Floating Lemons

New Website: Mariana Black Art

We've moved! Join us at our new website: www.marianablackart.com

 

I do love Typepad and have been on it for over a decade, but it was time to create a site that encompassed more than the blogs that I have here. I now have a new website as well as a shop selling lovely products with my original art on them -- and, as always, I continue to post my art and my journey exploring the magical lands of creativity, and fun exploring and experimenting with paint. It's all a vast, wonderfully imperfect, work-in-progress -- so please do stop by and visit!

Paint Sketches - Pot Plants, Ravens, Tree

 

 

I've actually managed to keep up with daily painting for the last 12 days. Miracle. Let's hope this continues as I'm enjoying this new exploration. The mornings normally begin with my having absolutely no idea of what I'm going to paint -- which is highly scary. Today I looked out the window to the tree at the end of the garden and thought well, there it is right under my nose ... time to draw it.

I'm not a huge landscape, scenery or tree illustrator so this was a good challenge -- exactly what I'm looking for in this daily painting exercise. Have to say that I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. I'm still learning how to loosen up and just go with that flow and hope that the end result will be at least a decent one. Bit by bit.

Here are the sketches for the last few days:

 

 

All of the above were painted in my new lovely Pink Pigs Watercolour Sketchbook, using Schmincke and Winsor and Newton watercolours with my new delicious Escoda brushes. Cheers.

 

Watercolour Watering Can and Raindrops

 

 

I decided yesterday to split the sketchbook page into smaller rectangles and paint in those, just for a change. Did a little watering can, and then today painted some raindrops ... just because.

 

 

 

And yes, I had fun. Might have to paint more today. This time I used Schmincke watercolours in my new A4 Pink Pig sketchbook with 300gsm watercolour paper - love the way the paint flowed on the paper, so I shall be using it a lot more often. Cheers.

6/100 and 7/100

 

 

Sketchbook: Tree Outlines Against Blue Wash

 

 

A quick and simple one today. I'd intended the background wash darker, and almost applied another layer but decided against it. The tree outlines are more subtle against the paler colours and I quite liked it that way. I might still try a darker version one day but for now I'm leaving it as it is.

Painted in my MozArt linen-bound sketchbook with Schmincke and Winsor & Newton watercolours. Cheers.

5/100

 

Curled-up Baby Rhino Sketch

 

 

Something a lilttle different today. Not sure if it's a prep sketch or finished, but I've gotten quite fond of it. Painted specifically for a friend of mine who has gone through an exhausting and painful physical ordeal; one of the things that kept her going was imagining herself curled-up, wrapped in the thick armour of the rhino ... so here it is for her as a reminder of the strength that saw her through.

Below is the rather awkward process I went through when I first started painting with no particular final image in mind. As I have no actual photos of rhinos (yet), I began by trawling the internet for images of baby rhinos just to get a feel of their shape and the way they move -- here are a few of the sketches, after which I ended up drawing the top left image from my imagination, and then carried on from there:

 

 

I managed to toss in a photo of my messy desk while I'm at work! I do normally have to clear everything up once I finish one project before I go onto the next, but as I'm painting daily now it's pretty much going to remain this way for a while ...

Painted in my MozArt linen-bound sketchbook with Schmincke and Winsor & Newton watercolours. Cheers.