In our city of Owosso, we have a castle...the writing studio of author, James Oliver Curwood, who wrote many books including The Bear that was made into motion picture. I painted this picture in watercolor. I do notice one mistake (among several) where I did not get the angle right on the right side of the door. If I were going to paint this on watercolor paper....I would need to change that.

This is my sketch that I did for the Virtual Sketch Drawing...I came across it through Sherry Roberts after commenting on her photograph that she had posted on her blog--and whose photograph was the picture used for this month's sketch. When tackling this drawing, I thought it was extremely difficult to sketch with all the intricacies involved in the plant. At one point, I could feel my anxiety starting to peak...as it was hard to see where I was in the picture...however, it started falling into place and got easier...once I loosened up and told myself it did not have to look entirely like the photograph. I used watercolor and then ink to help bring out the details...I still have time just doing to values in paintings. I am looking forward to doing next month's sketch and thank you Sherry for getting me involved in this endeavor and also for allowing the use of your beautiful photograph.

candle from pottery barn

candle from pottery barn
Originally uploaded by slndjn1

watercolor

mason street light

mason street light
Originally uploaded by slndjn1

The town where my daughter lives...reference photo while waiting for 4th of July parade to begin. I love the detail on their street lights.

poppies

poppies
Originally uploaded by slndjn1

pen, ink, oil pastels. Just wanted to experiment with painting poppies. Need to practice more. I wish I had a bright, bright red.

eyecare clinic in Mason

eyecare clinic in Mason
Originally uploaded by slndjn1

eyecare clinic in Mason

bike rentals

bike rentals
Originally uploaded by slndjn1

Used pastels on this sketch. Also staedler 3.5 mm pen and winsor newton black ink with nib pen.

Building downtown Grand Rapids

Building downtown Grand Rapids
Originally uploaded by slndjn1

Hard picture to draw...decided to make it more abstract than realistic...mainly experimented...windows hard to get a correct angle. Watercolor, pen and ink and a little watercolor pencil

Irises and Rock--Heritage Park

This is a picture drawn from a scene at Heritage Park along the Shiawassee River--at the dam. There is a wonderful small garden that is maintained by volunteers...that is chocked full of perennials, a bench with two children reading (in honor of a past superintendent of schools), a gazing ball, birdhouses and more. It is a beautiful little spot.

Building in downtown Grand Rapids

This is my EDM #29 drawing of a building that we were walking towards in downtown Grand Rapids--after visiting the Grand Rapids Art Museum. We were headed toward the parking ramp and then onward to get some caffeine as the six of us our "tails" were dragging. This is done with a staedler 3.5 pen and watercolor wash.

Bicycle with Flowers, Chelsea, Michigan

This is my EDM #35 for today. I have had this reference picture for a year now. I loved the bicycle when I saw it outside a store in Chelsea, Michigan. We were on an afternoon trip with our Artists Guild Group. Chelsea is a cool city with galeries, antiques....and most of all a wonderful restaurant called The Common Grill and the Purple Rose Theatre which is owned by actor Jeff Daniels---who lives in this city when he is not off filming a movie somewhere. It is also the home of Jiffy baking mixes...where you can take a tour of the plant. My sketch is done in pen and ink and then filled in with a watercolor wash.

Blueberry Zucchini Bread

I did this picture while watching my granddaughter yesterday. Scan wasn't good. I think I need to switch over to a better journal. Was determined to fill this one as it was my first, but it just gets all crinkled up when water is applied.

This is a watercolor/pen and ink that I did in June of this year. The background is of an old house that is in the Corunna Historical Village...the geese were walking in front of where I work at the Gallery in Owosso...combined two reference photos to make the painting. I am going to frame and mat the original and try to sell it. The City of Corunna is having a founder's day celebration in September...hopefully someone will enjoy it and give it a nice home. The original is appr. 12x12

This is my daily drawing for Friday/Saturday--I will put it under EDM #175--draw a basket and draw its contents. I wish I could just paint a watercolor, but I always turn back to relying on my pen and ink in addition to the painting. Oh Well....

This is the cover for an invitation for a friend that is doing a high tea for a lady in our community and about six of her friends. It will be mounted on another paper and then attached to a card. Next, have to do the inside of the invitation. At least the hard part is done!!! I was going to do something that was red for my EDM but this will work!!!

I don't know if blogging is a godsend or not! I spend way too much time blogging and not enough time doing the things I really need to be doing. I have been good about sketching daily. I need also to sketch some serious stuff, but it has been fun the last couple of days doing the drawing and captioning.

a french door

This is a watercolor painting that I did and recently it was donated and auctioned off at a benefit for a friend of mine whose husband lost his battle with cancer and daughter who was killed by a drunk driver on her way to deliver a college paper that was due.

My not quite a truck drawing This is my not quite a truck drawing, but when I saw the everyday matters assignment for this week, it inspired me to do something that I had thought about for quite a while. Back in the 50's when I was around 10 years old, my Mother was purchased a late 1940's Kaiser by my Father. It was quite special back then for a family to have two cars, so my mom did lots of driving around Detroit in this car--toting herself, myself and my two sisters around the Northwest section of the Metro City. This car was bright turquoise. It was a good car except for one flaw...it had a bad habit of locking gears--always at a busy intersection (Usually Grand River and Greenfield in the left turn lane). I can remember my mother getting highly agitated and using a not nice vocabulary consisting of words of not more than four letters. When the Kaiser had outlived its usefulness, my parents sold it to a junk yard for a total of $22.00 and that car became our first family picnic table!Labels: truck drawing

This is a watercolor class that I took at the Art Gallery where I work. This is my first large watercolor painting....it took me 5 tries before I got it right. It was recently in an exhibit...made me feel great when I had it finished, matted and framed.