Changing Leaves - Paint Creek Trail

A couple weeks ago I posted photos of the Clinton River Trail near our house. More recently, my husband and I took our puppy on a walk along the Paint Creek Trail and the Downtown Connector that connects the Clinton River & Paint Creek Trails through downtown Rochester.

There were a few more trees with color on them this time, and it was another gorgeous, sunny day. So naturally, I took some more pictures. Here are a few of my favorites:

Holiday Gift Ideas 2016

The Paint Creek Center for the Arts in Rochester, Michigan is now in full swing with its Holiday Art Market.

I have several original paintings and drawings available there for sale, as well as several boxes of art print notecards. These original works and prints feature a variety of colors and themes (at a variety of price points!) and make great holiday gifts.

Like my Cloud Atlas Sextet series of acrylic paintings (which I featured in this blog post, among others):

Or my 5"x7" colored pencil drawing, Detroit Riverwalk Petunias (which I featured in this blog post):

Or my 8"x10" watercolor collage leaf paintings (which I featured in this blog post, among others):

Or my "Michigan Pattern" watercolor notecard set:

And the best news? If you're not in the Metro-Detroit area and you're willing to pay shipping, you can purchase any of my notecard sets on my Etsy page, as well!

• Here is a page of all available notecard sets.

• Here are some original colored pencil drawings for sale on Etsy.

• And here are some original pattern watercolors for sale on Etsy.

I also have several listing for custom artworks, which make amazing, unique gifts!

• Custom 8x10" watercolor flower bouquets (listed on Etsy here):

• Custom 8x10" watercolor signs (listed on Etsy here, and here):

• Custom 5"x7" or 8x10" colored pencil drawings (listed on Etsy here, and here):

Best of luck with your holiday shopping this year! I also do commissions, so if you have an idea for a unique painting or drawing for that special someone, please consider trusting me to create a gift you and your gift's recipient will love. You can contact me at afrownfe[at]gmail.com for more information.

"30 Days" - Rose #18

Rose #18 is the last rose in the middle row (row #3).

I started with a light yellow-tan color.

And then immediately lightened it further, with a light cream pencil. This is going to be one of the whitest roses in the group of 30.

I added some medium-pinks into the shadows of the petals, and then immediately went back over with more cream to soften the transition and continue lightening it up.

I actually used a stark white pencil for this rose. I tried to not use it very often on the other roses, unless it was on a very light colored water droplet - because I knew there would be one or two roses in the middle of the group of 30 that I would want to be the whitest. So I saved my white colored pencil for now.

I also added little hints of "extra concentrated" white for water droplets, but I did not add many shadows, so they are not as dimensional as the droplets on other roses. I wanted them to appear "thicker," not as transparent, and wanted them to blend in with the actual petals more. As a result, they aren't very visible.

And now the first three rows of my drawing are complete! (Minus a few extra bits of green background I have to add in still on the right.) Two more rows to go!

"30 Days" - Rose #17

Rose #17 is the second rose from the right in the middle row.

I started with a yellow-orange color as a base layer, and then started layering a redder orange on top.

Then I started going through and adding details - like the whiter areas where the large water droplets would go.

I added light peach to the petals that caught the most highlight, to give the rose dimensionality.

I went back through and added more layers of orange and a magenta-pink hue, continuing to add light peach as necessary to those light colored petals to keep them bright enough to stand out from the magenta shadows.

Then, because I wanted this rose to be very light colored, almost white, I added even more light peach/light cream on top, to lighten it up and blend all the colors together. I added some detail of darker magenta around the water droplets to act as shadows and help the droplets "jump" out of the petals a bit more.

When I was done with rose #17, I went back and considered row #3 as a whole. I hadn't yet started adding in any greens in the background for row #3, so I did that now.