NEW PALETTE

Another find to keep me inspire. It's been a long time since I'm this excited about starting a new watercolor.  With this amazing set of irredescent watecolor palette, from Kremer Paints, I will be spending more time on my fantasy illustration.

SOLITUDE

Weekends at artist retreat are way too brief. Feels like a real luxury to have the time to look out my window. The clouds were particularly interesting today. Solitude definately  brings out my painter's eye.

VALENTINE INSPIRATION

Not a day for outdoor sketches, but a good day for indoor projects. Stumble across this  Connecticut series of colorful cards from studio porto sabbia.  I'm going to have to look closer at my Connecticut Ramblings sketches, & see what new designs I can dream up?

WINTER BREAK

It's been one of those odd winter, mild days in between a few chilly days. After our recent snowfall, it's a real treat to be able to paint en plein air, outdoor.

SNOWY DAWN

Before I get too tied up with projects & chores, I took time out this morning to watch the sun as it paints the sky.

CHARCOAL & COLOR PENCIL

Never tried it before. I layer pink color pencil over the chacoal drawing.  By rubbing the color pencil over the charcoal, I dont have to use fixative with this charcaol drawing. When my experimental approach works, it's a good day.

GOOD SELLER

This design has been a good seller at GCU. Thru the magic of the internet, customer as far as Europe & the Orient ordered this card. There's infinite ways of how a new painting come about. For the new year, I thought I would take asketchaday into a new direction. I would devote more time to explain my creative process. A new idea does not always start from my sketchbook, but lots of ideas DO take shape by flipping thru my sketches. My memory is not what it use to be. As long as I sketch it out, the image stays. This painting came about pretty fast. I was invited to a christmas party in Cooperstown a few winters ago. There were tons of early snow that month. Which was why I was painting alot of snowy nocturnes thru my window. I also spend time studying nocturnes of artist like Whistler & Birge Harrison... whether they are famous painters or not, works of others can inspire me. As I approach Shirley's house on top of the hill, the small strip of yellow after glow was dazzling against the dark silhouette of the pines. The xmas lights on the rooftop balance out the composition. By adding the house on top with xmas lights, it makes it more marketable as a license christmas design.