Sunday Afternoon Calm

We went on a little family walk around Cheadle Lake (in our small town) the other Sunday. The lake is looking unfortunately yucky this time of year and the bugs were out in number but the girls had a blast riding their little scooters along the path. And amusingly, we discovered that our dog is terrified of duck feathers. 😜  I think he just had no clue what to make of the smell? 

I did this quick sketch this morning remembering that although it wasn't a perfectly beautiful view, it was calm and relaxed and we were together. And that counts for something!

Slow Afternoon

I love lazy summer afternoons with a few clouds slowly drifting by. Or at least I like the idea of lazy summer afternoons. They sound very nice. I went for that feel with this quick sketch, while playing around a bit with lines with my pen. The grass at the bottom looks like it's a heartbeat. Ha. Not quite my intent. :)

Blue for Hawaii

Some days when I didn't manage to get up and do a quick sketch before the daily crazies started happening, I'll just take an old one and "enhance" it. You know, add lines, outlines, or whatever to make it go from being bleh to uh huh. 😜  I usually only do that to sketches that were just bleh, or were obviously begging for some help. I can't decide on this one! I actually painted this on the wonderful Hawaiian sand back in December. I can almost smell the sweet air...no, not really. But I wish I could! Already the sketch is kinda cool, or do I just think that because of the memories? And would black lines make it cooler? Hmm...

Dusting Off Old Inspiration

I have a large, holey plastic bag overflowing with old photos that I occasionally flip through for inspiration (I have an even larger number of unprinted photos on the computer that supposedly I'll someday get around to painting). So I pulled one out at random and went for it. The photo shows so little detail that I've never been sure if I could pull it off, which makes it perfect for a simple, small-scale sketch. The design made by the strong contrasts have always called to me. I left the birds out this time as that would have kept me from painting quickly. Kinda love it. Might have to get brave and try it big! What do you think though? Birds or no birds?

The hills are alive...with paint.

I might've been procrastinating a commission here...which is really nothing new. It's sometimes really hard to muster up the inspiration to paint a commission! Especially when it's something I would've never chosen to paint on my own! So I did a quick sketch in my watercolor journal first of what I see driving through the countryside near my home daily. I love, love, love the valley we live in. The blue mountains, the green trees and the yellow fields make me want to pull over and paint right there every time I'm in the car.