Sketchbook off to Brooklyne

Today was the last day to mail out the sketchbooks to participate in the Project Sketchbook Limited Edition. Though on the very last day, but luckily my sketchbook made it to the post office and off it goes to Brooklyn.

It is my first time joining this project and honestly it was my first sketch "book". I used to do all my sketches, paintings and drwaings on separate pieces of paper, canvases, boards and so on. But I should admit that it was very joyful when each page was filled with new thoughts and imaginations and even more joyful when the pages were flipped over to take a glance of each work.

In the morning, before putting the sketchbook in the envelope to mail, I was hesitant for a moment: "It is my first "actuall" sketchbook and I like it a lot, shouldn't I be keeping it?!" ... then I remembered that it is going on a tour and I will get the chance to see it again so I said my goodbyes and let it go for the journey that it was meant to go. 

Now I know one thing for sure : It will not be my last sketchbook.

Sketchbook - whimsical face - P 7-8

The clock is ticking!

Three days left to mail the sketchbook and I have a few more pages to go. I am not too concerned about going through all the pages though, I suppose this is to be an enjoyable experience and thinking of deadlines is not going to make it more fun

If you remember, In my previous post I said that I want every subject of the sketchbook has a quote. Well...I would basically choose a quote and then paint a theme for it, but it didn't work out this way for these two pages.

I had a whimsical face in my mind and it couldn't wait any longer to be painted, so it decided to ended up on my sketchbook:

But now that I have everything as I visioned, finding a relevant saying is not easy.

Can you think of any quote, poem or saying? Or Can you come up with any by yourself? Please leave a comment and let me know.


Have a lovely day,

Acrylic - Blue Butterfly

It's been a while that i have prepared the pages of my sketchbook to participate in the Sketchbook Project 2012 - Limited Edition but haven't  had the chance to really work on it. Now that the clock is ticking for the postmark, I have to finish it with all i have in mind as soon as possible :s

I had the idea of this sketchbook being an inspirational one on. So I am going to paint a theme for the quotes that i find interesting. For pages 1 & 2 I have prepared a video and will be uploading it in a few days :)

Pages 3-4 are going to be about Beauty, Strength and Resistance:

" We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, But rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."..... by Maya Angelou

I got inspired by a very beautiful photo that I saw on Flickr captured by Anthony Pope; The mixture of colors and the composition was exactly what came to my mind when I read the above quote. Take a look at his wonderful picture:

click here to see Anthony's photo "Common Blue" 

I changed the butterfly to "Eastern Tailed Blue Butterfly" which is my favorite and was more obvious on the already blue background.

Here is a list of all the colors that used for this painting.

Yes, tea was a must have

Step 1: As usual it started with a pencil sketch. Then with a pallette knife I applied modeling paste all over the flowers and the butterfly.

I wanted it to have some embossed or raised effect. Modeling paste needs a little bit practice to get the hang of it but when dry it is same as canvas and absorbs the paint very well. Here is a close up:

You can see the sketch lines. for the middle of the flowers, while the paste was wet I drew lines with the tip of a skewer. 

Step 2 :  When the paste was dry. I painted all the backgound with a torquoise color (Cobalt Teal)

Another Quick Sketch

This one was a was a quick sketch trying to keep it loose ...

Zentangle Doodle

Have you ever heard of Zentangle? It is such an amazing way to relax and set your mind free to the world of imaginations ....

Zentagle is a meditated form of expression. It is mostly done in black and white, although i have seen other colors too. It involves some geometric or freestyle shapes filled with repetative patterns or "tangles". The patterns can be as simple as doodle drawings such as circles, diamonds or lines to more complicated ones such as weaved, netting and gothic patterns. It helps your hand to loosen up and be able to reflect what is in your mind on to your paper without focusing too much.

If you want to know more about Zentangle "Life Imitates Doodles" blog has a through post on the definition and list of patterns. I personally don't like to follow a set list of patterns all the time. To me

Spring is getting lovelier everyday

This past weekend was a long weekend; Good Friday and Easter Monday. The weather was gorgeous mostly and i decided to go for a walk on sunday. Although not freezing but still i needed to have my jacket with me and I was hoping to see more of spring. I love spring such a beautiful, dynamic and happy season.

Seeing branches in full bud and flowers blooming gives me hope :)

Watercolor-Lilacs-final steps :)

OK, Last time the flowers were finished...almost :)

After that, It was time to finish the leaves. I used the mix of Sap Green, Yellow Ocher, Ultramarine Blue, and sometimes a small amount of Red to darken some washes of greens.

Then darkened the shadows underneath the leaves on the vase, with diluted wash of above mixture for leaves.

on the vase I added a second wash of yellow ochr to some places and while the wash was wet I touched it with the mixture of flowers, where the two bottom branced met the vase, to imply the reflection.

added some gray for shadows and it was done.

If you take a closer look at the pictue of lilacs on step 3 of my last post, you will see that the lilac on the top right was almost smudged. My bad, I added a very wet wash to the background after the lilac was dry, but it still managed to smudge the paint.

what i did to save the day was just to add more petals with darker paint to cover the smudge :) It is not as soft as i wanted it to be, but It still looks ok, right? :P