"Wood Grain" 5x7 Watercolor Paintings

As I teased last week, today I have another set of three 5"x7" patterned watercolors to show you (which I actually painted in 2019 but am just getting around to posting on this blog now).

Because this one uses shades of brown and reddish-brown, I named this trio "Wood Grain."

I started by tracing patterns onto watercolor paper and taping them down to hold the paper flat while I painted.

For the first painting (the one on the left), I used a light orangish-brown earth tone.

For the second painting (the one in the middle), I used a darker brown pigment mixed with orangeish-red and light brown colors.

Finally, for the third painting (the one on the right as I was painting them), I used only the dark brown. I wanted the set to look like a gradient almost, with the light brown on one end, dark brown on the other end, and a transition piece in the middle.

Here's the final set of three paintings:

I framed them in a single frame with a single mat, cut with three openings to accommodate three paintings. Because the fronts of the paintings are unsigned (as I do with all my patterned watercolors), they can be hung in any orientation or direction, horizontally or vertically.

"Storm Clouds" 5x7 Watercolor Paintings

I painted several small patterned watercolors in 2019 before becoming a mom - and am just now getting around to posting them on this blog. :)

This trio is a set of three 5"x7" watercolors, each with a different color scheme: blue and black, yellow and black, and green and black. I named the set "Storm Clouds."

First, I selected the three patterns I would use for the set, and traced the patterns onto watercolor paper with pencil. Each pattern is a design I created in Adobe Illustrator a few years ago. Then I taped down the patterns and started painting!

The first painting I finished was a blue and black color scheme.

Next, I used a yellow and black color scheme for the second pattern, which had jagged edges that reminded me of lightning bolts.

For the third painting, I used a green and black color scheme.

Here is the completed set of three:

I framed them in a single frame, with a mat with three openings. Because the fronts of the paintings are unsigned, they can be hung in any orientation or direction - horizontally or vertically.

Check back next week for another blog post - a different set of three 5"x7" watercolor paintings!

"Union" Colored Pencil Drawing

Crepe myrtle flowers ironically symbolize both disconnect (chastity) and union (marriage), so I decided to name this drawing my favorite side of that dichotomy - "Union." I used Prismacolor pencils and Strathmore toned-tan paper for this 8"x10" drawing, the next in my series of symbolic flower drawings.

I started with a light sketch of the pink, yellow, and brown areas of a clump of delicate myrtle flowers on a bush, and then added some crucial details I wanted to make sure to leave room for - highlights and lowlights of the thin stamens.

Once those were in place, I started adding dimension - first to the brown "seedlings" and the darker shadows between flowers, and then by going through the crepe myrtle petals and adding white highlights and pink centers one by one.

To finish off the drawing, I added the details of the little yellow areas, and then signed the drawing at the bottom.

Here's the completed drawing:

"Fragility" Colored Pencil Drawing

This 8"x10" colored pencil drawing on tan paper is called "Fragility" because the azalea flowers depicted symbolize fragility (among other things). I used Strathmore toned tan paper, Prismacolor brand pencils, and source photos of azalea flowers from the internet to finish this drawing.

To start, I lightly sketched the lightest parts of the flowers - the white edges of the flower petals. I then lightly colored in the red middles, and added some light greenery to the background.

Once I had my light sketch complete, I started adding depth and detail - particularly the stamen coming out of the flowers, as well as other areas of darker shadows, using a dark red and dark purple colored pencil.

Then I returned to the background, darkening those shadows with dark green, and adding some detail to the green leaves.

Here is the finished drawing. In total, I used 8 colored pencils: white, peach, pink, red, dark red, dark purple, green, and dark green.