Lesson Two

Quite some time ago, I began a watercolor pencil class that Dion Dior is teaching. Two months ago, actually. I started off well, then I got sidetracked with life. You know how that works. So, tonight, I pulled out my notebook and reviewed the notes up till now. My drawing skills themself have not improved, sorry, but I love the color! I actually used around 22 different colors on this dragonfly watercolor. (I lost track at that count.) I may go back and add some twinkling H2Os, not decided yet. And you know what? I'm still in lesson 2! Of 6 lessons! Oh, my! I need to get busy, but I want to go back and rework all my color swatches so I can get them into one dedicated journal instead of spread out over two journals. I need to get with it, though, because come January - - - I am signed up for 3 more online classes. >.<

Thank You, Dion!

For several months now I've been watching the artwork of Dion Dior. According to Dion's blog, she is "a mother, artist, writer, and teacher" who loves color, sparkle, and shimmer. Her journals are filled with "luscious, shimmering pages . . . treasured expressions." And that's understating her artistic creations. I love her work! And if you are friends with me, then you know that I love color, and the brighter - the better!

I so much wanted to learn how she got the brilliant colors she does! And I didn't even care that I don't know how to draw. I figured it would all come together somehow. I started watching the classes she teaches, and finally got over my fear of failure and signed up for Dion's Watercolor Pencil Workshop that she teaches online. Most of the students are already finished with the class, I am just finishing up lesson 2 of 6. Haha!

And even by the end of the second lesson, I am learning what I wanted to learn. Watercolor pencil techniques with bright, vibrant, wonderful color! I sketched out these flowers - all by myself :). Of course, Dion had a sample for us that looks very similar. You can see how I started laying down some color. Well, trust me, there were a ton of layers on these flowers before I was done. If you haven't used watercolor pencils before, the large flower above has pencil colored straight onto the paper. 

Then I used a waterbrush to 'paint' water onto the color and spread it to where I wanted it to be. These waterbrushes are pretty incredible! There is a barrel that you fill with water and attach the brush top to it. When you squeeze the barrel - water slides down onto the brush and voila! instant water coloring possibilities! Yes, you could do this the old-fashioned way with a paintbrush and a bowl of water, but this is so much easier.

I am so proud of this drawing that I am going to innudate you with photos. Sorry. Here I was going for the focus being on the one large flower, and dropping the remaining flowers into the background.

For whatever reason, I did not think to take pictures while I was painting the leaves. The flowers literally have six colors on them, while the leaves have three.

As I painted, I also flicked pencil/paint specks on the page. I find I usually end up with some accidental spots on my page, so I figured I would just make them a signature part of what I do. One thing I know I am going to do now is go back over those centers of the flowers with a black micron and pop up those printemps a little. (I might even add a little twinkling H2Os. 

I still have four more lessons to do in this class, so expect to see some more artwork coming. AND, I signed up for another one of Dion's classes - Wisdom Circles - because I am enjoying this one so much! Dion, thank you for sharing your talent! You are such an inspiration to me, I appreciate you very much!

Painting to the Sound of Rain

Yesterday was a pretty scary day here in Maryland. Plenty of rain and wind and snow and did i mention rain? Courtesy of Hurricane Sandy, now known as Superstorm Sandy - the worst storm in the history of the United States. Kali and I rode out the storm in Maryland as we waited to hear if she would be able to take her entrance exam for the pastry college today. And while I waited - I watercolored.

I began by drawing my outline. I left my circle template in Florida (can't believe I did that!), so I scouted the hotel room for circles to trace. The smaller, inner circle is from a hotel water glass :) and the larger, outer circle was made by tracing the lid of the ice bucket :). You gotta do what you gotta do! Then I divided the area into sections.

Tangling was the easy part. Then I stippled the heck out of the center. I did something similar once before - except that turned out to be a flower. This looks more like a math project gone wrong. OR a fun math project!

The project I was working on for my class called for a prismatic approach, so I drew a string in and around my sections and background . . .

. . . and began laying color. The thought was to make my focal point stand out from the background by my color choices. Of course I used my Derwent Inktense Pencils. The only way to go with watercolor. Well, not really, but it's my preferred way because the colors you get are so bright and vivid and intense. A waterbrush and pencils. Easy peasy.

For the most part, I tried to separate the colors where the string line made divides. Didn't always accomplish that, but I tried.

I figured the central focal part would be the hardest, so I did all of that first. I went with variations of purple, pink, and blue because I really like the way those colors look together. I have actually had my hair all these colors - one at a time, not all at once, although I'm not totally unfond of the idea. 

Then I picked out yellows and greens to do the contrasting background. Once this was dry, I went back to my copic multiliner and added the penwork shading. All shading and detail work was done with this multiliner. It's always a challenge for me to figure out shading on color - the black penwork is the way to go! This was a fun project, not hard to do, and I was very satisfied with the results. I am not one to be able to draw awesome pictures of flowers and ladies and animals and landscapes, but I can tangle me up a bunch of artwork! Throw some bright color on there and I am one happy lady sitting in the midst of one scary, scary, scary hurricane! (And I still have the heater set on 82, trying to warm up! Florida, oh how I miss you!)

Go Do Your Homework

"Go do your homework" takes on a whole new meaning! This week I started a water color pencil class that Dion Dior is teaching! I am beyond excited! I have been following Dion's blog for a few months now. I love how she uses rich, vibrant colors - bringing them to life in her drawing. She and LeeAnn are two of my favorite artists. They both "get" color and I want to "get" it, too.

We had our first assignment. We will probably get another one on Tuesday. Already I am behind on work. Thankfully it is a 'work at our own pace' kind of class. To have a better understanding of how our pencils work, we set up a color swatch book. I got carried away with that (nothing unusual there) and included every color pencil I have. Well, the water soluble ones, at least. I didn't include the pastels, or chalks, or the really old pencils, or plain colored pencils, or any of my pan watercolors. (Wait! Maybe I should go back and do those, too, but then I'll be like two weeks behind instead of just one. Way to make an impression on the teacher! Hahaha!)

But, really. I had no idea I had all these beautiful colors! (Kali's highlights in her hair are that next to last color.) I pretty much use my derwent inktense pencils all the time. Now I'll learn how to use them effectively, and include all these others I have like the metallics, the graphitints, the blocks. Yes, I am shameless. What can I say? It would appear I have three drawings to get done and colored this week. Which ends tomorrow night. Yeah, I'm not going to make it.

What's that you say? What does this have to do with my water color pencil class, homework not completed, three sketches and coloring homework to go issue I'm dealing with? Not a thing. But isn't this cute???

Stay tuned to see if I get bailed out in time. Stay tuned to see if Dion is still talking with me when she sees what a difficult student I am. (And, of course, you know I am only kidding. Mostly. Hehehehehe!) Can you spell incorrigible? Homework to follow. Soon. I hope. That's the plan.