birds with John Muir Laws

Sketchbook pages from a 2-hour online class with John Muir Laws. Lots of great tips for drawing birds fast.

You can get a recording of the class, and others, at Wild Wonder Foundation; the classes are pay-what-you-can, which is a beautiful thing.

assateague ponies

                              8x10

Made my reservation to camp at Assateague National Seashore in October. My brother and had camped there every October for about 5 years; had to cancel for one reason or another the last two years! Hoping we make it back this year.

classwork

                                 9x12

Tonight's class with SaltyWater Art. I need the wet in wet practice!

Now that I've painted it, I should paint it again-- faster, looser.

Below, practice paintings to try out color.

sketchbook pages

classwork

                       9x12

This is the 3rd go: all wet in wet and without "correcting."

Here's the 1st try, top, somewhat overworked, and the 2nd, unfinished!

And below is a copy of a painting by Catherine Gill in her great book, Powerful Watercolor Landscapes. I love her paintings and I'm going to try to copy a few more and hopefully learn something from them!

classwork

I missed class with SaltyWaterArt last week so I'm trying to catch up. It was the first week and I'm already a week behind!

I put the first one at the bottom ...First one is overworked: the first strokes were not bad but then I tried to "correct"!

The 2nd is weak: not enough paint. Also true of the 3rd, but I could add to it.

Last is 1st because it turned out best, imo: I used more paint.

seascapes

                       4x6

                       9x12

More painting along with Birgit O'Connor's class on seascapes.

values/shapes

More value/shape studies. Paths to the beach.

These are fun to do; surprisingly relaxing.

cropping

                      cropped

                     original,  5x8

Had some paint left on my palette and some space on my paper and no pencil to hand, and I decided to paint these two gulls from a photo I took without any drawing.

I like the way it turned out, a little wonky....  I will have to try to summon these conditions again.

And here's a crop by my friend Gina, which has a more modern feel to it.

studies

Very loose value studies of a couple of photos I took at Keurners farm in PA last May. In these studies im basically trying to connect shapes by painting the midtones, as recommended by Andy Evansen.

I then added slightly darker washes just for a bit of clarification. 

I like these just the way they are-- they remind me of the paintings of Megan Marsden, with whom ill be taking a class next month.

Below is a little exercise from a different Andy Evansen class I bought through Artefacto.

waves

Catching up on a Birgit O'Connor class I bought awhile back, Expressive Seascapes.

daffodils

And a page of sketches from a London Drawing Group class on Gabrielle Munter.

plein air!

A scene near my home, painted in my sketchbook.

Below: a copy of a Ron Ransen painting. I'm rediscovering Ranson and reslly liking how he simplifies the landscape.

spring blooms!

Feeling the pressure of the spring blooms! Daffodils and tulips in the yard, then I went out and got an Easter Lily!

And the bluebells are coming up!

Tulips painted in my sketchbook while on a zoom call.