Scilla -Ink and Watercolour Card

I have been trying some ink and watercolour cards.  After putting in the background, I penciled in the flower stems. Then I inked in the flowers, then the stems.  I erased the pencil marks.Then I loosely painted the blue flowers and leaves. I inked around the leaves. Finally I spattered a bit of blue at the top, green at the bottom and some white over the flowers.

With Covid making visiting difficult, I have been sending cards to people just to say hi.  People are often surprised to get something via snail mail.

 

Prose Poem Story

 In this time of lockdown, I am trying to keep busy with some things I can do at home. Recently I have been working on some short fiction. There are a number of sites that publish very short fiction but the one I have settled on for now is Friday Flash Fiction based in Edinburgh. It takes stories of 75-100 words. It does have a category for stories up to 500 words and for poems but I am concentrating on the 100 words stories. It's bit like writing poetry hence the title for this post. I am aiming for one a week as they publish every Friday. Here is one I submitted a little while ago.

"Country Living

Here was John’s chance to get out of the city. His boss was making distance work permanent.

 

John’s budget was limited but the small town had very affordable housing prices. He bought a quaint older house and moved in.

 

All summer he fished in the nearby crystal clear lake. At night, the stars were spectacular. Every day he heard beautiful new bird songs. He even once saw a bear. He made new friends and hosted relaxing beer-infused barbecues. It was fantastic.

 

On October  15^th winter began with ten inches of snow. John sold his house on November  30^th."

I had commenters from Australia who totally didn't get it but I think anyone from a northern clime will have met a John or two.

I hope you are finding ways to keep busy at home.  

Keep well.

Sunrise Watercolour Sketch

 I'm still watching various watercolour tutorials on Youtube. This little painting (4" x6") is based on an acrylic painting by Jay Lee who teaches on Youtube. He has watercolour tutorials as well as other media.

Other people I am following right now:

The Mind of Watercolour - mostly landscapes - likes to experiment

In the Studio of Michelle Weber - lots of techniques  Some videos on mistakes to avoid

Emily Olson Art - animals - super accomplished artist who can paint anything!  She has lots of suggestions for painting fur and feathers.

Louise de Masi -birds and animals. Lovely fresh style. Excellent at drawing.

In Canada, for reasonably priced art supplies visit www.paintspot.ca  This site is run by a group of artists, and they have a great selection of good quality paints and paper and accessories.

For a smile, watch mrandrewcotter on Youtube with his dogs Olive and Mabel. 

Also check out videos about Chaser, a super smart Border collie. There are a few videos with her - look for titles that include "1000 words" because she apparently knows 1,000 words.  So interesting to see the contrast between Olive and Mabel who are Labradors and Chaser who is a Border collie. Totally different personalities.

Keep well and keep looking up.

Azalea and Inktense

 A ladybug found the celery plant on the windowsill. For a lot of people around here, the ladybugs can be a real pest in the house - landing on your face, biting, and being very stinky if you squash them. However, we don't get very many, and it felt very springlike to have a little critter cruising my plant so I was happy to see it.

My husband got me a very pretty azalea plant for my birthday. Certainly cheers up a room.

It has quite a few buds so it should bloom for a while yet. Unfortunately, it won't be hardy outside so it is strictly a house plant and I'm not that successful with keeping azaleas going long term. But for now I am certainly enjoying it.

Also on the birthday front is a new box of 24 Derwent Inktense pencils (conveniently on sale). I did a quick trial last evening and I really like them.  They are an ink/acrylic blend so when they dry you can't rewet them like regular watercolours. The colours are more vibrant than regular watercolour pencils. This photo is not doing justice to the bright colours. It's going to be fun to experiment with using both the Inktense pencils and either regular watercolours or watercolour pencils together.  Apparently Derwent is the only company making an Inktense type pencil.

Spring is just around the corner.  Can't wait.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas
 and all the very best wishes for a peaceful, healthy New Year.

Some Little Watercolours

 Little Orange Butterfly

Song of Flowers

The Reflected Light

I've made an order of seeds from Halifax Seeds.  I am indulging myself this year and buying some seed tapes.  One will have a mixture of different varieties of beets, and the other one will have three different kinds of carrots.  I will enjoy not having to thin the carrots. I also ordered a bean called Jackpot which is a cross between a bush and runner bean.  It is suitable for a container and has pretty red and white blossoms so it is decorative as well as useful.

Landscape

I'm still practicing watercolour painting.  I challenged myself a couple of days ago to do one based on a nice photo of my horse's head, but alas my drawing ineptitude was all too evident.  Just couldn't get his eye properly placed and if that's not right the whole thing looks wonky. I also followed a video by the frugalcrafter on doing a human eye.  That was very instructive and I think I managed the colour not too badly on the practice effort, but again the drawing...sigh.  So today, I decided to just slop some paint around and enjoy the colours.
I hope your winter hasn't been too stormy.  We are getting pretty benign weather which I'm thankful for. Mulling over if I will start any plants and, if so, which ones. Perhaps some basil to start with as it does well in the low light.