Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Nina's folding sketchbook, daily watercolors, spring photos, sunset cat

Here is the folding sketchbook Nina Johansson suggested. I made mine with Arches 140 # watercolor paper. It has been fun for me to get back to some painting on a small scale. The 2 next mountain views are done in a Raffine sketchbook someone suggested, its a nice heavy paper, 100 lb. but does not compare to Arches, I like to work very wet and it does ripple.




























These 4 mountain scenes are my short attempt at Daily Painting, I have been drawing or painting almost everyday. You really get to know your subject with repeated attempts. When I had my jewelry at the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park I focused on the animals there, and got the giraffe, zebra, big cats etc. down pretty well.... at least 2 inches and under.
















This spring has been amazing the mountain right behind us burned twice in the October fires reducing the 4 foot high chaperal to almost nothing. The rocks now visable have great morning and evening shadows. The pink blooms only 3 times in 30 years and the orange I've never seen before. No need to travel for inspiration!









































































12 comments:

Anetka said...

WOW......it's beautiful, I like the idea of folding sketchbook, you can tell short stories...wow..:) I will definitely try one like this myself:)
Great work!!!

I also like your pictures, i like the one with horses the most since I love horses:)))

Ann said...

Gorgeous works! Thanks for the inspiration!

Anita Davies said...

Lyn, I believe this is the larger book that Nina Johanssen did a demo of on her blog, I've yet to ry it myself as my version had just one layer.
Love the lemons!!!

lyn said...

Anita, Your correct, it was a Nina Johansson January 12th 2008 post! No wonder I couldn't find it on your blog. I'll try to change my heading

Lydia Velarde said...

You take nice photos. I like the horses. YOu did an awesome job with the depth in the rock mountains...
Hope to see ya soon.

Felicity Grace said...

Thanks for the lovely comment! These looks wonderful with your colourful paintings! I just adore that sketch of Sadie too!

Linda said...

Great paintings of the mountain! I really like the layout of the single-sheet-folded sketchbook. I make them doing just two folds (rather than three -- folding into thirds rather than fourths, that is) so that they are a bit bigger and find that they really are nice made out of Stonehenge for drawing. I'll have to try it with 140# paper and see how it goes!

Your photography is really amazing. You've got yourself a great reference library just in what you've shown!

Diana Moses Botkin said...

What a great idea and beautiful paintings too!

Shelly McC said...

Stunning!

caseytoussaint said...

Such gorgeous colors - this looks like a real treasure.

Marva Plummer-Bruno said...

I'm going to have to try the accordian fold book, yours are gorgeous! And your photos are awesome! The cat chasing the raindrops is too funny, I have 2 cats...

Timaree said...

Great pictures. I know what those hills look like as I grew up in El Cajon. (Have a niece living in Ramona). You did a good job with the rocks. If it weren't for the people and their homes (and maybe the peoples litter) the fires wouldn't seem so bad as they cause good things to happen in nature too.

You really captured the cat in a great picture.