Full Moon with Bats Door Art

 

I had an idea for more Halloween themed door art, so I decided to paint on my front door, like I did last Christmas.  I like for the painting on the front door to be larger, simpler, and easier to see from the street than what I paint on the side door.  I thought that bats in front of a full moon would be pretty visible and recognizable from a distance.  It also sorta resembles a evil smiley face. 

I used string and a dry erase marker to draw the large circle.  I used white ceiling paint to fill the circle.  Then I used a pale yellow wall paint for the moon color.  I drew bats on card stock, and then cut them out.  I traced around them with pencil and then filled in the outline with black acrylic paint.

I think it turned out okay, and it fulfills my last non-sewing goal for this year!

Running total of goals accomplished:

    Finish UFOs = 4 of 4 (completed)
    Use pre-cuts = 3 of 3 (completed)
    Do window paintings = 2 of 2 (completed)
    Do non-window painting = 1 of 1 (completed)
    Sew sets of coasters = 5 of 5 (completed)
    Sew small bags = 0 of 2
    Sew tote bags= 1 of 2

Black Cat in a Pumpkin Door Art

 

For Halloween, I decided to do a painting of a black cat in a pumpkin on my side door.

First I found a picture online of a cat in a pumpkin that I liked.  I drew it first on paper to get a feel for how to draw it.  Next I drew the picture with dry erase marker on the window.  Then I used acrylic paint to fill in the colors.  It took several coats of paint for the orange because I didn't do a white base coat.  On this door I don't do the white base coat because I want the image to be the same on both sides of the door.

I think it turned out cute enough.  It makes me smile when I see it.  And it fulfills one of my creativity goals for the year.

Running total of goals accomplished:

    Finish UFOs = 4 of 4 (completed)
    Use pre-cuts = 3 of 3 (completed)
    Do window paintings = 1 of 2
    Do non-window painting = 1 of 1 (completed)
    Sew sets of coasters = 5 of 5 (completed)
    Sew small bags = 0 of 2
    Sew tote bags= 1 of 2

May Mini Watercolors

 

 

These are my two 3x3 inch watercolors for the month of May.  The one on the left was inspired by a YouTube video by Foxhardt.  Hers was done in purple and wasn't a mini.  The one on the right was inspired by a tutorial by Andrea Nelson Art on YouTube. I'm pleased with how they turned out.

I feel like I'm starting to get an understanding of the wet on wet technique, maybe.  I like how the lighter trees fade into the background using this technique.  Then the darker, more detailed tree stands out, because it was done wet on dry.

I'm not sure that the composition is exactly what it should be in the mountain painting, but I think it works, okay.  I like the darker shading on the left side of the front mountain, but it probably needed a little more detail.  I'm learning.

Mini Art

 

 

I decided to try making some little 3 x 3 inch watercolors inspired by Kirstin Van Leuven.  She's doing 100 mini painting this year, but I'm not necessarily painting along.  I like the idea of the small painting, but I'm not planning to do 100 of them or to necessarily do the same subjects that she's painting.  Just taking her idea as inspiration, mostly.  My goal right now is to do at least 2 per month for the rest of the year.

These are the ones I painted this month (Not today). From left to right, some trees inspired by a tutorial from Rebel Unicorn Crafts, a tree inspired by the tree in my front yard, and a sunset inspired by one that my husband and I saw taking our evening walk one day.

Watercolor Again

 

 

For the month of March, I decided to pull out my watercolor paints and try to paint at least a little something every day.  Mostly I did Zen Tangles, but I did try a few other things as well.  I decided I didn't want to post about it every day on social media like I did for Inktober several years ago, but I thought I'd share a few of the highlights now that the month is over.

Mostly it was pretty fun to do.  I plan to try to keep painting some, but not every day.  Maybe I'll do some more sewing now that all my creative time isn't focused on watercolor.

Watercolor Zen Doodle

 

YouTube suggested a video to me a few days ago of a person painting a watercolor zen doodle.  I was inspired by the idea, so yesterday I painted one of my own.  Hers is much better, but it's not about comparisons.  It's about motivation and inspiration.  It felt like a do-able watercolor project.  Maybe it's a way for me to learn a little bit about how watercolor paint and brushes work, without stressing out (too much) about what the end product looks like.  It's not supposed to look like anything in particular.  It's just supposed to be paint on paper, and that's what it turned out to be.

Running total of goals accomplished: 

1. Finish UFOs = 2 of 4
   
2. Use pre-cuts = 1 of 3
   
3. Do window paintings = 0 of 2
   
4. Do non-window painting = 1 of 1 (completed)
   
5. Sew sets of coasters = 5 of 5 (completed)
   
6. Sew small bags = 0 of 2
   
7. Sew tote bags= 0 of 2

More Door Art

 

 

This morning I finished the door art for our front storm door.  This one is less intricate than the Garfield, but also significantly larger.  This time I used mostly interior wall paint.  The white is actually ceiling paint that we already had in the shed, left over from our renovations a few years ago.  The red, brown, and greens are from small samples paint containers I bought at Lowes.  We had some yellow left over from painting my quilting room, and I used that at first, but I decided that I wanted something brighter.  I painted over that yellow with some yellow acrylic I had left over from painting Garfield.  The outline is done in black acrylic.

First, I drew out my idea on an index card and colored it with markers.  Then I took the drawing to Lowes to match paint colors, which wasn't fully necessary, but I liked the idea of matching my original drawing.  I drew the same basic shape onto the door with a dry erase marker, but the proportions turned out a little different because the height to width ratio of the door was different from the card.  I painted a base layer of the whole drawing in white and let that dry overnight.  The next day, I painted all the colors, and a second layer of white where I wanted it to be white.  I had to be pretty careful because the white base coat would smear once it got a little wet from the new layer of paint.  No adding wet on wet!  This morning I added the black outlines to everything.  I think the outlines really made it pop compared to before I added them.  So with the exception of the yellow (because I changed the color), and the white (which has base coat and top coat) each color was just one coat, unlike with Garfield where everything needed 3 coats.

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Assuming that it isn't too much trouble to remove it, I'm thinking about doing different ones next year.  I'm thinking about either Christmas ornaments or wrapped presents.  It's been really fun to do some painting.

Christmas Door Art

 

 

On the day after Thanksgiving, I took my cat to the vet (like I do every Friday), and one of the employees was painting a mural on their front windows.  That inspired me to try doing a little Christmas window painting of my own.  When I was in high school, I used to draw Garfield all the time.  He was sort of my go-to doodle.  Also, when my kids were little, they loved to watch the Garfield Christmas movie.  So, I thought that painting Garfield on my door would be a fun way to tap into a little of my creative side with a nod to family history at the same time.  I think he turned out pretty good.

I started by finding a Christmas picture of Garfield online.  Then I sketched him out in my sketchbook.  I then scanned my drawing into the computer, enlarged the image to a size that would fit my window, and printed it out.  I had thought that I would tape the print out to the inside of the window and then trace it on the outside using a dry erase marker, but that didn't really work because of the nature of the window.  It has two panes of glass with blinds in between.  That made the image seem too far away to actually trace, so I just used it as a placement guide and drew it free hand with the marker.

We wanted the image to be seen from both inside and outside, so I went over the outlines in black first.  Then I added the color, and then went over the black line again last thing.  I tried chalk markers first, but I didn't like how that looked (too thin and runny), so I used artist acrylic paint instead.  All of the colors needed 3 coats to really show up nicely.

I'm thinking about trying something larger on my storm door at my front door (this door goes to the carport). If I do that one, I'm planning to try using interior wall paint and starting with a base of white.  It won't be viewable from inside, but that doesn't matter on that door, and I hope it will have better coverage that way.

Inktober!

So this year I decided to take part in the online phenomenon that is Inktober.  It is a challenge to make art, in pen and ink, everyday during the month of October.  I had never done pen and ink drawing before, but I decided to give it a try anyway.  The whole idea is for it to be a learning experience and I feel like it was for me.  I enjoyed it, but it became something of a chore by the end. 

Here are some of the highlights.  (You can see them all at https://www.instagram.com/jcooper52371/ if you are interested.)  Each day had a separate prompt.

 Build (day 5)

 Dragon (day 12)

 Overgrown (day 14)

 Tread (day 20)

 Dizzy (day 24)

Injured (day 29)

More Art!

 A watercolor dandelion I painted for my mother's Mother's Day card.

 Some abstract watercolor tulips.

 A pencil drawing of a cat.

 A pencil drawing of a lamp from a reference photo a tore out of a magazine.

 An abstract watercolor cat face that I painted from a demo I found online.

 A line-and-wash (ink and watercolor) magnolia that I did from a reference photo I took in my neighbor's yard.

A pencil drawing of my youngest granddaughter.  I'm not including the reference photo because my stepdaughter is particular about sharing her photos online.

A watercolor ice cream cone that I painted for my husband's birthday card.

I like some of my efforts better than others, but I've been enjoying the learning experience.

A little art

I've been playing a little bit with watercolor painting off and on recently.  I've posted at least one watercolor project before.  Today I decided to try the new watercolor pencils that I bought the other day.  As a general rule, I tend to be a perfectionist, so watercolor is not an obvious medium for me.  But the goal is to get outside of my comfort zone and do something a little freer.  As you can probably tell, I haven't reached that goal yet.  I still tend to be very rigid with my work.  I think it looks nice, but it's not exactly what I'd call free.  The watercolor pencils are good for detail, so that's good for my more exacting side.

This is a sketch that I drew from a photo of my oldest granddaughter.  I think it turned out pretty good and recognizable from the original photograph. Here is the original photograph that I was working from.

Watercolor Bluebird

I decided to try again with my watercolor paints.  I am a lot happier with the results this time.  It's still far from perfect, of course, but I think I'm getting more of a feel for the process.  My favorite part of the painting is actually the branch and the feet.

Quilting in Watercolor

Over the weekend I decided to try my hand at some watercolor painting again.  I wanted to combine quilting with painting, so I drew a Storm at Sea block for the background and then put a silhouette of sailboat in the foreground.

I think it turned out okay for a first attempt of this type.  I was definitely too heavy handed with the paint.  I'm still learning what to do and not to do with watercolor paints, but practice is how you learn, right?