lighthouse hit by waves in a huge storm. For this quick sketch I chose Whaleback Lighthouse (or Whaleback Light Station) in Maine. Will surely do a watercolor postcard from this one, as I really like it. 

Have an artsy day and stay safe!

T stands for....pencil massacre!

Yesterday I pulled out my "good" pencils, as I was planning to do a nice drawing or two to practice my pencil drawing skills, specially in doing something more than just a quick sketch as a basis for a watercolor painting. Yeah, wanted to draw an A6 postcard with a cormorant.........the pencils were not new, but I only used them once so far to test them....... 

I have no idea, what happened to them, but can only guess, that they were thrown around or dropped hard, when they were transported/delivered to me. That's what is left of them after one A6 drawing.

The softer grades are unusable, as I had to sharpen them after every line I drew., because the leads were all in tiny pieces. The harder ones seem to be ok, but I'm so over them and too afraid to sharpen them. It was no fun to work with them and I lost all joy to finish the cormorant.

But here he is. He didn't turn out as nice as I wanted, but ok......

I'll have a cup of tea now from my favorite mug, son no one will get hurt. *LOL* Join us with your favorite drink!

On a happier note I just saw that at least one of my ATC letters arrived with Nancy in the US. YAY! So here's what I sent. One of my handprinted linocut cards and two summer drink ATCs.

Paint Party Friday: Lots of Yellow and Black

 A bit late to the party, but here we go. I got some yellow and black to share with you.

This week I prepared a piece of watercolor paper for painting a Great Tit. Life got in the way, but Friday evening I felt the urge to draw something. So the Great Tit was sketched out on a piece of drawing paper and I used my colored pencils to add some color. Love the pose of this bird!

 

 

A Twitter follower, which is by the way a very talented colored pencil artist and lately started watercolors with the help of some tutorials, shared a tutorial with me on how to paint bumblebees. I had to give it a try on a piece of scrap paper. Turns out to be the perfect format for a bookmark.

 

 

For this week's Thursday Art Date with Rain I shared an owl. Owls are my weak spot, when it comes to drawing them, but since the last one turned out nice, I started another drawing with a Little Owl. Will take some time, as it it A4 format, but I already love its expression. Makes me laugh.

 

 

Have a great weekend and make sure to visit all the other fantastic artists!

 

Thursday Art Date with Rain: Ditches and Holes

 Hello and welcome to Thursday Art Date with Rain! Hope you are all well and had some time for art this week. I'm sharing a lot of my art on Twitter lately and met some wonderful people there. Owls were a favorite of mine, but also my weak point, when it comes to drawing and painting. But inspired and encouraged by some fellow Twitter artists I drew this tawny owl in its nesting hole.

Drawn with colored pencils and a bit of ink pen to get the eyes really black. Hope you like my entry for "Ditches and Holes" this Thursday.