Penguin Awareness Day

Für den Penguin Awareness Day am 20 Januar habe ich ein paar Königspinguine in Aquarelle gemalt. Inspiriert von den Aquarellstudien in Tim Ponds Buch ,,Watercolor the Natural World".

 For Penguin Awareness Day on January 20th I painted some King Penguins in watercolors. Inspired by the study sheets in Tim Pond's wonderful book "Watercolor the Natural World".

All the birds....

 Während meiner Blogpause habe ich Hunderte von Vögeln gezeichnet und gemalt. Eine kleine Auswahl. Bald gibt's mehr.

During my blogging break I painted and drew hundreds of birds. Here are some of them. Will share some more soon.

Blaumeise/Blue Tit

Kohlmeise/Great Tit

Blaumeise/Blue Tit

Zaunkönig/Wren

#SummerBuggin 2022

 Ich habe jahrelang nichts mehr gepostet. Aber irgendwann muss man ja mal wieder loslegen. Der Umzug ist fast geschafft, so dass wieder ein bißchen mehr Zeit ist. #SummerBuggin war eine tolle Challenge auf Twitter und ich habe es nun endlich geschafft, die vier Blätter aus dem Jahr 2022 zu rahmen.

Paint Party Friday: Hedgehogs for a Birthday Card

Hello and welcome for Paint Party Friday!

This week was my husband's birthday and although we don't give each other any gifts, I usually paint him a card for birthdays or anniversaries.

He loves hedgehogs and so I sketched a lot of hedgehogs to have some to choose from. They all turned out cute, but I had to decide (not that that I wouldn't use the other cuties for future paintings *LOL*).

I really like the new watercolor paper and althought the format is a bit weird, it's perfect for cutting A 6 cards from it. Hedgie no 1 was this one. Painted with White Nights watercolors.

Hedgehog no 2 was a bit off center, so I decided to add a bumblebee to balance it out..

Glued both of the hedgies on cards. DH got the top oneand the other one went into my card stash. Always good to have some handpainted cards, so I don't have to paint some under pressure. Really in love with these two hedgehogs.

Have a great weekend and make sure to visit all the wonderful artists for Paint Party Friday.

Paint Party Friday: Woodland Animals and New Watercolor Paper

 Hello and welcome for Paint Party Friday!

I started a A5 mini series in watercolors with wood animals, maybe for hanging on the walls of our new house. Two are finished so far, a fox and a roe deer. All are painted on Canson 300g/m² paper with White Nights watercolors.

Love how the fox jumps while hunting mice! Some of you might know him already from Thursday Art Date with Rain, where I shared him for the "Jump" theme.

 

 

Both would look great framed and side by side on the wall.

 

 

Although I think I got the coloring of the roe deer right, it looks a bit plein to me, like I should have worked on the shading a bit more. But it's still a learning process.

This week I also got some new watercolor paper and ofc I had to try it at once. Beach scene! I really, really want to go and see the ocean this year. Hopefully it is possible. Really like the paper and will use it often in the future. Also used White Nights watercolors, as they are my favorites now.

 

 

Have a great weekend everyone and make sure to visit all the other artists for Paint Party Friday!

 

Thursday Art Date with Rain: Miniature

Hello and welcome! Today's theme for Thursday Art Date with Rain is "Miniature".  

I chose whales. They're not really miniature you say. Yes, they are, if you try to squeeze them onto bookmarks, which are only 4.5 cm wide and 15 cm high. *LOL*

I did the outlines with waterproof ink and then used watercolors for coloring. The paperstrips are leftover from bigger watercolor paper sheets I once cut off and didn't want to throw away. Rounded edges look nice on these. Just need to decide if they should get some nice ribbon or not. 

Also sketched out some more whales. I tried to stay in the 4.5 cm squares, but it didn't work out for some of them. *LOL*

Another miniature thing is my travel watercolor box and the mini sketchbook I made to go with it. Aren't they cute?

Thanks for visiting my bloig and please make sure to visit all the other fantastic artists joining Thursday Art Date with Rain!

Thursday Art Date with Rain: Jump!

 Hello lovely painters at Thursday Art Date with Rain!

I haven't posted in ages, which doesn't mean I don't paint. Jut didn't feel the urge to post something on my blog. But now I'm back and try to post more regularly. Missed you all!

Today's theme is JUMP and I just painted the perfect little fox for it. He's hunting mice and is part of a little series of A5 woodland animals in watercolors.

Like almost always it started with a pencil sketch.

And then White Nights watercolors. Starting to really love them. paper is Canson 300 grams/m² watercolor paper.

While I was waiting for my first vaccination, I did a whole sheet of pencil fox studies, so there will be more foxes in the future. The one below was painted on a postcard and will become part of my stash for greeting cards.

Enjoy all the beautiful artsy entries for today! Glad to be back posting!

Paint Party Friday: More animal watercolors

Hello everyone! Seems that I lost my painting mojo over the last weeks, but now I'm back with some more watercolor animals for Paint Party Friday. Just in time for the 10th Anniversary! Since Easter is approaching, you can see a lot of hares and chicken on social media. Paintings, drawings, lino prints etc. Lovely art out there!

I decided to try my hand on a hare, too. Here is the postcard sized version.

I then sketched a hen and painted both, hare and hen, in A5 size. Love them and think about displaying them in frames for Easter. I think the postcard sized hare will get a hen companion, too.

There are also two more garden birds this week. The first is a Goldcrest, a tiny bird (weighing only 9 grams) native to my area. I made this quick watercolor sketch during lunch break in office with my travelling watercolor set. That's exactly what I bought it for. :)
 

Then I finally finished the litte Marsh Tit. It sat unfinished for several weeks now, as I was afraid to ruin it. Loved the first layer of color so much. *LOL* But I love how it turned out. So cute!

 

 Sharing these post with Paint Party Friday! Come on over and have a look at all the beautiful art shared there.

Paint Party Friday: Time is running!

 Hey everyone! I missed out on all the art posts over the last weeks completely. But this week I'm back with many new things to share: sketches, paintings, art challenges, spring greeting cards!

First quick sketch is is the Frauenkirche in Dresden. From February 13th to February 15th 1944 Dresden was bombed by British and US air force bombers and approx. 25'000 people lost their lives. The church burnt down completely in these days, but was rebuilt from 1996 to 2005 and reconsecrated in the same year. Every year on February 13th we remember these days and we say: NEVER AGAIN!

The brown paper, you can see in these two sketches, was rescued from the recycling bin in office. I thought it looked like cool stuff and I tried some sketches on it. And it really is cool stuff. The snow owl with white and graphite pencil turned out really nice. It was my entry for a Twitter art challenge.

I also played with watercolors. Trying a robin with a less detail and lighter color application. Really like the look of this one.

Then there are my usual quick sketches with pencils. I went through my stash of all kinds of pencils and found the Kooh-I-Noor Progresso graphite pencils. They are wood free pencils and I really like to draw with them. Little Marsh Tit here.

Another art challenge on Twitter is #1hour1sketch. You usually get a photo or an other inspirational picture and then redraw it in less than 1 hour. Last week's challenge was a macaw.

I also sketched out more garden birds to eventually use for watercolor paintings. A Goldcrest,....

....a European Green Woodpecker,....

....a Nuthatch and....

....a Bullfinch, that seems to be very angry.

I also drew some crocus to try out different brands of colored pencils. Made these two beauties into greeting cards, perfect for sending spring greetings.

Sharing this with Paint Party Friday!

Paint Party Friday: Birds, Badgers and a Manx Loaghtan

 Hello and welcome back for Paint Party Friday! I hope you all had a great week with some time for creativity. Besides a lot of knitting (still in lockdown here) I have some sketches and paintings to share with you.

First there is this song thrush. Not completely happy with this painting, as all these dots and markings in its feathers were a nightmare to paint. *LOL*

 

Last week I saw a nice motif in one of my FB drawing groups with a badger trying to reach an apple. Did a quick pencil sketch.

 

Then I decided to finally start my miniature watercolor sketchbook. I'd like to say a quick hello to my friend Soma from Ink Torrents. :)

 

 I liked the motif so much, that I had to paint a bigger version and start another attempt at fur. Fur is my weak point and I still need a lot of practice to get it right. But slowly getting better.

 

 Another attempt to draw fur with colored pencils. Ugh! I follow a lady on Twitter who breeds Manx Loaghtan sheep on the Isle of Man. Love how this rare breed looks. Even the ewes can have up to six horns. She allowed me to use one of her beautiful photos for my drawing. So much to learn about layering and blending with colored pencils.

 

Then I did another garden bird painting. It's a male blackbird and I really like how this one turned out. It's "only" a black bird, but getting all these shades of black right was challenging.

 

 

And since I almost ran out of sketches for garden birds I did another one, a redstart.

 

 

 

Have a nice weekend and enjoy bloghopping with Paint Party Friday!