Pink Orchid

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Pencil Pinks

Last of all we have another pencil drawing of a flower. This beautiful pink orchid was also a get-well card. The background, of course, is the natural paper white, accented by a brilliant yellow chain I drew around the card's perimeter. The flower itself is created by the interaction of different shades of pink and red, just as in the original photo below. I used only four or five different pencil shades to achieve my colors, but produced an amazing range from shocking pink to deep magenta. I carefully left the edges of the petals with a tiny rim of white to give definition. The yellow accent in the center gives a nice highlight, blending into orange and finally into the pink of the flower. Believe it or not, the original photo is also mine, taken at Franklin Park Conservatory's annual orchid display. The verse, which continued onto the inside, seemed to fit perfectly with the flower:

For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.

                                                             Psalm 91:11-12

Wild Iris

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Yellow Jewel

This little yellow iris was a treasure find at John Bryan State Park. When my dad and I hiked the trails along the Little Miami River several years ago, there were not many flowers blooming. This wild iris stood all alone in a field of green. Stooping down to get a picture, I almost fell into a bed of poison ivy. But it was worth it. I copied the photo for this card to send to a friend who was ill. The leaves range in color from sea green to black, giving a strong illusion of depth. They appear scribbled at close inspection, oddly producing the effect of a wild sea of green surrounding the little jewel. The vibrant yellows stand in sharp contrast to the striking maroon markings on the iris. I have never seen one again quite like it.

Spring Bouquets

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Daffodils of the Rainbow

These colorful bouquets were done in colored pencil. I painstakingly layered each different area of color with a dark shade for the shadows, a medium shade for the actual color, and a light shade for the highlights. Then I would move on to the next color area and repeat the process. Once again, all the flowers came from a bulb catalog - where else can you find so many types of daffodils? My favorite was the white daffodil with a pink center, although I also like how the white one on the left with the multicolored center came out. The blue bow was fun to draw and sets them off nicely. But I most enjoyed coloring the bows on the envelope and then lifting the flap to split them in half!

As for the flowers below, they are either peonies or oversized begonias, I am not sure. The colors certainly came out vividly - just look at that shockingly pink ribbon. The delicate clumps of daisies set everything off nicely. I think this one looks a little more real than the top one. Both drawings, which are 5x7 cards by the way, made lovely gifts to send to my pen friends in Germany and Austria.

Pink Bouquet

Sunflower Revisited

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Barns and Sunflower

Speaking of sunflowers, here is yet another rendering of that cheerful sunflower picture. This one could almost pass for watercolor, as the acrylic has such a translucent quality. I do think I overdid the color intensities a little bit, but it was a hurried painting. I like how the leaves almost seem to vibrate, the colors are so intense. But compare it to my original sunflower painting here and you will see the differences. My sister and I actually grew this sunflower in our yard a couple years ago - it got over four feet tall I think. I took the photo with the barns in the background, and I don't even know how many times I have painted it since. You can click here to see three of them, each in a different medium. I guess this is a hard picture to get tired of.

Sunflowers

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Sunflower Bouquet

Here is another pencil drawing with a different subject. These cheerful sunflowers seem to be smiling out of the picture. I drew them on a sympathy card for a family friend more than five years ago now. I believe all the sunflowers came out of a seed catalog. I took the little pictures of the different varieties of sunflowers in the seed listings, and pieced them together to make a bouquet. I like the assortment of reds, oranges, and yellows I came up with - some with black centers, some with brown. Look more closely and you might also notice the many shades of green in the background leaves. This technique increases the impression of variety in the yellows even more. I remember I was not very happy with this drawing when I finished it, but looking at it now I do think it came out nicely.

Bluebird House

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Pencil Bluebird

This little bluebird is done in pencil rather than acrylic. The process is very different, to say the least. Rather than building up layers, each part of the picture is filled in separately. For the background, I colored a number of different greens and then blended them together with white pencil overtop. The birdhouse was done in a similar manner, except I tried to create a wood grain effect with straight, parallel lines. If you look closely you might be surprised at some of the colors in the roof - I don't know where I got the notion of using red and blue! The bluebird was fun to draw with its beautiful shades of blue, blending into the orange and white breast. My favorite part, though, is the little opening heart on the birdhouse. I think this would be a lovely place for a bird to live.

Meadowlarks

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Blue Meadowlark

Let's continue our celebration of spring with a few more songbirds. Did you notice something interesting about these two birds? Maybe they are identical? Actually, they are! I found the picture of this meadowlark in a magazine and liked it so much, I painted it twice. I think the painting on the card above came first; I love the watercolor look of the bird's breast and the background. The shading on everything came out so nicely, though the highlights maybe not so much. I also really like the look on the back of the card (it's the left-hand portion of the photo above), with its blended, watery look. The blue adds a nice contrast to the yellows of the bird.

 

The card below, on the other hand, matches the magazine picture more closely. The marbled green background was a challenge to create, but also fun. I started with different shades of piney green, and added some very yellow and blue greens to give contrast. The bird and fence are not painted in as much detail, but seem brighter and more full of motion. The grasses in front add to the liveliness. I think you could about hear this bird warble from looking at the painting!

Green Meadowlark

 

Spring Birds

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Birds & Daffodils

And now it's time to celebrate the long-awaited arrival of spring! I think the birds above are doing just that. I painted this little picture as a 5x7 greeting card, using acrylic paint. I was so proud of it that I kept it a long time before sending it to my German pen friend. I copied all the different varieties of daffodils from a bulb catalog, while the birds themselves were found in a bird field guide. I believe they are indigo buntings, with possibly some color enhancement here and there. I made the mistake of painting the brick wall after I had painted the daffodils. It made for a pain-staking operation as well as blotchy look in the end! But I actually sort of like the effect (now that the painting part is over). I have always enjoyed painting birds, especially blue ones.

Spring Bridge

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Spring Run Wild

 My last greeting card is another cheery spring scene. It was one of those leftover paint jobs as well--definitely blue and white run wild! I used a number of scrubby brush strokes to create all the trees, and used such brilliant oranges, yellows, and purples that I had to tone it down with white. At first it seemed it was going to be a fall scene, but I decided to make those brilliant colors into buds instead of leaves. And then the seeming blobs of red and blue in the grass are nice suggestions of tulips and hyacinths. The little white bridge and bench seem to add a personal touch--a much-needed calming effect. This would be perfect for any spring birthday or anniversary.

Birdhouse Card

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Bird Bath, Bird House

Pleased with my success on the first try, I attempted another painted card for a second pen friend. This one was a blue and yellow scene. After sketching in a brilliant blue sky and animated grasses, I nestled forget-me-nots into the greenery. I loaded the brush with various shades of brown to get the wood-grain look of the birdhouse, and then used a blend of the same browns for the fountain. It was fun to paint the water in the fountain, although it ended up looking more like an overflowing bucket of paint!

The birds were a bit difficult, but came out decently enough, though I've never actually seen any completely yellow birds! On this one, I used the same yellow paint to write my pen friend's name (rather than calligraphy pen), and then added color-coordinated plastic hearts again. I really like the free-handed look of the painting, with so many different colors each remaining a bit distinct. And best of all, it was so much fun to create!

 

Waterfall Card

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Spring Waterfall

Tired of painting greeting cards, I began to look for other ways to create a gift from a painting. The waterfall above was part of a sort of greeting card/postcard combination for one of my pen friends. For this one, I chose a sort of mottled, parchment-look card stock that I wanted to show through on the finished painting. I started with a pile of rocks and ran a waterfall down the front. Then I searched a flower seed catalog for suitable flowers to surround it. I don't know if the blossoms I used are actually a real type of flower, but they do look like trilliums turned pink and yellow. Once that was all dry, I used a calligraphy pen to write my pen pal's name in fancy lettering, and added a couple thin plastic hearts as embellishments. I was really pleased with it! It made a lovely gift one step up from a greeting card.

Cosmos Card

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Summer Farm

Now we move into summertime with another cheerful scene. The corn is tasseling and the summer flowers are in peak bloom. This scene came straight from my front yard, with the old barn and silos in the background. I used a liquid acrylic wash to paint the sky, grass, and barns and let it all dry. Then I used thick paint straight from the tube to create the bright spots of color in the foreground. This painting was a greeting card, but looks almost identical to a framed painting I had done a while before called "Summer Afternoon." You can check it out here. They're both the same size but I think this one has brighter colors.

Wind in the Trees

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Another Birthday Card

In keeping with our spring theme, here is another flowery, warm greeting card. It comes across almost as one of those flowing impressionist styles, you know, like Van Gogh's Starry Night. Of course, this achievement is, as usual, an accident. I started out by whisking some trees onto a blank card with paint left over from another project. Then I attempted to paint blue sky around the trees (never a good idea) and came out with the trees looking like cloud-covered mountain peaks. The bench emerged a bit lopsided and had to be covered by a scrub brush's generous dose of dabbed flowers. Incidentally, I adore those scrubby flowers - they are so easy and come in every color combination. I turned the card over to my mom to send for her sister's birthday; she tactfully suggested I add the straw hat for a personal touch. That really helped, and I am reasonably satisfied with the results.

Garden Rabbit

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Mmm, These Greens Are Good For Lunch . . .

Here's another adventure in the garden! This card was for the birthday of my pen friend from Georgia. She had a garden and liked animals so I think it was a hit. I used colored pencils for this greeting card, and made it up as I went along. The rabbit looks more like a stuffed bunny than a wild cottontail, but I think the plants came out pretty realistic. It was fun to add the gardening tools around the outside, although the scale and proportions do not match at all. I would love to have a garden with this much cabbage and broccoli (minus the rabbit), but I doubt that it will ever happen.

Spring Bird

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Birthday Bird

It seems that spring is finally here in the Midwest! Let's celebrate with a bright garden picture. I painted this greeting card a couple years ago for my grandma's birthday. She loves flowers. I think I just did the whole painting from my head. I like the blend of yellow and orange on the tulips. And the yellow and red blended in on the green leaves. I just dabbed the paintbrush in several colors at once and painted it all in one stroke. Then when everything was dry I put in the detailed bird and gloves. It was really fun to paint! I wrote a birthday poem for the inside; of course, now I can't remember it.

Lighthouse Print

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Marblehead Print

After some frustration with our randomly-functional printer, I began to look into other options for printing cards. It turned out Walmart was quite easy and affordable. You could even type in the message for the inside of the card. The only thing was, I could not get just the picture on the front of the card. They all had colorful borders around the outside. Thus came the snowflake-bordered lighthouse you see above. It was a thrill to see a 'real' print of one of my paintings!
 

Last of all, Happy New Years!

Marblehead Revisited

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Marblehead Christmas Card

Presenting Marblehead Lighthouse, new and improved. Not totally satisfied with the previous year's painting, I created a new rendering the following Christmas. This one was on real artist's paper, using better paints. The thing most improved is the color tones - rid of that sickly shade of yellow ochre on the lighthouse. I really like how the texture came out too. I tried to make more 'prints' for Christmas cards . . . a little challenging with low-quality paper and home printer ink that only works half the time.

Marblehead Lighthouse

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Painted Lighthouse Card

This is one of the very first real Christmas card I made. You may recognize it as the Marblehead Lighthouse up on Lake Erie. My family actually visited the lighthouse several years ago - at Christmas time - and that's where I got my reference photo. You can see a similar photo over on J Beachy Photography's blog right here.

The card above, in acrylic paints, was my theme Christmas card one year. I liked it so much I couldn't bear to send it to someone! So I attempted to make copies ('prints') of the card to send to friends.

The card below is actually from the year before. On first glance it doesn't look much different, but maybe you can see, I actually did most of the card in colored pencil. My favorite part is the rosy sky in the background. Then I guess I cheated a bit and used white-out to do the snow on the lighthouse ledges, rocks, and path. It was certainly easier than leaving white spaces for the snow the whole time! Now this one I did send to someone. Which one would you rather receive?

Pencil Lighthouse

Cardinal

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Christmas Cardinal

May I present . . . cardinal version #2. As you can see, I do improve from year to year! I love how the snow-covered blue berries turned out on either side of the bird. (The card is pressed flat in the photo, so the front is on the right, and the back on the left.) Notice how the  reds on the bird are really tinted toward orange and yellow? Thus, the blues compliment the warm red color very nicely. Conversely, on the back of the card more clear and bluish. You can see how the green leaves go much more nicely with that shade of red. 

Merry Christmas!

Artist's Gallery

Christmas Cardinal

Happy holidays to all my dear readers! May your Christmas season be filled with peace and joy as we celebrate the greatest Gift of all. A quick note about the card above--a change in style, with real watercolor cardstock and a lot of white space. I think my cardinal came out decently enough, and the splattered snow gives a nice effect! And now, a verse to bless your Christmas season: 

In this the love of God

was manifested toward us,

that God has sent His only begotten Son

into the world,

that we might live through Him.

I John 4:9