Breakfast Blooms: When it's early in the morning, things don't always go as planned: poppies

Love these papery poppies! Sat down with my oatmeal and Georgia blueberries to sketch them. All went well enough until I decided that I should do a resist and watercolor on them after breakfast. (This is not watercolor paper.)

I was looking for a way to depict the white markings on the poppy petals.

I used a white oil pastel on the flowers and then added a bit of watercolor. Oops! I put way too much white on most of the flowers. I tried to scratch some of the oil pastel off, but that didn't seem to work. I tried to add some touches of gouache. Didn't like how that looked. Got out some Caran D'Ache water soluble wax pastels and added a few touches of color onto the white areas. The very thin sketch paper gave way at this point in the process. Oh no! Holes. What to do? I cut out the two poppies that survived without holes and the magazine picture and just pasted them on another page. Those are the two above, one orange and one pink. They only have an oil pastel layer, a watercolor layer, and a wax pastel layer. 

I then sketched four new poppies and gave it another go. This time I only used the Caran D'Ache wax pastel crayons and a bit of water. Better, no overworking, no holes.

 I did like the original ink sketches. I am not in love with the final product, but this is a learning process.  I think the poppies should look thinner and more transparent. I guess I need to play some more!

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Breakfast Blooms: Advanced Doodling: Trumpet-shaped Morning Glories

Art and oatmeal with Georgia blueberries. Advanced Doodle Blooming with trumpet-shaped Morning Glories and lots of color with my Koh-I-Nor Woodless Colour Pencils.

The original idea behind this project was to practice drawing flower shapes so that I could develop a skill to use when I am in the field nature journaling. Another idea was to turn the flowers into doodles to decorate journal pages. But once I started, I have not been able to stop! 

The trumpet shape of these flowers is a bit trickier than simple disc-shaped flowers. Practice, Practice!

This is a doodle of the Morning Glories. After practicing the shapes, I simplify them to create a motif. Wouldn't that look nice in the corner of a journal page?

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Breakfast Blooms: Zinnias do come in Possum Pink

Art and oatmeal with Georgia blueberries and doodle blooms in my journal. Zinnias come in a variety of colors including Possum Pink.

These Zinnias also come in three mattress sizes:

Single.

Double or Full size.

And Queen size!

All three types are found on the same plant.

Zig Writer sketch with a light watercolor wash on dry media paper.

Thursday is Lunch with a Dinosaur Day!

Chicken sandwich on gluten free bread and a Hadrosaur.

How often do you get to paint life size dinosaurs en plein air?

Zig Writer over a pencil sketch.

Double spread in a Strathmore Series 500 Mixed Media Soft Cover Journal. Watercolor added to sketch. The name "Hadrosaur" came from the roots "hadros" meaning thick and "sauros" meaning lizard. So the Hadrosaur is a "thick or stout lizard." 

Lots of school kids at the Reading Museum today! Fun to watch them react to the Stout Lizard which every so often would start to move and roar. They were curious when they passed by the Berks Art Alliance group on the way back to their buses. They got a kick out of seeing us paint and complimented our work nicely. I got a kick out of a few high schoolers who stopped by and were interested in my journal!

Crones, Hags, and other Beautiful Women 50 Years and Wiser: Woman in a Green Shirt

Graham Smith, the Art Ninja, teaches us that we should practice the bits that we find the hardest over and over until we can do them well just as musicians practice the hardest passages of a piece of music until they master it. I find people the hardest thing to sketch or paint, so I will try to practice a face now and then. The inspiration for this face was from a picture in a wellness magazine. (I'm having a hard time getting an image that reflects the picture's true hues. The one on the left is a bit to bright, the scanner did something weird. The one on the right is more like it, but too dull. If I get it figured out, I will add it here.)

I gave myself an extra challenge and that was to limit myself to the colors that came in this set of Caran D'Ache water soluble Neocolor II wax pastel crayons. This set is called "Spring Colors." And then I decided that I had to do it on Bristol paper pasted into my journal. Oh, I love to play!

These pastel colors are, by name, Bismuth Green, Jade, Light Lemon Yellow, Naples Yellow, Apricot, Salmon Pink, Purple, Manganese Violet, Denim Blue and Steel Gray. 

I couldn't find this product on Amazon, so I bought it at www.dickblick.com. 

Breakfast Blooms: The Effects of Chocolate Chip Pancakes on Flower Sketches

What happens when I switch from oatmeal with sliced apples to pancakes with chocolate chips for breakfast? The flowers get all sugar coated with shimmery paint and sparkles!

 

More Dr. Seuss flowers! Giant purple balls on straight green sticks. I do have a few of these alliums in the garden. They are not in bloom yet.

In case you're wondering about the sparkle, I used a product called "Stickles". It's a high end glitter glue. Glitter for fine art? Don't laugh. I betcha Monet would have used a touch on those water lilies and a bit of shimmering paint on the surface of that lily pond! 

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Breakfast Blooms: Crown Friti-Doodle-Llaria

Two Crown Friti-Doodle-Llarias in the sketchbook using a Zig Writer and a touch of watercolor (paper not meant for wet media). Was Dr. Seuss in charge of designing this flower? Really now. In your face orange bells with a green punk hairstyle? Love 'em!

Also on the page, some Grape Hya-Doodle-Cinths. Fun spring flowers that multiply all over the yard. I think they go well with the orange fritillaria. Don't you?

Still have several pages of flower practice to go!

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Breakfast Blooms: Holly Doodle Hocks: Koh-I-Noor Woodless Colour Pencils

Art and Oatmeal with sliced apples and Koh-I-Noor Woodless Colour Pencils.

Forgot I had pasted some flower pictures in this journal! I thought they were all in the other one. (Too many journals lying around?)

Layering colors from light to dark.

Took a second go at the Holly Doodle Hocks only this time on Canson Bristol paper 100 lbs smooth.

I think I like the second "frilly" version of the Holly Doodle Hocks better than the first pointy one! The rounded blooms look more organic. Do the colors look darker and richer on the Bristol?

The pointy flowers are done in the journal and the frilly ones are on Canson Bristol paper. I noticed that there were little crumbs from coloring with the Koh-I-Noor pencils. When I brushed them away they smudged the paper just a tiny bit. If I left them on the paper they made little dark dots as you can see in the close up of the leaves. In this sketch I didn't mind the texture. Maybe another time or for other people this may be bothersome. I also don't know yet if these pencils blend quite as nicely as the Prismacolors.

More important PLAYING to do!

Another Koh-I-Noor Woodless Colour Pencil sketch here:

Doodle Blooms using Prismacolor pencils here:

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