TyQuilts Designs

The watercolor pencil workshop with Kate Johnson has begun. This first week we are just getting acquainted with our materials, mixing colors– Making color charts– deciding which brands of paper, pencils etc we prefer. It has been a lot of fun, but very hard not to feel intimidated as most of the other members seem to have so much experience and knowledge and skill already. I have never painted, and am just learning to draw. But I am bravely going to go forth and work the exercises and post my homework. I hope to see lots of progress from beginning of class to the end.

This is the color chart for the 15 colors of caran d’ache watercolor pencils, I plan to keep in my portable kit. I did the chart on the first two pages of the moleskine sketchbook that I will keep with the pencils. This way, I have easy reference to all of the colors I can mix from my 15 pencils.

One of our assignments was to paint something simple like a flower. The tulip on the left is the first time I have used these pencils without an ink outline. I did draw it lightly in pencil first and I am very pleased with how it turned out, especially the shading.
For the tulip on the left, I wanted to play with a mottled background and so needed the brush pen outline so the tulip would stand out. Loving color as I do, I am having a wonderful time in this class.

Both ends of my motherhood spectrum

To Motherhood with it’s many joys and occasional sorrows…..

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there.

The other night I watched the Michael J Fox show on optimism – Great show. Overall I think I am too much of a worrier to call my self an optimist. However, every spring I have my own little optimistic ritual. Off I go to the local greenhouse to buy a few annuals and hope that I can arrange them artistically and more importantly… Keep them alive. I did really well last year, we will have to see how I do this year.

Spring is finally coming to the frozen north! Flowers are peeping through. I off to a green house today for a few annuals which is the extent of my gardening. Love flowers, hate to garden. I have been enjoying spring vicariously now through many other blogs.

Yesterday while taking Annie for a walk all of the flowering trees were blooming in the neighborhood, the scent was heavenly. I wish I could bottle it.

Finally, I leave you with a picture of how our diva Annie looks when I won’t leave the computer to take her out for another walk.. Can we say drama queen?

While taking photos yesterday for a photography class assignment I spied this lone dandelion and snapped a quick pic. As you can see it inspired a page in my art journal.

Then on my way home, I spied this pond, there is something so mysterious about ponds surrounded by trees. I love the trees reflecting in the water.

This year I am continuing my quest to expand my creativity, taking art and photography classes to help me gain skills and perspective that will improve my quilt design and enrich my life. As a result, there will be less quilting featured in this blog for the next few months as I am taking a watercolor pencils workshop with Kate Johnson and will be posting my homework and results here. I am working on a couple of quilted gifts that I will post after the recipients have received them.

I went out for supplies today and created this journal page as the first page of the moleskine folio watercolor sketchbook that I will be using for my class work. I love the new bigger size.

Let the fun begin!