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Showing posts from December, 2012

Ink and watercolor mini portrait

This painting practically painted its self. Using a value study as an underpainting to your watercolor is an easy way to paint any subject. This portrait used water-soluble markers to apply washes of color. by using color left on your water pen you can bounce some softer transitions this is also another way to control your hard and soft edges in a painting.  After applying the first washes of darks I went back in with a few washes of color to bring this lady to life. The best part is that the shading was already taken care of for you. I hope you take this opportunity to practice a variety of painting techniques. Hope you enjoy. Merry Christmas everyone.

Sailboat at sunset watercolor painting tutorial

Just a quick demo on how I painted this sailboat at sunset. Colors used: Indian Yellow, Napthol Red, Alizarin Crimson, Royal Blue, Burnt Sienna and Brillant Orange and permenant ink First draw out your image and mask off your sun spot - dry. I chose to use ink as a base to this painting applying it both directly and using it as a wash to add some shadows. Next wet the entire sky area. Working around your sun spot start by adding a graduated wash of indian yellow from the bottom to about 3/4 the way up, then add in alizarin crimson, and at the top work in a band of royal blue letting it run down a little. DRY The sky is not holding the weight I need it to so I wen over it again using the same colors and technique. This time adding a band of brilliant orange along the bottom. Looking better but still not quite there. So lets dry and move on to another area so that I can come back and judge the values. The sails were added using a mix of BS, brilliant orange and indian yellow. D

Free Form Tangle Design

Managed to get one painting done and another one started. Unfortunatly I can't post them till after Christmas. But in the mean time I thought I would post a new tangle. Unlike the last few done on fabric this one is done on paper and measures 8.5 * 10.5. Hope you enjoy.

Tangled quilt block 7

I have no idea when the past 2 weeks have gone but looking at my work schedule I have 3 paintings and another quilt block that have to be done in the next 10 days. umm Does anyone have a time machine they want to lend me? So without further ado here is quilt block #7. Hope you enjoy.

Burlap and lace table runner Tutorial

I am not a seamstress by any stretch of the imagination but I can thread my machine and sew a straight line, which is exactly what is needed for this project. I already had the material and lace on hand so I didn't have to go out for anything, which was even better. Last year I bought 3 yards of this burlap for only 3.99 and the lace was a grocery bag full of assorted lengths and widths and colors for 2.00.. Trust me I was doing the Happy dance with that deal.  There are still alot of these supplies left over for any other projects that tickle my fancy. This finished runner measures 13 * 64 inches.  So i cut my fabric 1/2 inch larger than my finished size, folded over 1/4 inch, iron then fold over again 1/4 inch iron. When you come to the corners all I did was clip the corner at a diagonal, to reduce the bulk and iron down and sew down with a simple straight stich.  Next pin your lace onto your fabric and sew down with a straight stich. There are alot of variations on the

Tangled quilt block #6

This is the newest tangled quilt block.... only 2 more to go. Hope you enjoy.  

Customized Santa Bags

One thing I really try and keep alive is the "Magic of Christmas". I want my kids to believe in Santa for as long as they can and now that they are in school it is going to get a little harder every year. So this year I made up these quick Special Delivery bags from the North Pole. I know they are not perfect but Santa's elves are really busy with the millions of bags they have to make every year. They came together so quick. I just worked up the image in my word processor printed it off on the burlap fabric, You can find a tutorial for printing on fabric here and then sewed it on to the pre-made Dollar store gift bag. These are going to be perfect for my little monsters. Hope you enjoy them too.