April in Almost Heaven (West Virginia)

A Blue Jay recently visited my feeders and I happened to notice the wonderful mosaic of color made by his wings when they are folded back over the tail.  I tried to capture that in watercolor in my journal, but, to paraphrase Joyce Kilmer, Only God can make a Blue Jay.

This is the most beautiful Spring I have ever seen.  Because we didn't get any heavy frosts just as the flowers were emerging, there are more flowers than ever.  The cherry, plum, and crab apple trees were loaded with blossoms, and now the dogwoods are putting on a show in my neighborhood.  I've been noticing how there is a steady succession of flowers, leaves and seeds on the hardwood trees.  

One tree caught my attention with what I thought were pale yellow flowers.  Upon closer examination, it was the seeds (samaras) that looked like flowers from a distance.  I was prompted to check my tree field guide to identify the tree as the American Elm.  I did this watercolor sketch to help memorize the details so that I will be able to recognize them in the future.  By the way, I now know why my college botany professor made us draw what we saw in the microscope and if I ever see him, I will apologize for complaining!

Watercolor Sketching

It's Week 4 of Cathy Johnson's Watercolor Sketching class at Strathmore's On-Line Workshop site, but, guess what?  I'm still having fun with Week 3.  Fortunately, the lessons will stay on line for a while, so I can finish at my own pace.  Here are two nature sketches I did last week, using different techniques that Cathy suggested.

Tissue Paper Magic

I recently discovered an alternative to transparencies that lets me use Photoshop work and copied or scanned materials in my mixed media work.  Transparencies have never worked well for me but this method is almost goof-proof!!  For this mixed media collage, I used a photograph of a statue that I had digitally enhanced and also copied sheet music and handwriting for use as background materials in the collage.









Here's the secret:  White craft tissue paper (Dick Blick has nice sheets) becomes nearly transparent when glued with matte or polymer medium to a substrate.  But material that is printed on the tissue shows up clearly and the color stays true. The only thing to be careful about is overworking the wet tissue to the point that it breaks up or the ink smears.

To print, I use masking tape to secure a piece of tissue paper to a carrier sheet (a sheet of acetate is perfect), and run it through the printer.

I like to use the copier function of my printer and try to fill up the page so that I don't waste the tissue.  Here's an example of old photos and sheet music that I copied with my printer to the tissue paper:

  And what else can you do with printed tissue paper?  Make Washi tape!!  Print a piece of tissue paper, or paint and stamp the paper.  On the back side of the tissue, lay down strips of double-sided tape, or a sheet of peel and stick adhesive.  Cut into strips.  Voila!  Washi tape.

Art Journal - Watercolors!

I'm loving the Strathmore On-Line Workshop 2 with Cathy Johnson --Watercolor Sketching.  I have admired Cathy's nature journals and recently purchased her book.  Nothing beats having a live instructor, though, and the on-line workshop has given me the first opportunity I've had to learn from a watercolor pro.  We are two lessons into the course, and I've already learned a lot.  This is an on-going course, so it's still open to newcomers.

In last week's lesson, Cathy gave us a demo of sketching Basil, one of her favorite plants.  Naturally, my choice was the Hellebore.  Here's my page, on which I used some of her techniques.  One of those was "spattering" and it just so happened that the little vase I used to hold my flower had spattered spots in the glaze.  How serendipitous is that?