Love In My Garden

Time for a new project, I am so excited. I wanted to do a small escape from the sewing machine and create some original artwork again. I am making a small series of bookmarkers for my Etsy site and maybe have them printed on some Spoonflower fabric. I decided on a group of seven for this project, using a different color theme with each one. I used Strathmore’s Acrylic paper, in the 6 in. x 12 in size. This paper is great for pencil and ink. I wanted to come up with a dusting affect on the outside of each piece, so I used my ink pads to dab at the edges with a dry stencil brush.

The Bleeding Heart

I have always loved to hand stitch feathers on my quilts, so I decided to use a variation of one of my feather patterns in this drawing.

 After I drew my basic sketch, I started to highlight the edges. I like using the Bic Medium Markers and the Sharpie Fine Point Markers.

Adding the color is my favorite part to the process. Since the theme of this piece is strictly out of my imagination, there really is no guide line to follow.

I have come to rely a lot on Tombow pens lately. They really are a joy to work with. One end has a brush tip and the other end, a fine point. They are nice for blending and by adding layers of ink I can get the shades I want to achieve.

I am just about done now. It was about this time that my husband came snooping around to see what I was working on. He said that it reminded him of the when we first met and the Bleeding Heart flowers that I used to grow. This is how I came up with the name for this piece.

Blooming Roses

My oldest daughter loves roses and each year she grows about a dozen different varieties. Red is her favorite color. Since the theme for this series is a garden, I decided on roses for one of the art pieces that I was going to create.

As the flowers took shape I also wanted to add some little creatures, so I included dragonflies and a caterpillar.  

The Tombow pens really have a good variety of the greens that I like to work with. Lime green has become a favorite color of mine. It blends really well with sage and olive green.

Since I used red ink to frame the outside border of my paper, I colored the roses dark pink with red accents.

I think I am finished with adding the color at this point. I have found out that when it comes to photographing my drawings, dark reds are the hardest to photograph.

Dancing Flowers

People always ask what the inspiration for my artwork is. I love flowers and admire people that can grow just about anything. When it comes to this drawing, I wanted to create a piece that gave the paper movement.

I knew that the leaves really had to flow throughout the piece and I felt that as a start I was going in the right direction.

This is where the color theme starts to come together on this art piece.  

When I get involved in my drawing I can never have enough pens to work with. I am always looking for new products and colors. I thought the purple and greens looked very well together, but I needed to brighten it up a bit. I added in some yellow tones and I think it is coming together nicely.

Honey Bee

When I made the decision to put a bumble bee into one of my art pieces I knew I was going to have fun with it. Black is such a classic color. The brown and gold tones in this drawing give it a country feel.

I decided to ink the edges of my paper in a deep yellow ink, but as I added other colors to my drawing the ink took on more of a brown tone. I just love the flowers. They look so light and delicate. I hadn’t drawn a bee in ages. I think he looks right at home in this garden.

I was having so much fun I forgot to take more pictures – it happens. This piece really came out the way I had hoped it would.

Hummingbird

I have used the theme of the humming bird in the past. We do see them a lot here in Minnesota and they are just beautiful.

I wanted to try and give this art piece some height, so I put the leafy vines reaching towards the top of the paper.

 

I am finishing adding color to the hummingbird. I really like the idea of starting each of these art pieces first with inking the edges. It gave me the color themes that I would be working with right from the start. There seems to be too much empty space in the sky.

After taking a long look at my drawing, I felt that there should be something to the right of the bird. I added another leafy vine in the background. I use my fine point pens for adding small details as I finish my art.

Spring Daisies

About a year ago I was doodling on a piece of paper and had come up with a butterfly similar to this one. It has become my husband’s favorite butterfly. When I told him the theme for this art series, he insisted that I do a butterfly similar to his favorite. I hope you like it as much as he does.  

I couldn’t wait to start on the daisies. I don’t know if blue daisies exist in the real world, but they do grow in my garden drawings.

When it comes to the butterflies, I like to use a large variety of colors. This is the base layer and I will build off of that..

Well, you have to admit, we definitely have the color thing going on here. 

The flowers needed more definition, so I added royal blue to the tips of the petals. With a little bit more detail work on background this piece will be done.

Wings Aloft

I had so much fun with “Spring Daisies” that I decided to draw another butterfly, and change the color theme.

I wanted the colors to be softer in this art piece, so when I inked the edge I used a lighter green for the border.

The flowers give a stronger base for the colors at the bottom of this art piece.

To keep my butterfly airy, I stayed with yellow and a few bright pastels.

I can’t believe I am finished with this series.  It went too fast. My husband, Joe, agreed to work on the computer and scan them in. I persuaded him to print me out some copies to make up some bookmarkers. They are my newest item in my Etsy Shop.