New patterned design of orchids

I have been working on some new designs, to be used for products in my RedBubble shop.

This week I have been painting orchids. This orchid is one that I already have for a long time in my windowsill. I used old sketches from one of my old journals, and added new watercolor sketches in my Moleskine watercolor journal.

I made these sketches a few months ago

And a few new sketches in my Moleskine watercolor journal

I scanned the orchid paintings into the computer and created a lovely patterned design using Photoshop. I uploaded the design to my RedBubble shop and it creates this lovely products. Products are for sale, there are many more products with this design and other. Take a look!

RedBubble orchids pillow

RedBubble tanktop with my orchids design

RedBubble dress with the orchids design with a grey background

Sketching in Rotterdam

Yesterday I met up with a few Urban Sketchers friends. They had visited the Powermask exposition in The Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam last week and wanted to return to do some more sketching this week. I decided to join them.

I met up with one of the sketchers earlier and because of the beautiful weather, we decided to stay outside and sketch the Veerhaven in Rotterdam. I sketch with oil pastel, you cannot work very precise with oil pastel, but I like how you need to sketch loosely, and only focus on the big lines and shapes.

After a nice coffee, the rest of the group joined us for a trip to the museum. I sketched 10 masks as a kind of collage, all on 2 pages. I painted the pages with ochre and sketched with a black and red oil pastel.

And one sketch in black and brown fine-liner.

It was a great day and too much to see, I need to come back another day!

Hello again

WOW, it has been a long time since I blogged anything. October 2015 was the last one, after my vacation on Samos in Greece... In the meantime lots has happened, my mother passed away in December and my sister and I were extremely busy with not only getting thru all the paperwork but also with clearing my mothers' house. Very stressful and emotional... My sister and I went almost 2 weeks to Curacao in February to recover and actually take some time to let everything sink in.

And now it is already May, I have been painting and sketching in between. I will show you the sketches of Curacao later.

This weekend I participated in the WetCanvas Weekend Drawing event. I choose the image of some beautiful red pomegranates. I decided to paint them with watercolors in layers. Pfff very painful process that needs a lot (too much?) patience. In the meantime I did a 5 minute watercolor sketch that came out really nice and another one in gouache. I love the spontanity in these 2 quicker paintings.

 Pomegranates in watercolor - 5 hrs. On 300gr Fabriano Artistico. 10" x 7"

Pomegranates in watercolor - 5 minutes. In Moleskine watercolor journal. 11" x 8"

Pomegranates in gouache - 45 minutes. In Moleskine watercolor journal. 11" x 8"

Last week in San Diego

My last week in San Diego has started... A few more days to go before I fly home. I have really enjoyed myself, and still am, but I am alzo looking forward to go home. Unfortunately I cannot taken the nice weather with me..

First let me show you some of the seascapes I painted last week.

Friday I went to San Diego old town. The place where the first Europeans settled. It has lovely old buildings,  most of them are small museums you can visit. And lots of shops and restaurants. All Mexican. Nice to walk around, sketch and browse. 

And on Saturday I went on the weekly outing with the San Diego Urban Sketchers. To Encinitas this week. To sketch at the annual Woodie Fest. A fest with all classic cars, woodies, cars with wood. Built to transport surfboards. It was really fun,  but extremely hot and humid this Saturday. 

Sunday it was so hot, it was beter inside than outside. I did go to the Seaport Village in San Diego to look around. It is next to the water and has beautiful views. 

And today is already Monday, my last few days in San Diego. There is a storm coming our way so I drove to Balboa Park to sketch this morning. And it stayed dry all afternoon, actually it still is... I walked around, sketched the tower of the museum of man from the Alcazar garden and visited the museum. Great museum, a bit small but with lovely exhibitions of Maya's, mummies and interesting stuff on genes, dna ,  etc.

After a nice lunch I went back to La Jolla, taking the scenic drive. 

Still enjoying San Diego

Another few days have past and I am still busy. This area has lots to offer and so many places to visit.

On Monday I drove to Point Loma to the Cabrillo national monument. In the park there is a nice visitor center with information on the landscape and on Cabrillo, who came to America long time ago as an explorer. They also show regular video's, I watch one about the tidalpools at cabrillo. The best time to view the tidalpools is actually the winter and/or a low tides,  so nothing to see today..
So instead I walked up to the lighthouse and the monument and drove to a few viewpoints with impressive rocks.

 And then it rained in California. I have been to California many times but never had any rain. No problem,  also on my list is the Maya exposition in the Natural History museum. A beautiful and interesting exposition and museum and many hours later I leave the museum and the rain has stopped. 

The sun is shining again on Wednesday.  Time for a visit to the first mission built in California, Mission San Diego de Alcala. Lovely location, built against a hillside and with a lovely courtyard garden.

And today I drove up north on the Pacific Highway 101. To Carlsbad actually to visit the outlets. Shop until you drop! And yes, I am tired when done. Time to go back and watch another amazing sunset. Oh, and I have been painting a few seascapes today, but it is now too dark to make nice pictures. I will show them in the next blogpost. 

From cows to elephants

Last week I have been sketching and painting cows. But then I thought of all the photo's I took during a vacation in South Africa. Photo's of wildlife and of lots of elephants. I took one photo of two elephants playing and pushing each other. I cropped the original photo and created several paintings. I like all al them, but I love how the last one turned out, with the addition of watercolors and the details with pen.

31 x 41 cm / 12" x 16" with black Tombow (ink)

31 x 41 cm / 12" x 16" with black Tombow (ink)

36 x 48 cm / 14" x 19" with black Tombow (ink), watercolors and ink

More cows....

I really fell in love with these cows, I did another sketch with a black and blue Tombow in my A4 Moleskine watercolor journal.

And Bonnie Sitter sent me some more cow (and sheep) pictures. This is Lady 574, grazing in between the wildflowers. Love her!

A4 format, on quality Arches watercolor paper

A3 format, on quality Arches watercolor paper

Both cow paintings/drawings are for sale. Please contact me if you are interested.

More ATC's for the Animal ATC project

The ATC's that I painted for the Animal ATC project on WetCanvas are starting to arrive. Almost half of them have reached their final destination. Hopefully all of them will arrive safely, it is taking a long time...

Cow for Marilou (reference from PaintMyPhoto)

Dizzy for Jeanne

Penny for Jeanne

Sea otter for Bonnie

Sheep for Nancy (reference from PaintMyPhoto)

Painting for the WDE Weekend Drawing Event

This weekend I have been painting for the WDE Weekend Drawing Event on WetCanvas. I you never participated, it is a great way to get some more practice into your busy life. Every Friday a host will publish 16 images and you can do with them whatever you want. Paint, draw, sketch, collage, crop, abstract etc. There are a lot more forums, in which you can post your paintings, or participate in monthly challenges. Check it out!

This week I printed a few images, the first one from the afternoon tea. I used the afternoon tea image to create this entry in my Stillman and Birn sketchbook, with pen and watercolors.

And then I moved on to a marvelous image of a porch, with an umbrella stand, boots and scattered shoes. I loved it. I painted this one on a 'scrap' piece of watercolor paper, with pen and watercolors. The size is 7 1/2" x 12 1/4".

And then I can finally share 2 ATC's that I painted for the WetCanvas animals ATC project. You create the ATC's, send them to the recipients and when they receive it, you can finally share your image. These are the first 2 that have arrived on their final destination, there are about 10 more in the mail.

And the great thing is, that you receive all these lovely pieces of art back in return!

The reference images for the goats and the pig came from PaintMyPhoto.

Happy in my new artroom

I am so happy with my new artroom. A dedicated space instead of me working at the dinner table. I am almost done, I still need to move in all my stuff, but I already started painting in my new room. I even bought a daylight lamp so I can even paint at night. Love it!

I watched a video on Artistsnetwork.tv on how to paint portraits in watercolors. Loved the video, and it gave me some good (new) tips and reminders. ONE: have patience....pfff, and let the paint dry in between layers. This is the most diffiucult thing for me... This portrait of Valri was painted for the WDE on WetCanvas. I started with several of very thin layers, letting the layers dry completely before continuing. I do love the effect, but lost some patience at the end and put in more colors :-).

And in my new art room I am painting ATC's for a trading project I am in. I can not give you more details.... topsecret.... as we are not supposed to show the ATC's before the recipient receives them. But I am having fun!

Irisses - lovely flowers in watercolor

This months (July) challenge in the Florals and Botanical group in WetCanvas was all about the iris. I have used one reference photo for all 3 paintings. My initial plan was do paint an iris in Jean Haines' style, big, bold and loose. Well, that did not happen. But I did manage to create a pen and wash sketch in my Moleskine watercolor and 2 other completely different watercolor paintings.

Painting with watercolors

This week I have been very busy. One of the projects I am working on has gone live this weekend and there was little time to paint. But, as soon as we sent out the LIVE message, I started to paint.

I purchased a book from Jean Haines, Atmospheric Watercolours and I love this book!! It gives me guidelines and tips on how to create lovely loose watercolors. This painting is made inspired by some of the images shown in the book. The size is 36 x 48 cm (14.2" x 18.9").

New video on Youtube - how to paint with alcohol inks

I just uploaded a new video on YouTube on how to create a lovely painting with alcohol inks. I used the painting of the magnolia in bloom (the one I showed you a few blog posts ago) in the video.

Please check it out and like, love and share!

Corrections on the Golden Gate Bridge - WIP

After a busy week I found some time to work on my Mixed Media Painting of the Golden Gate Bridge. I was not happy with the of the pillars of the bridge, so I added some more paper. I also needed to fix the background thru the pillars as it did not connect.

This layer is drying and after the next layer of paint I will show you how it looks!