Bird's eye view

Bird's eye view,
originally uploaded by Donn2006.

Decided to do a small painting using the new Daniel Smith Watercolor sticks that I just got.

This is ATC size on 140# watercolor paper.

Took the paint directly off the sticks and mixed several colors in a little palette. Didn't have any burnt sienna, so improvised with what I had. The are very strong colors.

Arizona Butte

Arizona Butte,
originally uploaded by Donn2006.

Here's my latest done on Yupo paper with Holbein Duo water soluble oils. Size 5 x 7. Not quite dry, but the mat lifts it far enough off the scanner glass.
This was a bit of a challenge with the oils. It's hard enough with watercolors. Next try will be acrylics.

Bottles and Jars

Bottles and Jars,
originally uploaded by Donn2006.

Here's my latest still life for Nel's on-line oil painting class. This was done with Holbein Duo watersoluble oils on 8 x 8 inch canvas paper.
I did one similar to this ATC size using watercolor pencils. The background was a bit different. This one was quite a challenge. I normally don't care to do still life's, but it was an assignment.

I'm taking an on-line acrylics course from Andy Walker at http://www.learntodo.co.uk . This is a self paced course with 6 sections and 24 parts to it.

The first lesson was doing a color wheel, which I have done many, so didn't put it up here.

In this exercise, we were to do a value drawing of a scene from the course. So, this is my attempt. In the next lesson, I will be adding color to this painting.

I'm also taking his watercolor course which is divided into 12 sections with 32 parts. Since I have done some watercolor in the past, I did not do any of the exercises in the first 2 lessons of this course. But will be adding paintings from the next lessons.

To the left is some more of our containers plants. The 2 left containers have tomatoes in them along with a hanging tomato plant above them.

To the right are 2 more containers of tomatoes. These are in Earthboxes. We've had these boxes for over 5 years and replant them each year.

On the left is our part of our container garden with a canopy over the top to block some of the hot sun rays here in northern Florida. In these boxes are beets, green beans, corn and red and yellow peppers in the white flower box. The 3 green boxes are Good Earth boxes, our first year in these boxes. The one terra cotta box with corn is a flower box. It has ears of corn on it already.

To the left is our square foot garden with some of the plants coming up.

To the right is the same garden with our protective screening to blot out some of the hot sun we have here in norther Florida.

This is the first time we have tried setting up a square foot garden. In it are beets, carrots, onions, lettuce, radishes and green beans.

Bay in Sepia

Bay in Sepia,
originally uploaded by Donn2006.

Here's my latest ATC done with burnt umber and a warm white in acrylics.
I enjoyed doing this monochrome and hope to do a larger one.

Frosty the Snowman

Frosty the Snowman,
originally uploaded by Donn2006.

Another ATC done in acrylics on Canon acrylic paper. Although you can't see it, the snow at the bottom was painted on with a palette knife and is 3D in texture.

Plum blossom

Plum blossom,
originally uploaded by Donn2006.

Here's what I've been working on all day. Had to do 2 as the first one got messed up.
My wife wanted one like this, so here's what she got.
Done on 140# Canson watercolor paper using Art-Kure Watercolor brush pens. Size, 8 x 10.
It was framed right away and already hanging in our living room.
The brush pens I had gotten from JetPens.

Items of Yesteryear

Items of Yesteryear,
originally uploaded by Donn2006.

This month's theme for Kate's alumni coffeehouse is Yesteryear. So I found a couple of items to cover that theme.

Done in pen and ink on 110 # white paper (Robert Bateman sketchbook), 6 x 9 inches.

Tortoise & Dragonfly

Tortoise & Dragonfly,
originally uploaded by Donn2006.

The tortoise, with its hared shell and sumbering gait, is contrasted with the elusive dragonfly, that flies here and there.
Done in the same book card this time using Derwent's aquatone watercolor pencils and Niji waterbrush because I couldn't get the colors I wanted from the Chinese watercolors I had.
The tortoise and dragonfly are the perfect illustration of the traditional Chinese contrast between yin and yang.

Chinese lanterns

Chinese lanterns,
originally uploaded by Donn2006.

Chinese lanterns originally came from Japan. Although they are attractive in their early stages, it is in the ripe, dried stages that they are best known. The common name comes from their similarity to the lanterns used in the New Year celebrations that take place in most areas of China. This painting includes small and large fruit.

Done with Art-Kure watercolor brush pens, Pental pocket brush pen and Yasutomo sumi-e watercolors on a green office paper. This is in a homemade book card made for me by Rita of North Dakota. It has 8 pages. Takes ink just fine, buckles a little with the watercolor, but when dry, smooths out.

Design

Design,
originally uploaded by Donn2006.

Here is a design I did with pastels on a dark green pastel board. I don't know what the make of the board was, but it was a sample I had received. Gioconda pastel pencils were used.

Waterfall on Yupo

CBP Waterfall on Yupo,
originally uploaded by Donn2006.

Another attempt on Yupo. This time a Chinese Brush Painting of a waterfall. Chinese calligraphy on left says Waterfall, my Signature on the right.

Prairie Clouds

Prairie Clouds,
originally uploaded by Donn2006.

Here is my first attempt at painting with watercolors on watercolor canvas. Size was 8 x 10, using M Graham watercolors.

Very different painting on canvas, everythng lifts so easy, even with facial tissue. If you make a mistake, you can wet it and wipe it clean with a towel. Amazing.

New Akashiya SAI Watercolor brush pens 2

New Akashiya SAI Watercolor brush pens 2,
originally uploaded by Donn2006.

This is a sample page for my "Color sample book" of the new Akashiya SAI Watercolor brush pens I got from JetPens. They are all transparent and pretty vivid. As you can see, they don't lift too well after being dry for a couple of days. They lift easier when wet or damp. The Outliner is waterproof.
They Yellow was hard to lift at all, the Tea Brown the easiest.

Seascape on Yupo

Seascape on Yupo,
originally uploaded by Donn2006.

This is my first attempt at painting on Yupo paper. I used Bienfang watercolor brush pens. The boat was M Graham gouache.
I was very pleased with the way the colors went on the paper. I could easily move the paint around without having to worry about it drying too fast. I haven't tried this with regular watercolors yet, but the brush pens was a surprise. I liked with they could do.

Chinese Landscape

Chinese Landscape,
originally uploaded by Donn2006.

My latest attempt at a Chinese Brush painting landscape. Size is 5 x 8.5 inches done on 140# HP paper and Yasutomo Sumi-e Watercolors. Red seal says Peaceful Time and Wonderful Scene.

The Plum Blossom is the National flower of China. It represents perservance, rejuvenation and winter.
The red seal says "spring warmed the stream". The 2 Chinese sybols in the lower left spell Plum Blossom or Flower. The Chinese symbol on the right is my name.
This was done as a post card to be sent to a fellow classmate of Kate Johnson's on-line classes. The classmate lives in Canada.