Daisies Are Back...

I have finally gotten back to painting those daisies that I started I don't know how many months ago...I think last time we saw them, they looked like this:

Only the stems had been completely painted and a few bits of yellow on the top daisy. Well, now it looks like this:

Got a bit more done on the yellow daisy and started playing around with the orange one.  We just moved again and while I was waiting for a shipment of our stuff with my watercolors in it, I tried using watercolor pencils on the orange daisy. I didn't get too far and figured I'd just wait for my watercolors to show up. So now I will continue to work on these, and keep you updated on my progress :)

Also, over the summer, I also got a new paintbrush! 

I know, I know, you're so excited about it, too! Well, I told you I'm an art supply dork and stuff like this thrills me. I love this brush! It holds so much paint and water and it's ridiculously fun to splash paint around with it. So anyway, back to work!

Inspiration...

These roses grow right outside next to my apartment building and every time I walk past them, I notice just how beautiful they are. Some inspiration for future projects! 

These peach ones are actually in a park:

And this one is my favorite, I'm really excited to play with it:

Time to go get creative! 

The Barn Painting

I finished another commissioned painting about a month ago for my neighbor. (He's my best customer! haha). Sorry I haven't posted in a while, my Painter program where I edit my photos hasn't been working and I just got it fixed today (thank you, Fiance ;-) ) I don't like to post photos where you can see the background of where I photograph my work, it doesn't look too professional. :-/  So, here is the reference photo he gave me:

Here is my finished painting (watercolor and gouache on hot pressed smooth paper, 14"x20"):

Sorry for the poor quality photo. I took all these pictures with my phone and thought they came out fine.  Only when I uploaded them to my computer did I realize some were blurry, and by that time I had already given the painting to my neighbor. :-(  It looks much better in real life, I think. But anyway, here is how I got there:

I had first masked out all the trees and the moon with masking fluid and then painted the sky, using cobalt blue, ultramarine blue and permanent rose (I think those were the colors...). Once I was happy with the sky I started painting the background trees by basically scrubbing some shades of brown and purple into the background and blending it a little at the edge where trees meet sky. I removed some masking fluid to paint in the larger trees and started painting some of the darks in the barn. 

I started working more on the barn using burnt umber, burnt sienna, sepia and ultramarine blue. 

Putting the fence in using similar colors to the barn, burnt umber, sepia and ultramarine blue. 

Working more on the trees...

Pretty much finished with the trees and the fence behind the barn. 

Finished the trees and put all the snow on the branches, same for the fence and painted the snow on the ground (hard to see, I know, it's snow, but in person it looks better haha). All that was left was the shrubs and plants in front of the fence, and we're done!

And there again is the finished painting. 

Hope you like it!