Watercolor Gerbera Daisies

March 23, 2014 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Today, I was barely awake, and making my first cup of coffee when I decided to set up the watercolors. There were plenty of things I should have been doing – cleaning the kitchen, laundry, the list goes on. But I decided to ignore all of that stuff and start painting. I decided to try painting my favorite flower the gerbera daisy again. I painted one a few days ago and immediately saw what was wrong with it. But I did get some nice feedback on it (thank you!), which motivated me to try again.

Not quite awake, I almost took a swig of the dirty water, mistaking it for my coffee! But I got into a groove and as I worked, I felt more and more satisfied. It was hard to stop putting finishing touches on them! But finally I said, they are done. I had that “Mom! Look what I made!” feeling. What a great way to start the day. The orange one is my favorite.

Watercolor Flowers – Happy Spring!

March 21, 2014 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Lately, I can’t stop painting flowers. I think I’m just very happy Spring is here! Before flowers, I was painting fruit. lol! In the past I was intimidated by flowers. Now, I am getting into it. My first (recent) attempts were more graphic, less realistic.

Today, I worked hard to get the flower to look like the actual flower. I’ve been loving working in watercolor again!

Intimidated by painting flowers – I decided to let the brush do the work.

March 14, 2014March 14, 2014 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Before today, I’ve shied away from paintings flowers. I was intimidated by them, especially roses. Here is my one and only flower painting. (From our Dogwood tree.)

Today, as I was setting up my watercolors, The Company Store catalog caught my eye. I love all the bright patterns in that catalog. On the cover was a graphic flower pattern. It inspired me and I decided to paint flowers. I was probably less intimated because the pattern wasn’t realistic looking flowers.

I really enjoy “warming up” with watercolor (as I like to call it). On my days off, once the lunches are packed, I setup. Once the kids are gone and the house is quiet, I sit and paint with my cup of coffee. More than once I’ve accidentally cleaned my brush in my coffee!

Today, as I sat to paint flowers, I decided I’d let the brush do the work. Instead of painting the petal, I just touched the brush to the paper and pulled it up, or in some cases swiped a little. I guess I was channeling that “one stroke flower” painting technique. I even tried having one end of the brush wetter than the other, so the petal was a little different on each end. I was getting the hang of it. It was so fun. Later, when I came home from running errands, I sat and painted more flowers.

Warming up with watercolor

March 10, 2014March 11, 2014 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

On the mornings I have free time to paint, I try to start my day painting with watercolor in my sketchbook. I think of it as a warm up. I have to admit I am falling back in love with watercolor. I love the different options you have, depending on how wet your brush, and the paint are. Every time I do a quick watercolor “sketch” I find myself wanting to work on it more (and cursing the crappy sketchbook paper). But, I’ve spent the last two months exploring acrylic painting and I don’t want to give up on it. I do look forward to the day that I dedicate my time to watercolor. I’ll be warmed up and ready! And I promise to use the right paper.

Ice Cube Watercolor Palette

February 28, 2014 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Yesterday, as I set up for my “winter” watercolor I had the best idea. Now, you may not know this but, I recently scrubbed my watercolor palette and set up my paints in the order of the color wheel. Most of the colors were straight from the tube, but I mixed a couple of them. (My palette has sponges that keep the paint from drying out.)

With this setup, I’m ready to paint. I can sit down and paint in my sketchbook without pulling out the tubes and squeezing out paint. The only hiccup is when I need to mix a custom color. I don’t want to dirty my palette! I was able to get away with mixing on a piece of tinfoil, but now I was anticipating mixing several colors. I didn’t want pieces of tinfoil all over the place.

I remembered an ice cube tray, long abandoned, in the back of the corner cabinet, where no one can reach. When I pulled it out, I was excited to see it had 3 rows!

As I rinsed it out, I decided to keep water in the top row. I mixed paint in one of the bottom row cubes. I took some of that paint and put it in the cube above it, and added a little water. Then I cleaned my brush in the top cube – the water cube. I now had, a row of cubes, all the same color, in varying degrees of wetness! Awesome!

I set up rows for the other colors I needed and started painting. It was great. I had 3 options to choose from for each color. It worked like a charm. I’ll use my ice cube palette from now on!

Goodbye [and good riddance] Winter Watercolor

February 27, 2014February 28, 2014 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Dear Winter,

Thank you for the snow days and for this fun day of sledding. Now, please go away. Thank you!

Sincerely,
“Sick of Winter”

P.S. It’s snowing again! Really?!

Adding Watercolor to my Sketchbook

February 22, 2014February 28, 2014 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

I was sketching every other day, until recently. I was getting bored and running out of things to draw. I decided to add watercolor to my sketchbook, but first I had to do a little housekeeping. I did what I’ve wanted to do for a while – scrubbed my watercolor palette. I was starting fresh.

Keeping to the arrangement of the color wheel, I added a dollop of paint to each section. I mixed a few of the colors, that I didn’t have in tubes. It’s been a while since I’ve used watercolor. Some of my tubes would not open. The tubes twisted and paint squirted out from all sides. It was a bit of a mess!

I know the sketchbook paper isn’t ideal for watercolor. It will wrinkle, if it gets too wet. But in my mind, my sketchbook is meant to be quick, no pressure, play around, keep the creative juices flowing, and get my skills “in shape.” So, I’m not worried about the paper.

Once I got started I realized I missed watercolor! There is so much you can do! It is fun to wet sections of the page and let interesting things happen, let colors blend. Or add detail to a dry part of the paper, with a dry brush and paint that is directly from the tube. And in between these two techniques (wet on wet and dry on dry), are tons of other options! There was a time that I painted exclusively in watercolor. Here are a couple of my older paintings.

For my second watercolor sketch, I first drew (in pencil) a few flowers and leaves from the Burpee (plant and seed) catalog. There are beautiful pictures in there! I wet the background area, then added in wet paint and let it run. After the background dried, I painted the flowers and leaves, using a combination of wet painting and finally, dry details. It was fun! And “sketching” in watercolor might lead to ideas for paintings – watercolor or acrylic.