The End Of World Watercolor Month 2019

giant atlas moth watercolour painting — Giant atlas moth watercolour painting

Hi there, how are you?

It’s August; world watercolour month is over for another year, and for everyone participating, we made it peoples, whoot!

These are the last few paintings of the challenge.

Day 29 Giant atlas moth. I found a book of butterflies at home and decided to paint some. I’m not a huge fan of moths but this one is quite spectacular. Having said that I’d probably run a mile if I saw one hehehe.

Day 30 Tiger moth, I thought I would have picked lots of pretty butterflies from this book but I seem to be drawn more to the moths, very strange.

tiger moth watercolour painting — Tiger moth watercolour painting

Day 31 Hollyhock, the hollyhock is still going strong. We’ve had persistent rain and wind and it’s starting to look a bit bedraggled but at the time of painting it was looking pretty fine.

hollyhock watercolour painting — Hollyhock flowers painted in the garden.

Butterfly, it’s not a super colourful one, I just liked the photo. I’d painted this one in august but I’m using it to fill in for some of the paintings I had missed.

butterfly watercolour painting — Butterfly watercolour painting

August 1st is Pinch punch post day (a monthly twitter challenge) and this month’s theme was dolphin. I’m happy that I remembered to paint it in time.

A dolphin watercolour painting for pinch punch post.

I was unsure as to whether I wanted to join in this year but as always once I got started I enjoyed making a little painting every day, there are even one or two I’m quite proud of. I enjoyed working on watercolour paper every day and noting all the differences with the way I would normally work.

I did miss my sketch book a little. The paper is so smooth and I feel totally free using it with any media. It makes me wonder whether I should try hot press paper, maybe another experiment for another day but something to think about.

just in-case anyone’s interested here are the links to this years paintings or you could check them out on Instagram.
week 1
week 2
week 3
week 4

Thanks for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x

Note: This is a challenge set up by Doodlewashe’s Charlie shields. He has details of the challenge and you can donate money or art supplies to the Dreaming Zebra charity supported by the challenge, I’m sure that even though the challenge is done this year they would still take donations.

World Watercolor Month 2019 Week 4

octopus day 25 — Octopus day 25. This was my favourite painting this week so I’ve put it at the top.

Hi there, how are you?
It’s week 4 of world watercolour week, there’s just a few days left now.

Day 22, I had set parameters for my self, to use watercolour paper for this challenge. I know it makes no difference to anybody else but I wanted to stick to it. This was a very rough sketch I had painted in my sketchbook. I tried to reproduce something similar on watercolour paper. Ooof see tomorrow.

rosebay willow herb sketchbook — Rosebay willow herb. The sketchbook version. this was painted quickly with a water brush.

Day 23, I painted this three times! This is the one I hated least, moving on.

rosebay willowherb — Rosebay willowherb painted on watercolour paper. it’s ok but I just couldn’t capture the same freshness as the sketch above.

Day 24, poppy seed-heads. The poppies have finished flowering, the seed heads are swelling and standing in a row waiting for me to paint them.
As they get older the poppies change colour and release their seeds. Hopefully there will be more painting and drawing to come.

Day 25, octopus. (See top image) I’ve wanted to draw an octopus for ages. I used salt for the texture of the skin and it worked much better than I thought it would. This one made me happy.

Day 26, goldfish. I love painting goldfish but they always seem to look so surprised.

Day 27, experiments. I was playing with colour and texture (using salt again) not beautiful but some interesting results to carry forward at a later date.

poppy seed-head experiments — Some poppy experiments, I liked the salt effect in the background.

Day 28, hollyhocks I’ve planted hollyhock seeds before, the slugs thanked me for the meal I’m sure! This year I bought a plant, just the one, to see if I could keep it alive. It does have lots of holes in the leaves but now it’s bigger it has a little more resistance. I’m enjoying finally getting to paint it.

It’s been a bit hit and miss this week, on the whole I liked the paintings I made but I think I made some of them harder than they needed to be. I suppose that’s the challenge isn’t it. Hopefully I’ll learn something from the process.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x

Note: This is a challenge set up by Doodlewashe’s Charlie shields. He has details of the challenge and you can donate money or art supplies to the Dreaming Zebra charity supported by the challenge

World Watercolor Month 2019 Week 3

wild sweet pea buds watercolour — a watercolour painting of wild sweet pea buds.

Hi there, how are you?

It’s week 3 of world watercolour week.

On a nature walk at the weekend I spotted some beautiful wild sweet peas, I couldn’t get over the gorgeous colour. I drew a few sketches and took a few photos to paint from once I was home.

I’m sure I could have spent the whole week drawing and painting the small sweet pea sprig I’d brought home with me.

Day 15, sweet pea buds. (see above) This is a painting of some little buds almost but not quite open. The scanner doesn’t like this colour so it’s very pale.

Day 16, sweet pea flower and bud. The flowers were such a beautiful vivid pink when they opened.

wild sweet pea watercolour — Wild sweet pea watercolour

Day 17, sweet pea flower and bud. Another in my sweet-pea series hehe, they don’t last long so I’m making the most of it while I have it.

Another wild sweet pea flower watercolour

Day 18, I decided to watch a few watercolour skillshare classes and use my class efforts as part if this challenge. See Day 19.

Day 19, eggs. Painting lots of colourful birds eggs with the help of @sharonestevensdesign skillshare class. This is a really interesting class with good instructions that you can paint along with in real time. It took a couple of days to paint all those eggs so I’m counting them as at least two days worth of painting.

eggs watercolour techniques — 10 eggs painted with various watercolour techniques from a class by Sharone Stevens.

Day 20, moody landscapes. Another skillshare class this time by @watercolors_by_sukruthi I painted it twice in different colours to see how it looked (paynes grey and neutral tint). The blending is not brilliant but I enjoyed the process. More practice needed me thinks.

night time watercolour landscapes — night time/moody watercolour landscapes from a skillshare class by Sukrutha Jagirdhar

Day 21, feathers. Three different feathers painted with the aid of another skillshare class by @sharonestevensdesign.

3 feathers watercolour — A watercolour painting of 3 feathers

I’ve learned a few techniques this week that I’m sure I’ll be able to apply to my future paintings and had loads of fun painting sweet peas.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x

Note: This is a challenge set up by Doodlewashe’s Charlie shields. He has details of the challenge and you can donate money or art supplies to the Dreaming Zebra charity supported by the challenge

World Watercolor Month 2019 Week 2

blackberry and bee — Watercolour painting of a bee on a blackberry flower

Hi there, how are you?

Week two done and dusted, woot! I’ve managed most days to upload something and so far I’m enjoying every minute of the challenge.

Day 8, (see above) Blackberry flowers are blooming everywhere and the bees love them. I painted this from a photo taken on my iPod.

Day 9, Ooops, move along nothing to see here.

Day 10, finally painted a poppy in flower (before the petals fell off)

watercolour poppy & buds — watercolour painting of poppies & buds

Day 11, still painting poppies. It was such a lovely day and the flower had opened so beautifully I couldn’t resist painting it again this time looking down onto it showing all of the stamens.

watercolour open poppy — Watercolour painting of an open poppy

Day 12, ferns. I love ferns and had taken a photo of some ages ago but did not know how to go about painting them; I always seem to get lost in all the little leaflets. This one has been simplified quite a bit but I really like the effect.

watercolour painting of ferns — Watercolour painting of ferns

Day 13, fennel, this is painted from a skillshare by Jean Lurssen. She has a very informative Youtube channel so when I saw this class I had to give it a try.

I’m still trying to not only watch some skillshare classes but do the tutorials too, maybe I’ll learn more this way.

watercolour painting of fennel — Watercolour painting of fennel

Day 14, I don’t know what this bird is called, there are maybe a dozen or so of them fluttering freely in the tropical house at the zoo. I took a photo of one of the more obliging birds and painted it when I got home. They are quite small, maybe sparrow size and very mischievous.

watercolour painting of a little red bird — Watercolour painting of a little red bird

I’m having lots of fun participating in this challenge and even more fun checking out all of the glorious art works posted by other people.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x

It’s World Watercolor Month 2019

3 watercolour poppy buds — Poppy buds sketched in watercolour. I scanned these into the computer to better compare them so the images differ from the instagram photos.

Hi there, how are you?

July is once again upon us and it’s time for world watercolour month. This is a challenge set up by Doodlewashe’s Charlie shields. He has details of the challenge and you can donate money or art supplies to the charity ( The Dreaming Zebra Foundation ) supported by the challenge.

I’ve participated in the last few years to varying degrees of success but this year didn’t really have the motivation, had no idea on what I wanted to achieve or the parameters to set. I find if I have no goals I just flounder about for a few days then give up.

At the eleventh hour I had an idea, since I sketch something small most days any way, maybe I could make all of my sketches on watercolour paper. It’s a way to improve my watercolours and get used to working on watercolour paper.

Day 1, pinch punch post day and I used my camel since I had nothing else prepared.

Day 2, poppies. We have two straggly poppies that have self-seeded into pots, I leave them there because I like them. I decided to spend a week or so documenting their lives. (See above image)

1. I tried to paint it the way I would in my sketchbook oof, watercolour doesn’t work that way, I should know better!

2. Getting the hang of it and the painting was a lot easier.

Day 3, another poppy (number 3 in top image), finally felt like I was getting the flow.

Day 4, oops nothing. I was going to paint my poppy flower, by the time I got there all the petals had dropped off. I’ll paint the seed head next week maybe.

Day 5, gooseberries. I planted this about ten years ago and thought I had killed it, to my surprise last year we grew two, yes two whole gooseberries! This year we may have a small bowl full. Yay!

gooseberries watercolour sketch — A watercolour sketch of gooseberries.

Day 6, robin. Every time I sit out in the garden he flies down to see what I’m doing then flies up to the fence to watch, maybe he’s picking up painting tips hehehe.

There were some interesting granulating effects going on here. They weren’t intentional but I like them.

Day 7, cosmos. I wish I had these lovely flowers in my garden; sadly I don’t so I enjoy other peoples and take photos whenever I can.

cosmos watercolour sketch — A watercolour sketch of some cosmos flowers.

It’s very different doing my sketching on watercolour paper, the amount of paint, water and flow are very different and I miss my smooth sketchbook paper but it is an interesting experiment and I’m quite enjoying it.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by. Till next time, have fun x

World Watercolour Month – Final Week

Hi there, how are you?
This is the final week for world watercolour month 2018.

For details you can check out Mr Doodlewash’s page here, donations of art stuff’s and money can still be given through the links found there.

Throughout the month I had missed a few days but wanted to finish the challenge properly so I completed the last two or three at the beginning of August.

Lavender – I liked the idea of this one but the drawing let it down (more practice needed)

watercolour of lavender #worldwatercolourmonth — Lavender looking a little misty

Californian poppies – we we’re back from holiday and I was sure these would have all gone to seed but no! Amazingly they were still flowering away, I’ll save some seeds and hope for more next year.

Watercolour of californian poppies #worldwatercolourmonth — Californian poppies

Penguins – I had a random idea for penguins in my sketchbook as I knew that would be the theme for pinch punch post (a monthly twitter challenge )so I used it for both challenges, kind of a two-fer.

watercolour of penguins #worldwatercolourmonth — Humboldt penguins for pinch punch post and world watercolour month

Flamingos – it was our wedding anniversary so I wanted to paint something romantical to use on a card. I had a few ideas (see next two posts) I ended up using the flamingos because the shape of the necks resembled a heart.

card made with flamingos watercolour #worldwatercolourmonth — The card I made with the flamingos watercolour

Seahorses – I drew two (see #4 above) I kept it to three colours to stop it getting too muddy and painted it wet in wet. I love how the colours wicked into each other on this one.

watercolour of seahorses #worldwatercolourmonth — Two seahorses entwined

Puffins – I’ve wanted to draw puffins for a while and really enjoyed painting this one.

watercolour of puffins #worldwatercolourmonth — Puffins in love.

Pigeon – I had a picture left over for ideas and he was so cute. This was #32, I painted it while I was painting the puffins because I could see myself starting to fiddle and I didn’t want to spoil it so free extra pigeon hehe.

pigeon watercolour #worldwatercolourmonth — Quirky pigeon

So, world watercolour month has finished for another year and this time I managed all of it whoop whoop!
Looking back I can see some didn’t live up to the idea in my head, the idea was OK but the execution was poor.

Getting used to the paper was interesting; from week three I have been using cold press 100% cotton paper. It’s quite a leap and I think I will need a lot more practice with it before I feel comfortable using it.
I have some pages left in the little booklet I made and another empty one made up so I will persevere.

Things to work on: I need to work on colour mixing in general but particularly greens; I managed to make some real poke in the eye acid greens (not the effect I was going for).

Colours are brighter and clearer on this paper so I need to take note of that and learn to mute them down a bit in some places.

All in all I have enjoyed this challenge a lot; I can see arty improvements are being made slowly whoot!

Click on the links below to check out previous weeks
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Congratulations to everybody who took part in any way, more arting has to be a good thing and it was all for a good cause. Also I would like to thank every one for all of the support, encouragement and kindness along the way.

I’m definitely looking forward to the next one.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by today. Till next time, have fun x

World Watercolour Month Fourth Week

And we’re back! Hi there, how are you?

Holidays over, the weather was fantastic and hot, very hot. We stayed in a small farm cottage for the week. There was a small garden with flowers, hollyhocks, sweet peas, also geese, goat’s chickens and two horses. The horses were also holidaying there.

We’ve seen monkey world, Stonehenge, castles, beaches, and investigated the small town of Shaftesbury (a lovely town with fantastic views over the local hills)

There are a few paintings missing from the week’s daily paintings. There wasn’t always time to get the paints out, too much gallivanting don’t cha know hehehe.

Kingfisher – love kingfishers and the photo looked so cute.

hummingbird sitting on a twig — Hummingbird sitting on a twig

sweet peas – the owner of our cottage filled a small vase with sweet peas so I had to try a painting.

watercolour painting of sweet peas — Watercolour painting of sweet peas

Goose – this is one of three geese that were wandering around the grounds.

watercolour painting of a goose — Watercolour painting of a goose

Daisies – at the edge of the paddock wild daisies were growing so I painted a few.

watercolour painting of daisies — Watercolour painting of daisies

Hollyhocks – these were growing around the house. In the evening before the sun set we sat in the garden drawing and painting

watercolour painting of hollyhocks — Watercolour painting of hollyhocks

I know the official challenge finishes in a few days but I plan on finishing the rest up next week, seems a shame not to complete the challenge.

We’re all back to normal now, lots to catch up on, the app on my ipod gave out after a couple of days so I haven’t been able to respond to comments or even see the amazing art your all producing. I’ll catch up over the next few days.

Want to know what #worldwatercolourmonth is all about click here to go to doodlewash’s page for details of what, why and where to donate if you want to.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by today. Till next time, have fun x

World Watercolour Month Third Week

Hi there, how are you?

It’s week three and still I’m going.

Wow what a week, we’ve been having our bathroom re-fitted, everything taken out and new put back in phew. Lots of noise and dust, nearly finished now then a weeks holiday, we’re going to need it.

Sunflower – at the zoo last week they had a lovely display of sunflowers so I sat for a few minutes and drew a few. When I got home I used my sketches as reference for a painting.

Lady slipper orchid – last year we visited Kew Gardens, they had some beautiful orchids on display, I couldn’t draw them at the time so I took lots of photos. I liked the way this one turned out as I had managed to replicate the colours quite well.

Dragonfly – I like dragonflies and it occurred to me that I had never drawn one.

Another dragonfly – I wanted to try some different colours, internet dragonflies come in so many colours it’s hard to choose just one.

Flamingos – painted from some photos I’d taken at the zoo.

Flamingos pt. two – I didn’t much like the colours in yesterdays version so I tried again, I also used different paper for this one. I think it’s a little less overworked.

Duckling – saw this cute little duckling on an image search and decided to have a go at painting it.

The first half of this challenge I’ve been using student grade watercolour paper, it’s fine for painting on when you’re not doing anything too wet or washy. I like to use it with my Pentel brush pen, for pen and wash.

The paper I switched to after the first flamingo painting is 90lb (approx.200gsm) 100% cotton paper. It’s thin but holds up very well. Again it takes the paint and water very differently so I’m still getting used to it.

I’ve made a small booklet of watercolour paper to take with me on holiday so I can hopefully keep up with the rest of the challenge.

I’m hoping to have some sort of internet whilst away if not I’ll keep going and catch up when I get back.

Thanks for the support and taking the time to stop by today. Till next time, have fun x