Hurricane Update

I got to go to the Allume Bloggers Conference, which was in a word awesome in 2 words amazing and fabulous.  I was planning on flying back to DFW on Monday... American Airlines had other plans.

I was so glad, I had a great time weathering the storm with friends I haven't seen in years. They are the kind of friends where it seems like you chatted with them last week, even if all you ever see of them is their posts on Facebook. They are amazing people with 2 wonderful children who treat me like GOLD!  Of course I will play Leggo you name it on play station with them and will read * another book * while snuggling under the covers. 

I miss my kiddos but Wow being "auntie" is super fun, everyone wants me to sit next to them whoo hoo!. I call them my paparazzi. I love their unconditional love and it blows me away. 

So I'm so grateful Hurricane Sandy kept me here for a few extra days, I may be cold cause it's not 80 degrees outside but my heart is warm. 

I hope to be back home posting new water color tutorials for you real soon. Pray I make it back in good time to my Knight in Shining Armor who is being a groovy single parent at the moment. 

CTC Watercolor Tutorial Unit 12

Day Two

I love using masking tape to do its job, that is mask the surface of a painting. 

Here is day 2 & 3's supplies. I happen to have some sliver paint so I got to use that in stead of grey. I did not have purple so I had to create that. 

 After you have taped down your paper, decide how big you want you moon to be. I decided I wanted it to be about 3 tape width wide. If you want a VERY large Moon you can tape an area down use a glass, trace around it then use a Exacto  knife to cut away the excess. Since I was in a bit of a time crunch I cut mine out. 

 Snip, Snip, I tried my best to make it round. 

 All cut out I placed it where my fancy decided. 

 Rub the edge down firmly so you get a good seal but not so hard you can't get it off later. 

 Aizarin Crimson and the dark blue Just a smidgen of blue to start. 

 After i mixed in 2 smidgens of dark blue it was heading to far toward brown,
so I added a tiny bit of black to it, to make the color more rich. 

To be sure I liked it, I tested it on scrap paper. 

Now I whetted the paper, can you see my reminder arrow, I always forget to switch paints!  

 Once its nice n' wet blot. 

Again I'm using the rag as I'm to cheap to buy paper towels.  

Paint in the sky line purple.  

 1/3 from the bottom paint in the blue. Don't forget to overlap your colors. 

Needs a bit more blue then I can let it dry. Set it aside in a safe place to dry,
 and clean up your brushes and pallet. 

Day Three

 Carefully peel the tape up if it rips don't stress to much. Mine did a tiny bit and you can't tell. 

 Lovely white patch where our moon will go. 

 Notice how I left a white ring around the moon. 

I really want my moon to feel like a sphere so I shaded the outside slightly darker than the inside.   

 For trees further away I made them smaller. This one reminds me of a thorn tree. 

 I started another one middling. 

I'm getting better at using the tooth pick to make fine lines.
A bit of a twisting motion seems to work best for me. 

 I decided to start another tree that will break the edge of the painting.
It's good to break the edge to give the observer a feeling that your looking at a larger venue. 

 Now take a look at your painting, 

 Add in as many twigs as you can stand. 

 Now think about the light, how will the moon shine on the tree... See how the tooth pick is pointing? 

 Where it is pointing is how the light will fall on the tree trunk and branches. 

 The moon light shines on the sides and tops of these branches. 

 Himm it will catch the tips of these boughs. 

 As well as these branches. 

 For the tree on the edge of the paper I picture it shining almost horizontally. 

 I took this photo after the paint dried, it is easier to see how the light is falling. 

 Little Miss Sunshine working hard. 

 Sweet Potato decided not to mix up her own paint and just used the leftovers. then she had a mishap with a tree trunk. with a bit of creative thinking we turned the square tree into a house with smoke coming out of the chimney. She was sad she messed it up. She also didn't cut out a circle for the moon, but it doesn't look awful as she claims since she did put a round moon in the white space.  It is "ART" I suppose She could have square trees if she wanted to be "modern" I'm just not sure I'm ready for that. 

 Little Miss Sunshine's completed painting.
I love how she is learning to break boundaries and she has such sleekness of lines. 

My finished art work. I love stark trees against the sky, its one of my favorite things to paint. 

I hope you enjoy painting this as much as I did! 

CTC Watercolor Tutorial Unit 11

Well this week we are doing 2 paintings instead of one.
Both are for "Fractured Sky"
Day 2
Supplies. I highly recommend the "Big" Paint brush. Were still in a dry period here in TX. I made a TON of mistakes this week. I Posted them so you can see what not to do. :-) 

The new masking tape is old fashioned masking tape, not the new fangled blue painting tape. It has a stronger adhesive. If you are having problems with the tape releasing. Here is a simple trick. 

BOYS love this bit... 

Stick the tape to your arm lightly. 

 Then peel it off now it will still stick well but release your paper. The oil on your skin does the rest.
Ok it does hurt a wee bit when you peel it off.  Weird painting tip is now over.. 

 For the first one we are instructed to use light blue, a large pea size did well. 

 Wet your paper with clean water. Lightly!
Do not over work your paper (Like I did).
This project really needs a good heavy weight paper. This paper we use is 120 Pound (Carrie recommends 140 Pound.) I Know this painting would have been more forgiving on a rough 140# watercolor paper.
For those of you using card stock, or sketch pad paper.
If you can, get a good piece of water color paper and cut it half for both projects, you will be glad you did. 

 I whetted the blue paint a bit. 

 I left good sized space between my blots. Work quickly blob and hold then lift and blob again. 

I was instructing the photographer and did not move quickly enough. 

 See how much those first blobs have spread out. Then the phone rang.. Don't leave your painting... It was just a recorded vote for your favorite candidate call anyway. 

 I came back and kept blobbing but the paper dried out!!! So I got creative... 

Using my handy dandy fingers I lightly whetted the white space.  

 It helped some... 

Please observe the left side was too dry :-( but the right side...
 turned out exactly as Carrie described it should. :-) 

 Sweet Potato got her paper a bit too wet she was worried it would dry out.
She also forgot to put down her newspaper, good thing water colors wash off.

 Wash up and put away your supplies. 

 She's So Beautiful. :-)  

Day 3

Can you see the eye dropper next to the cup of water... it's there really it is!

I decided to use the dark blue for this days painting.. bad idea... total flop. Use light blue! 

 As usual a large pea size is enough for the painting. 

 Wet the paper and DO NOT over work it. 

 This is what happens when you over work your paper. It starts pilling up.
I'm muzzy headed and still have that cold... I was having problems today! LOL!

 Once the paper is wet. 

 Blot it off. I was out of paper towels, so my handy dandy cotton rag came to my rescue. 

Load up your brush and paint an even back ground, work quickly and gently unlike me... 

Oh no I cleaned my brush after I finished the blue... I better not use this water it's dirty! 

 Ahh that is better. Nice and clear. Don't wait too long, I waited till my paint was not shiny as instructed, BUT...

 when I dripped nothing happened. 

 If I squirted really close to the paper I got a bit of what should be happening... Then this delivery guy that was supposed to come between 8am and 2pm YESTERDAY! showed up and well I put the kibosh on this painting.  When it doesn't turn out you can always try again. 

 So I did a do over and used light blue. 

 Ok not so even in color, but the kids were getting impatient to do their paintings.  

 I also did not wait as long this time around. The paint was not shiny, but not dull. Somewhere in between was just right. (Yes I feel like Goldilocks right about now.)

 See how it is carrying away the blue and leaving fluffy clouds. 

 Big drops Little Drops. 

The paper was better, I was able to stop before I obviously overworked it.  

I like that! 

Day 4
Add your poetry and be proud of your work!