Number Three in Series

The picture I used as a reference was a treasure trove of croping ideas.  I chose just 5 of 50 I could have done.  This one is part of a small falls and a gnarly tree. I think the background is a fence or wall.  It is hard for me to keep from making non-slope lines.  My lines tend to go up to the right..how I write on lineless paper. 

Second of Five

Here is the second of the five pictures I made from the same reference.  This shows grasses, moss and rocks in the Japanese Garden.

Five from one

This is one card of five ATCs I did from the same reference for a challenge on WC.  It is a weekly event and I was late in getting them copied and posted 8-(  I decided to add the characters for peace and joy, I hope they resemble the real marks. 

Flower ATC

One of the people participating in the Flowers Exchange has recieved this card of orchids from me.  I made several extra flower cards and this was the last of my flowers.  I used watercolor and some clear gold glittery acrylic over the yellow flowers. 

Lily of the Valley ATC

    Our Flowers Exchange is winding up and this card got to it's new owner. I have Lily of the Valley in my garden, and it hasn't bloomed yet this year.  That is a good thing because we are to get frost tonight.  Here we have a frost free date in May, we could still get snow!!
     I remember Lily of the Valley being the name of a "dime store" perfume that I liked. I am sure the perfume industry still uses Lily of the Valley in their top of the line smells.

Here is one of my hats that went to another artist.  This one reminds me of a "Sunday Go To Meetin'" hat from back in the mid 1800's.  I made lots of hat ATCs because I love hats and have a collection of hats.  Some I wear and some I just look at.

You decide

    I am not sure what to call this painting, is it supposed to be a type of duck.  I tried out some new things with this.   I used watersoluble oil pastels, a new box I have had for awhile.  I used them two ways, one to put the color on as I would regular OPs and then "painted" with water over them.  The second was to put a blob of color in a spot then to use water to spread it.  After both of those methods, I used some opaque watercolors to define details.  I had trouble making details with the water/oil pastels.
    I like trying new things and ideas for the WDE on Wet Canvas.  It is easy to do a trial run using a reference and only 2 hrs.  If it fails no big deal, if it turns out good then it is nice. This used parts of 3 references.  The duck from one, the wall another and the swirly background the 3rd. 
    You decide is it a fail or pass?   I will post it and see what the people on WC think.  Either way I will own up to it.  LOL

Another 30 min special

Swamp in 30 minutes or less.  Another of my posts for Wet Canvas's WDE.  I need to check my camera settings.  This looks better real than the picture.  Life keeps getting in the way of my plans.  I never get to do alot of the projects that I want to try. 

Not an ATC!

   I like blue glass and decided to try and do a 30 min painting.  It is about 4 X 6 and I used pen n ink and watercolors.  I am trying to not over work my paintings and to not pre draw them, either. This one is sorta lopsided and that is another of my "try not to do' habits.  I tend to write in a up to the right penmanship, if there aren't any lines on my paper.  Maybe I can "cure" both of these habits at once!
   These flowers must have been dyed, they were an odd shade of blue.  

One of my favorite

This is one of my favorite flowers, viburnum?  It has a pungent sweet smell that can be overpowering, but I like it from a distance.  I made a mess of my attempt at ink and water colors for this one and it was a failure.  I will post when I find where I stashed it!  So, you can see how bad it is.

Close Up

Tulip close up, is the title of this ATC.  I tried lots of ideas I wanted to try out on these ATCs of flowers.  This one is one I considered a good idea that worked!

Box of posies

I took a picture of this window box a couple of years ago and decided to make it into a painting. It is an ATC I did for myself.  My husband and I had spent the day on the John Deere Museum grounds where this window was on the visitors center and were leaving when I spied this beautiful box.  I think I will do a bigger version of this one, soon.

Pansies ATC

Pansies are one of the flowers I like and have never been able to get them to grow in my yard.  But, they do make very nice pressed flowers and I have alot of them.  This is on it's way to another of my trading peeps.  Hope they like it.

Sail Watchers

Saturday we did some sail watching from the comfort of a nice, warm and dry club. This is the harbor in Chicago and one of those small sailboats was my oldest grandchild.  She was one of a bunch of high schoolers out in the cold Chicago weather having fun.  Not my idea of a great idea, but she likes it and it is fun to watch.  Small sailboats look like they are gonna turn over all the time, but that is what the crew are actuallly intending to do...yikes!  And bailing is another "fun" thing to do in a boat that the crew does alot of.  We enjoyed our day and were happy to see our grandgirlie's boat placing in the Top Ten in both races we watched. Being raised in Kansas doesn't encourage learning boating sports, so I had no clue what all is involved in sailing.  Now, I have an idea what is involved and am learning some of the jargon.