a willet?

9x12

I'm not 100 percent sure what kind of bird this is ... a willet, perhaps?

more beachgoers

Another painting from one of my photos. And my completed homemade sketchbooks--two with Coptic binding, one with Japanese stab binding.

Beachcomber

From a photo I took last summer.
Didn't get to the beach much this summer, for some reason. Always regret not having had enough fun when summer ends!

Beachgoers

Another sketch of beachgoers. Feel it could use some punching up ... But I'll leave it and call it a hazy day.

Sunday project

 

Working on making a few little watercolor journals: two with Coptic binding, one with a simple Japanese stab binding.

Also, a little contour drawing. 

Not working ...

I set up a little still life that I thought looked so nice, simple and bright.
But I couldn't translate it to the paper (one mistake was using masking fluid).
So, inspired by Rhonda at Watercolors and Words, I decided to try to fill the space a la Shirley Trevena ... Easier said than done as I don't have her facility with shapes, among other things.
But, I figured it couldn't hurt to practice on a failed painting.
This is how far I got this morning.

Oysterman

From a picture I took of an oyster farmer returning to the dock.
Overworked the dark greens a bit--they kept drying too light. And I was hoping to get more variety in there; when I painted it, I thought I was varying them...not enough though.

photo refs

Yesterday was the last day of the summer flounder season.
Didn't catch any flounder, but got a couple of nice reference photos.

Bad paper :-(

Didn't finish this little sketch--struggled too long with it as it is--because the paper was not cooperating.
I have this problem with paper sometimes--too old? too much humidity? It becomes absorbent, flattening the color and making mixing on the paper and hard edges impossible.