Art Journal - Happy Spring!

Watercolor, acrylic & pencil :)

Art Journal - Bouquets of Watercolor Flowers

Getting in the Mother's Day mood and painting lots of bouquets of flowers. These were painted using watercolors and a little acrylic whitewash on top. I'm loving this technique and how it's so light, delicate and sort of misty-dreamy. I tend to be heavy handed with traditional acrylic so this is a good exercise in self control, color speaking.

Most of these are wedding arrangements or bouquets. I love all the colorful, fancy bridal bouquet pictures on Pinterest. The textures, colors, unusual greenery, berries, vintage brooches, feathers and ribbons are so much fun and so creative... although I like a simple arrangement of just hydrangeas or lilies of the valley, too!

One of these might be re-painted to become Mother's Day card... but which one? Any opinions? :)

#1 - Blue & yellow flowers in milk glass

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#1 - Close up

#2 - Yellow ranunculus & sweet peas

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#2 - Close up

#3 - Pink flowers in blue vase

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#3 Close up

#4 - Orange & pink ranunculus with one succulent bouquet

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#4 Close up

#5 - Pink, white & blue bouquet

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#5 Close Up

I think I like #5 the best :)

Art Journal - Floral Watercolors

While anticipating "wintery weather" here in Cary (really, it mostly just slushed with a tiny bit of snow that lasted 12 hours... but it was really beautiful!), I did a whole lot of movie watching and doodling/art journaling while hanging out under a blanket (a very nice weekend, indeed!).

Whenever I use watercolors, I always run into the big question... should I outline these paintings or not?

So, I thought I would line them up, side by side... before outlining and after. What do you think? Which do you like better?

I sort of thought of this comparison idea after I started outlining the first painting... oops.

And I outlined this one in white paint...

I have one card in the line that has the outlined watercolor flowers... I didn't think it would be a popular design, but it turned out to be a good seller! So, I'm contemplating more designs similar to this in the future. Very 1960's wrapping paper... which I fancy.

So, what do you think? Watercolor flowers and watercolor flowers with outlines... yea or nay to this design?

Birdie Drawings...

I painted some little birds that will be featured in some of my new designs...

Somehow, they all adopted a different little attitude :)

puffed up smug bird

stretching happy proud bird

curious content bird

"I'm watching you with one eye!" bird

this one is my favorite... he's just super happy

and this one was supposed to be a parakeet... but he turned into an owl-parrot. & he doesn't look too happy to see us, so he won't make eye contact.

Yes... everything I draw gets a personality ;)

Made using water color pencils while watching sex and the city 2 (true story).