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.

T stands for....THE BIG REVEAL!

Hello and welcome for the big 8th anniversary celebration and reveal of the ATC swap. Happy Anniversary, Elizabeth and Bleubeard! Since not all ATCs arrived at their destinations, there will another reveal event in the near future. As far as I know, my recipients didn't receive their letters so far, so I can only share the ATCs I got.

First I got the cutest little tea cards from Spyder. So many cute details! I so would love to share a cup of tea and a biscuit with you all now! And look at the little envelopes she send the ATCs in. Thank you, Lyn! 

 

 

Then I got another beautiful ATC from Nancy W. We both were a bit too fast and exchanged addresses before THE day. *LOL* So we decided to send each other an ATC apart from the swap. So this is what I got. I LOVE deer! Isn't he gorgeous? And there are copper details on the card, you can't really see in the photo. Thank you so much, Nancy! Love it!

And the deer came in this beautiful handmade daisy card! Daisies were my favorite flowers, when I was a kid, as they grew by the dozen in my parents lawn. Thanks again for swapping cards, Nancy, and I hope you get your ATCs soon, too.

Come and join a drink with us over at T stands for...!

 

Paint Party Friday: Blue Birds and Big Horses

 Hello and welcome for Paint Party Friday!

The last weeks I mostly painted ATCs, that I can't share yet, as they were made for a swap and the recipients are still waiting for their letters. I had so much fun painting in this tiny format.

But of course I have some birds and horses to share. Revisited some of my garden birds sketches and made some cards for my stash from them. Here's a nuthatch painted this week.

 

I love to "repaint" some of my sketches and check if I can see any progress on my painting technique. This nuthatch is from December 2020. I can definitely see some progress here.

 

 And here's a little blue tit I painted this week and I wasn't very happy with it, as it looks like I only added color without any sense.

This one is from February 2021. Not sure, if I like it better, but the raw paper surface certainly adds interest to this older version.

And here are some draft horse sketches. I'd like to make a small series of ATCs with domestic animals on them, so I need a horse. Already got a sheep and a pig. A cow is missing, too. We will see where this leads me. I definitely love big horses.

I think, this one would look nice on the ATC, but needs to be downsized

Have a great weekend and make sure to visit all the artists for PPF!