Watercolor 253

Little Bird

More Picturesque Rhine

Architecture

Good bye, Rhine cities

Rhine Garden

By the Wall

Watercolor Hydrangeas

I just completed one more Skillshare class before I let my membership lapse for the spring and summer.  The subject was a hydrangea with reference photo provided.

 The instructor has a lovely blending technique which is very precise and detailed and took a lot of practice for me.  I usually paint much more loosely, so this was a challenge.  I feel I really learned a lot about blending and controlling the paint and values.  

I do not like how rough the edges of the petals are... it really looks better from a distance and doesn't bear close inspection so well.  I used a very toothy cotton paper, and I wonder if hot press paper would give me cleaner edges.

I have my line drawing on a separate sheet of paper which I traced onto my watercolor paper, so I may actually try this again and see if I can improve.  It really was a fun project, though it took much longer than I expected.

And just for grins'n'giggles, I used the leftover paint on my palette to try a loose hydrangea with my triangle brush.

It's not very realistic, but it was fun to try.  I would have to experiment with it some more to figure this out and improve the technique.  I may also try it with an angled shader to get a more "hydrangea-shaped" petal. (Okay, "bract."  Technically, hydrangeas don't have petals, to be a little more scientific.)

Walls and Towers

Old Fortifications

This city was started in about the 900’s. Walls and towers were added for protection over the centuries. The river used to be much wider, in the warm Middle Ages.

The “youngest tower”

This one was ruined by the French and rebuilt by an artist for a studio. 

The other side with large windows.

St. Nicholas, patron of sailors.

Each guild had responsibility for guarding a section of the wall, and its own stair up.

Wall entrance to a tower

Picture a large truck driving through that opening. The mirrors did not scrape - barely.

River, road, wall, road, houses

And back to the first.....

Little Box

Once upon a time, I went to a thrift store and found an interesting spherical puzzle in its own little box, that I thought would make a fun gift for the then-approaching birthday of one of my younger siblings.

At my abode, I tried out the puzzle to be sure it was of a age-appropriate skill level for the dear child whom I wished to give it to, and found to my dismay that several pieces were missing. (Sigh. What did I expect, right?) I tossed the defective orb after reviewing the sales receipt to confirm that yes, the sale was final; but the box was cute.

So I decided to re-paper it with the scraps of some of the stuff that I'd used to line my dresser drawers.

I was originally going to just put the contact paper right over the box as-was; but the printing on the box showed through in a most disgusting way, thus I peeled off the old top layer before applying the new design.

And of course, it's not the best job, but it works.

As far as art school updates go,

I still don't have enough started on my final projects to really show you any progress this week, but I hope to be able to share something next time! :)

Blessed Easter

He is Risen

Castle and Rhine

History Abounding

The Easter Retreat is in Oberwesel on the Rhine. The ancient wall is mostly intact. The castle was destroyed, by the French at the end of the 1700’s, as was most everything in this region, but in the romantic 1800’s a rich American bought it and restored it, as also happened with other castles in the region.  This one is called the Schönberg.

The castle is above and to the right of the further church.

Blessings on your Holy Saturday.

Watercolor 252

Bird

Watercolor 251

Back to a Bit of Painitng

April Life Drawing

I took my favorite shoes and tossed them into a pile one pair at a time, several times, until I got a sort-of-chaotic-and-yet-not-glaringly-messy arrangement, and used that to draw from. It was kind of fun trying to imitate the different textures, but also things turned out kind of crooked and incorrectly proportioned...not by much, still a little annoying though.

In art school, the final projects have begun, and they are still too close to not even existing to share yet. A graph here, a ghostly sketch there, the base layer of only one color on another, etc.

I can't believe May is getting so close already.

Easter is Coming

Look Who Showed Up

(Picture, as per request) Huge fellows.

Winter and Palms

Too much Snow, No Palms

We woke up to snow today. The blossoming fruit tress and daffodils were drooping, but fortunately the temperatures did not go below freezing. 

So we had some sunny color for our church service.

Blessed Palm Sunday to all.