AEDM Day 2: Orchid

Orchid by Sydney Harper
Watercolor, 5x5 inches

Hey, I made it to Day 2 of Art Every Day Month. Day 3 is going to be a quick sketch so I can get a little more sleep tonight. I'm hoping that by the end of the month, I will at least have my painting habit firmly in place, if nothing else.

This is a dendrobium orchid that I've had for many years. It has led a hard life and it still looks wonderful. It has been unpotted by cats and ferrets several times. Other times it has gone without water for a couple of weeks or more. It still produces lovely stalks of blooms. It has done so well in it's current location that I'm kind of afraid to move it. I'm very pleased with how this one came out.

Art Every Day Month – Day 1

Morning Glory by Sydney Harper
watercolor, 5 x 5 inches

I'm going to attempt to do Art Every Day this month. Now I usually sketch most days but I don't always paint every day. So I'm going to try to focus on painting. Warning though, I am notoriously bad at "Whatever alongs". We'll see how it goes. Posting my art will be at least a day behind. Mostly because I like my painting to be dry before I slap them on the scanner.

This week, I'm focusing on flowers and other plants. I like the idea of a theme for each week. Today's painting is a morning glory. I just had to do it in watercolor. Yeah, it also looks like it's going to be a watercolor week too.

Watercolor Papers and Moonflowers

Moonflower, watercolor, 5 x 5 inches

I’ve been painting the latest batch of small watercolors on some watercolor paper samples I have.  Normally I prefer Arches 140 lb or 300 lb paper.  It’s what I learned on and it takes a lot of punishment. Every time I try a sheet something else, I end up regretting it.  Since I’ve been using these samples, though, I’ve found a few that I might try again. 

Unfortunately the paper I used for this painting was not one of them. I lost the little identifying label so I don’t remember what it is, but hopefully I won’t run into it again. If you’re putting down multiple washes like I did here, it just doesn’t hold up. Pretty soon it starts bleeding and pilling. I ended up stopping before I planned to stop.

So if you’re just starting out with watercolor and having trouble, try some different papers. You might hate Arches and love some other paper. To me there’s a huge difference between watercolor papers.  So don’t assume it’s you, it might be the paper. 

In spite of the paper problems, there’s a lot I like this painting. I might try another version on a different paper one of these days. Moonflowers (Ipomoea alba) are one of my favorite flowers.  They’re one of those remarkable flowers that blooms after the sun sets.  They’re similar to morning glories except they’re white. The other remarkable thing about moonflowers is that hummingbird moths love them. I had never seen one in the yard until I planted moonflowers. They do look a lot like hummingbirds at first glance.

Narcissus

Acrylic on Daniel Smith painting board, 7 x 5 inches

We have a lovely patch of narcissus blooming in the yard right now. The daffodils came earlier, right before our last snow. I brought a bunch of them inside and there are still lots of blooms outside. This is the best that I’ve seen them. So I just had to do a quick painting. I had to keep reminding myself that this was supposed to be a quick painting, using up some leftover paint on my palette.

Just to show that you can make art with almost anything, I'll leave you with this Extreme Sheep Herding video.

Sketch: Passion Flower Vine

Passion Flower Vine - Ink and colored pencil

I discovered it's hard to be creative when there's work being done on the house with lots of pounding. I'm getting back in my groove though. This is a sketch of a Maypop or passion flower vine near our office. They grow wild in a little rocky, dusty patch of soil. It's too early for blooms but not too early to feed caterpillars. It's a main food source for the caterpillars of the Gulf Fritillary butterfly. Towards the end of summer you'll see lots of butterflies in the area.

I'm starting to enjoy using colored pencil for sketching. I just have a little 12 pencil set that I carry around with me. It's just enough for a bit of color without having to worry about brushes or water.

Drawing Day: Lilies

Drawing Day: Lilies
Copyright - Sydney Harper

Since Saturday was Drawing Day, I decided to spend most of the day with my art. Usually I have things I need to do around the house, but yesterday I put them off. It seems like I seldom have an entire day to devote to art lately. It felt great. I started a painting. I did a quick sketch of Rick while he was napping, or at least part of him. I also did this little watercolor sketch of some lilies from the yard. I think the buckling of the paper in places made the color wash out a bit in places. Otherwise it's close.

Sketch: Blue Salvia

Blue salvia
Copyright - Sydney Harper

There was a lull of blooming things in the yard for a few weeks, but now the second wave has started. Plus I was out of town at a conference so I'm just now getting back in my groove. I was sitting outside sketching this right after a brief rain shower so there was an occasional raindrop falling on my head and on the book. Then I plucked off one of the flowers to do a closeup sketch. Dozens of almost microscopic insects fell out of the flower onto my sketchbook, so I was brushing them off and inadvertantly smashing a few. Somehow the page ended up not too worse for wear. The hazards of sketching outside. In real life the flower portion of the stalk is much longer, probably about twice as long as what I have here. I just ran out of room on the page. It was a nice afternoon for sketching outside, even if it was somewhat drippy.

Hidden

Lily of the Valley
copyright - Sydney Harper

I like hidden discoveries. Last year was terrible for plants of all kinds. First we had the late season freaky frost. Then we had a terrible drought all summer. Even the trees struggled. This spring has been completely different. We've had plenty of rain so far. (We could still use more.) Apparently all of the plants were working their magic in soil. They look very healthy. I was afraid my lilies of the valley didn't survive last summer. They did survive though. I found my flourishing bunch under a bush.

On another note, the Illustrators' Partnership has sample letters discussing the Orphan Works Act that you can send to your members of Congress. There are letters for almost every category - visual artists, photographers, illustrators, friends of artists, businesses, the image-making public, and international artists. Some are editable and some are not. You'll find more information and copies of the bills at the Illustrators' Partnership web site.

Japanese Iris

Japanese Iris
Copyright - Sydney Harper

This is a Japanese Iris from the garden. I several bunches of them and they've been blooming their hearts out this year. They're doing so well that I think I'll have to divide them this year. I decided I would try to paint or draw each type of flower in my garden this year. Usually I mean to do that but time gets away from me and I miss them. It shouldn't be that difficult since I don't have that many types of flowers. Besides, I could use the practice. Now if I can do a little more weeding so they'll have a chance to grow, I'll be set.

Tropicana Rose

Tropicana Rose
Copyright by Sydney Harper

Saturday was a beautiful day so I spent most of the day in the yard weeding and trimming. Last year we had a mild winter followed by a late spring hard freeze that zapped most of our trees and flowers. Even the trees took a while to recover from it. Then on top of that, we had a drought all summer. This year the flowers seem to be making up for lost time. My one rose bush is covered in beautiful blooms, the most I've ever seen on it. It helps that we've had a very rainy spring. That's the other reason I absolutely had to get in the yard and clean it up a bit before it turned into a jungle. I just had to sketch one of the roses in my Moleskine watercolor book, which I enjoy using by the way.

Spring Daffodil

Spring Daffodil

We've had spring-like weather here this week, and we had snow just the past weekend. The first set of daffodils are blooming. Some of the trees are getting flower buds on them and I've seen some bird activity lately. So I just had to draw one of the daffodils. It's done in ink and colored pencil. I've been on a colored pencil kick lately. I'm not sure why since I've haven't done much with them until now. Maybe I'm just feeling lazy. I don't have to worry about water. I just grab a few pencil and go.

Still Here

Don't you just hate it when someone starts a blog, posts a first message and then never comes back? Yeah, me too. It's not easy for me to put my art out there. Once I started the blog, I had to take a step back before I could continue. Enough of my quirkiness though.

My first love is painting in acrylics. Well I love oils too but I just don't have a good place to use oils. My studio is also my home office and spare bedroom. The solvent smells would be just a little too much. Plus I like the quick drying aspect of acrylics.

I also like painting with watercolors but I still have a way to go technique-wise. So I try to practice my watercolors whenever I get the chance. It gets better with each painting. Here's my latest watercolor of an iris bloom. I've been getting home late this week so I had to take the picture at night. The colors are close though. I'm pleased with this one. I learned quite a bit with it and I like the end result. There is a lot I could have done better but that will always be true. Anyway I'm going to post regularly and not let so much time go by between posts.