Watercolor Paintings, Illustration, Inspiration and Creativity

Now at your library: lots of fairies, coffee, and glitter.

Oh hi. I didn't notice you there, I was so busy reading this book about Cezanne and sitting under MY PAINTINGS!!!

It's been quite an exciting day! I will post more photos soon, (and larger) but in the meantime, can you recognize any paintings that are up there? Every one of them has been on this site.

Meanwhile, if you're in the area: Westfield Memorial Library.

Labels: coffee, drawing, every day in May, fairies, illustration, nature, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: thirty-one

What we did this weekend...

Labels: drawing, every day in May, faith, family, kids, motherhood

french toast girl

every day in may: thirty

I painted but some over-zealous gardening led to complete exhaustion... so I didn't post this last night.

Labels: every day in May, nature, painting

french toast girl

every day in may: twenty-nine

Getting closer to the finish line... in many ways! I can't believe there are only a couple of days left in May - how have you all been doing in your Every Day endeavors?

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting

french toast girl

every day in may: twenty-eight

Again - yesterday's painting progress. You can hardly see the hair, phooey!

Before I paint tonight, I'm going to do a little photoshop work to test things out before I go in and paint. That was the gist of my main computer class in college - not the classes for Quark and Illustrator and all that, but for art on the computer - that the computer was a tool and did not have to be the last word. I like to step back and do just that from time to time, use it as a tool to quickly try out new colors and effects before I do them for real in paint. My final project for the class was a puppet I had made (for my puppetry class) that I had sketched into the computer, photographed and changed colors on the computer before deciding to paint him red, and tried out several different wardrobe changes before committing to the final outfit. So - you who work on computers all day - remember that they are merely tools to bring about your creativity. I promise you'll look at your work a different way.

Labels: art, every day in May, nature

french toast girl

every day in may: twenty-seven

Okay, so this is yesterday's bit of painting, as it was wet yesterday when I had time to scan. Some days I can paint in the morning, but lately it's gone back to when-everyone's-in-bed-time. That's fine too.

It's hard to see in this scan, but the new bit is in the upper left quadrant. I think the paint is so much more reflective than watercolour, the scanner just isn't picking it up properly (as watercolor is not shiny). I'm looking at the painting from across the room and there's so much more contrast there. Foo! I'll have to mess with the settings, I guess.

Labels: art, every day in May, painting

french toast girl

every day in may: twenty-six

I am retooling an old painting that's never seemed quite finished to me. The only thing is, it's acrylic and it's still wet right now! So for now you get to see the way it looked in 2007, and you'll have to wait till tomorrow to see the rework-in-progress. It's getting outlines and details of dark brown/raw umber. I also want to take a pic of Sophie's face to get it just right (it's not Sophie, but she will have the right face for it.)

Labels: art, every day in May, painting

french toast girl

every day in may: twenty-five

Done! I wasn't finished for Christmas, but the girl who requested this turns 6 tomorrow and I'm going to try to see if I can make a special delivery. :)

XFCO (extreme faery closeup):

Labels: every day in May, fairies, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: twenty-four

I think tomorrow will be the last day on this... I don't want to overwork it!

Tomorrow Sophie and the Daisy Scouts will be marching in the Memorial Day Parade! I'm crocheting her a daisy bracelet to wear for it. I can't wait! And wait till you see the photos of the fairy house we've been building in the backyard... :)

People have asked what blues are in that background, and I am embarrassed to say I have no idea! Some of the blues are from my Windsor Newton tiny palette box, and I didn't fill them so I'm not certain what they are. And I really like the one because it gets very grainy very fast on the paper - not sure how to explain it, but it's a neat look. I'm also adding in touches little bits of a blue that's almost a peacock blue, and splashes of brown and purple. Oh - I might have thrown in some green too! See - I'm no good at this. I just sort of wing it. I am really enjoying (and I will try to take slices of each to compare) how in the last 3 paintings I've worked on, the backgrounds are predominantly blue and all of them are very different.

Labels: art, every day in May, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: twenty-three

Today would have been my boss and friend Rich's 53rd birthday. I got up early and watched the sunrise, and sent much love his way. My heart is full. :)

Labels: every day in May, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: twenty-two

Today was Peter and Angela's last day at St. Paul's. They are kindergartners now! Where in the world did the time go?!

Labels: every day in May, fairies, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: twenty-one

The last of the belated Christmas paintings. This young lady very specifically asked for a white lace dress, hanging on a blue wardrobe. The fairy peeking out was my idea.

And for those who care, tonight was The! Last! Night! Of! Recitals! (And there was much rejoicing.) Two out of my three kids performed, and it was a magical night. And, yea, verily, we are all exhausted and nigh incoherent so I bid you all goodnight.

Labels: every day in May, family, painting

french toast girl

every day in may: twenty

Done-done-done-DONE! Done-done-done-DOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNEEEEE!

Labels: every day in May, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: nineteen

Soooooooooooooooo close.

Labels: every day in May, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: eighteen

Another day, indeed.

Labels: every day in May, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: seventeen

I wasn't even going to bother posting today's effort, since i only had about 5 minutes to paint today. I'm very disappointed. And while I was painting, I had Peter asking me a million questions about why I was doing what I was doing with the paint, and Sophie trying to see and breathing on me and getting her head in front of me so I couldn't see. Not to mention the table-jostling. Not saying that the kids are the reason I didn't paint, but some days the process is smooth and other days it's soooo choppy. Tomorrow's another day.

Day one of recitals is done: lots of driving, cooking, cleaning, and organizing (which also doesn't leave much room for painting in the mix either). A hand slammed in the bathroom door (mine, right hand too) and after much ice applied and tears shed later, I figured today I just wasn't meant to paint. At least I tried.

Labels: every day in May, kids, motherhood, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: sixteen

I'm really hoping I finish this one tomorrow, but as it's day one of Recital Week, we'll see what happens. Today I also:

Finished knitting my legwarmers! And tomorrow is cold enough to wear them! :)
Set up three tents in the cavernously empty living room and dining room for adventurers and their fluffies to play in - they will get taken down before recitals, no fear
Cleaned the porch and planted several containers of impatients
Read the kids a few chapters of Little House in the Big Woods (their favorite part is where Ma slaps the bear)
Made chocolate chip pancakes
Snuggled on the couch and watched some Old School Sesame Street

It doesn't get any better than that. Really.

Labels: every day in May, kids, motherhood, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: fifteen

Tomorrow, we paint! But first Peter's arm gets redrawn so he's not about to backhand Wendy.

Labels: drawing, every day in May

french toast girl

every day in may: fourteen

Remember all those special paintings-by-request I did for Christmas presents? Well, believe it or not, I still have two to go (and very forgiving and patient friends who are content to wait for an original painting). This one is for a 3-year-old who asked for, you got it, Peter Pan, Wendy, and Tinkerbell.

I got up super-early this morning to draw because I knew my evening would be full - Paul's high school students came over for a coffeehouse/party tonight, and the house was filled with music and creativity and lots of laughter. Just the way we like it.

Labels: art, drawing, every day in May

french toast girl

every day in may: thirteen

And we're done! I'm quite pleased with this one! Tomorrow's picture is going to definitely be something comPLEEEEEEEEEEEEtely different. I also might be working on two paintings at the same time.... so stay tuned!

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: twelve

More surface work (notice I had to move the box on the right to see)! I am so close to finishing this... I think tomorrow may be the last work on it. I'm happy with the way it's come out.

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: eleven

Veerrrrrrrrrry subtle changes today. Working more on the surface of the water.

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: ten

It was remarked upon at this year's Mother's Retreat that the verse in Paul's letter to Timothy that says "you will be saved through bearing children" could be interpreted a new way. Because of your children and all the things you do for them (show patience, minister to the sick, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, etc.) you are fulfilling the very things Jesus asks us to do. And as a Mom (or Dad, for that matter) you do it every single day. Helps me put things in perspective on crazy days.

Happy Mother's Day, all you creative mamas! Hope your day today has been a lovely one.

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: nine

Closeups:

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: eight

I know this doesn't look like it, but I worked for about an hour on this so far today. I'm working with washes that are sort of subtle, I guess. Maybe I should post some closeups?

I mentioned previously that I've been painting in the morning, and it's worked out very well. My routine is this: I get up early, pray, try to do the Mass readings for the day (this doesn't always happen), sort out things the kids want/need for the morning, grab some coffee in my favorite blue mug, and hit the paints. Some days I've been out on the porch, but the past few days have been so depressingly rainy I've stayed up in my studio. I find that the quiet songs in my Somedays mix are very satisfying to paint to, and I've started to get into sort of a trance/groove/meditation/what have you. By the time I get to "Love's In Need of Love Today" I'm usually on my feet, painting and dancing and singing at the same time. If you don't know the song, please give it a listen - this version is especially lovely.

Labels: art, every day in May, inspirations, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: seven

I'm finding that I have to paint first thing in the morning - it sets the tone for the whole day. Hooray for golden morning fish. :)

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: six

I may come back to my frog-haired friend another day, but for now, it's time for a change. Remember I said that I hoped to finish off old paintings? Well, two years ago in EDiM, I painted this, and you can see the original photo I was working from here. Allyson, remember, when this one is done, it's yours! Sorry you had to wait so long....

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting

french toast girl

Every day in may: five

Today was one of those "Mama said they're be days like these" days. Painted anyway.

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: four

At LAST I got to the whole reason I wanted to do this painting in the first place. Way more detail (and creatures) tomorrow, and then I might be done with this painting and able to move on to a new one.

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: three

Lots more work on the face today. I've been especially enjoying this book - I'm working through the "painting eyes" exercise as this isn't from a photo, just off the top of my head. The next painting's gonna be using some photos for reference again, that's for certain. :)

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: two

More work on the hair and the eyes, and I decided it needed a wash of background color. In real life you should do the background first, but this is so not about perfection. I wanted to spend way more time on this today, but duty (in the form of chocolate-chip pancake making) called. Who am I to resist?

Labels: art, every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

every day in may: one

The beginning of a new painting. I actually had one that I've been working on that might have been finished today, but I didn't want to scare people off. Plus, it's May first. I wanted to start off fresh just like everyone else.

I'm hoping that this May I will:

Explore new (for me) ways to paint. I have some awesome watercolour books I am dying to try out
Finish up some paintings that have been hanging around my studio forever and a day
Have tons of fun!

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” ~ Goethe

Check out what other people are creating today on the Every Day In May flickr group. There's even a site feed!

Labels: every day in May, nature, painting, watercolour

french toast girl

join me every day in may!

A few years ago, I got this crazy idea that I would paint every day in May. And post the paintings here on my blog. And invite others to do the same. ♥

Here's how it works:
Commit to create something every day in the month of May. (Note: one year I did over 31 paintings. I felt really rushed. So this year, I will spend more than one day on a painting if I want to. You can do the same, or do 31 separate paintings, or take 31 photos, make collages, or write a page of your novel every day.)

They can be tiny.

They can be crap. :)

They can be about anything you want.

At the end of the month, a month that has a solid week of recitals and hours of driving time and packing up the kids to bring to my parents so the house can be perfectly quiet, I will have done 31 days of paintings. I may hate them all! I may have one I love, or I may think all of them are my best work yet. But I do know that I function better painting than when I'm NOT painting. And hopefully after all those paintings I will learn something new.

So...who wants to join me?

. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Graphics to link back and use for your own "Every Day" journey:

Feel free to join the Flickr group here: Every Day In May. Go! Share your stuff!

Labels: every day in May

french toast girl

grinning fruit and other surprises

(Happy fruit, on my toaster oven, between cookies and art projects.)

I can't believe it's been a MONTH since I last posted. Life has been very, very full. Exciting, emotional, ecstatic, exhausting. I have lots of things I want to write about, and lots of things I promised to write about. There will be paintings up soon, though, lots of them. Because....

I'm doing Every Day In May this year. And so are you. Details to come.

Labels: diversions, every day in May, food

french toast girl

Drawing Day

For those of you who are seeing the end of Every Day In May approaching, and say, "Darn! I want to draw and share some more!" - well, my friends, this is for you.

One day a year, the world stops to remember that joy we had when we first picked up a pencil and created our first piece of art - that's what Drawing Day is all about. The goal for Drawing Day is simple - to create enough drawings to make some noise worldwide for the sake of art. 2008 is the first year of this initiative. Our goal is definitely a long-shot, but we're aiming for 1 million drawings worldwide. We have no precise measure to know if we reach this goal. If we come close we will all definitely know. Even if we reach 10% of our goal in the first year of this initiative, it will be a great achievement but we will continue aiming for the magic million.

I'm drawing. Are you with me?

♥ I have been so thrilled with everyone's work for this year's Every Day In May - from the simple sketch to incredibly complex paintings, they all are gorgeous, and worthy. Kudos to all who are putting out more art (and more good!) into the world.

Labels: drawing, every day in May

french toast girl

Every Day In May

Hey kids! It's time for another round of Every Day in May!

Unfortunately, I will have to be excusing myself from it for this year. I've been spending months, literally, getting my energy back, and most evenings instead of drawing or painting, I'm laying down. I'm building my reserves back up tiny bit by tiny bit, and while I am royally annoyed at how long it's taking me, I know that forcing myself to paint and upload and comment every day, especially during recital month, is going to set me back rather than build me up. And it's frustrating as all get out.

There's a part of me that says, "Come on! You can do it! This is time for your creativity to shine! Paint how you're feeling!" And the other part of me looks at that ridiculously cheerful person and wants to hit them. :) So here's what I will be doing, every day in May:

♥ I will be forgiving of myself.
♥ I will work at a pace I can handle, and will not beat myself up if I can't paint.
♥ I will spend time in nature, and do something healthy and nurturing for myself.
♥ I will live creatively every day.

Two years ago, I got this crazy idea that I would paint every day in May. And post the paintings here on my blog. And invite others to do the same. ♥

Here's how it works:
Commit to create something every day in the month of May. You can promise to paint for 31 days, or do 31 separate paintings, or take 31 photos, make collages, or write a page of your novel every day.)

They can be tiny.

They can be crap. :)

They can be about anything you want.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Graphics to link back and use for your own "Every Day" journey:

Feel free to join the Flickr group here: Every Day In May. Go! Share your stuff!

Labels: every day in May

french toast girl

every day in may: thirty-one (ta-daaaah!)

Well, the fishies aren't done, but you haven't seen the last of them! I'll finish the painting up and post on the progress, whenever it's completed. I've enjoyed painting each day, and even though I won't be posting a new pic every day, I'll still be creating like mad - though in June I'll be looking forward to having time to do other things, like sew, cook, and do some journal writing. Not to mention spending more time with the hubby since he's done teaching... :)

Congratulations to everyone who pledged to create every day, and to those who supported them. I would love to hear from everyone - how'd it go? Was it fun? Was it torture? Would you do it again?

See all my month's posts for May here. See the whole Flickr group here!

Don't forget to check back tomorrow for the NEWS!