saturday's efforts

(6x6)
Awhile back I bought some Japanese watercolor markers, which I've since supplemented with some colored Tonbow markers ... I made a couple of little sketches with them to try them out, then forgot all about them.
Yesterday I got them out and enjoyed playing around a bit: I feel a little afraid--ridiculous, I know--of the intense color, but, on the other hand, the markers seem to encourage more playfulness.

After being disappointed with the last fishing boat painting I worked on (I haven't posted it, but I will), yesterday I decided to start on this drawing I made last week.
I'm being careful, which is unlike me ... but I think I want to get past some details and major areas being cautious, with the hope that then I'll be able to finish off the sky and water a little more freely.

This is where I stopped last night:
(11x15)

And this is what I did this morning:

Now I'll prop it up where I can see it and think it over before going any further.

In a previous post, I mentioned that I had painted the Brandywine Shoal lighthouse before. Here's one I did a year or two ago ... I had an earlier one, which I gave to a nice young man who was doing some construction work at my house and mentioned to me several times how much he liked it.
(9x12)

koi studies

(4x6)

Continues hot and muggy here. Taking a break from the fishing boat paintings: I've done a couple of drawings on Fabriano paper, which I'm thinking may be too "soft" to enjoy painting on in this humidity. Instead I thought I'd play around with some koi studies--quickly done and then left alone (though I did go back, and overdo, the middle one). These are also on Fabriano paper, but are small and I didn't intend to "work" on them much.

(4x6)

These are in the opposite order of how I painted them: I did this last one first, and drew the shapes before I painted; the other two I didn't draw first.
At first, I was most disappointed with the one I drew and thought the drawing had weakened the painting, but now, looking at it, I'm partial to this one ... So, you never know!

(4x6)