Boat On River Lesson

I use thumbnail sketches a lot. These little sketches work great to figure out where I am going to place the subject of my painting on my paper. I work out composition, values, and I work on eliminating things in the reference photos that are unnecessary.
 

While working with my thumbnail sketches I write little notes to myself. This seems to help me do a lot of problem solving before I ever touch my watercolor paper.
 

 Here you can see a close up view of the thumbnail used for this painting. I use two horizontal lines and two vertical lines to check my composition. This is commonly known in the art world as the Golden Mean or Rule of Thirds. If your focal point falls on or very near one of the points where the lines intersect, you can be pretty sure that the composition will be a pleasing one.

New Lesson for This Weekend!

This little boat will be the next blog lesson starting this weekend. My level two class just completed it and I think all of their paintings came out great! The biggest part of this lesson was the study of water.
If you would like to paint along with this lesson, go to my etsy online shop and click on the Online Class icon. For $5.00 I will send you the reference photos and the prepared drawing in a pdf file format via email. Then, you can paint along each day as I describe with photos and journaling, how to paint this little picture.
If you can't visit the blog each day, you can visit occasionally (become a Follower!) and print off the archived lessons. If there are past lessons that you would like to try, just go to the etsy shop, as above, and when ordering let me know which lesson you would like.
Have a great holiday weekend!

McKee Garden Water Lily Festival

Last Saturday, a few of the ladies from the Art and Antique Studio Gallery went to the McKee Gardens in Vero Beach, Florida. The folks at McKee were holding a Water Lily Festival in their beautiful gardens and ponds.

I was part of the gallery group and spent nearly two hours (not enough time!!!) taking photos. I saw more colors of water lilies than I ever knew existed.

Besides the record heat (high 90's), the day was absolutely beautiful and the light was perfect for the photographers who enjoyed the sights.
Above left are Therese and Barbara shooting a few scenes from a shady spot near the main pond.


Here is just one of the 160 photos I took that morning. I am sure there will be a few new paintings of water lilies this year!