After being immersed in a failed oil painting portrait and a major home construction project it was wonderful to return to sketching despite feeling rusty. The funny flat peaches in the drawing above are called “Donut” peaches. They’re just as yummy as the round ones and way better for you than donuts. Below are more banana and peaches sketches.
In the foreshortened banana sketch above I was experimenting with the “Flatting” brush in Procreate.
Which do you like better, the colored version above or the one in blue “pencil” below? These are lumpy lemons from the interior of my lemon tree where they’ve been growing unnoticed to nearly the size of oranges, plus other random stuff on the table as I found it.
Below is the original “pencil” sketch in blue. I accidentally drew this with Procreate’s hard airbrush instead of my usual favorite sketching pencil, the Brush Up Ultimate Pencil (didn’t check what brush it was set on until it was too late).
It’s fun drawing random stuff that ends up on the table. This time it is old bottles used as vases that held hydrangeas, a bottle cap, silicone tea cozy, emory board and garlic.
Usually when I draw in Procreate on the iPad I start with a “pencil” sketch and then color it by using the selection tool to draw a shape, then fill the selection using the eye dropper/paint bucket tool. Above is the colored sketch and below is the digital pencil sketch I colored.
My hydrangea plant lives just outside my kitchen window and each year I enjoy painting it. This time I was going for a more abstracted feel with soft, soothing beautiful colors and just the tease of a bent post-it note.
I hope all the rain we’ve had this winter will help it continue to produce fabulous blooms! This painting is available in my DPW gallery.
I love the way the petals range from pink to blue to lavender from the soft yellow when they first sprout. Below is a photo of the setup.
“Animal Bone and Daffodils,” gouache on watercolor paper, 11 x 8.5 inches
My dog found this animal bone on the trail in Wildcat Canyon. I don’t know what critter it was from but I assume possibly a deer that a bobcat, mountain lion or coyotes left behind. It was well-gnawed and growing moss.
I’m enjoying learning how to paint with gouache. It’s a lot of fun but definitely has its challenges!
And we have more morning sketches. I was really trying to force myself to stick to 3 values for each object. My glass-topped table is so great with its frosted glass square design elements and reflections.
I was thrilled when my irises bloomed again this year after failing to do so last spring. I love the warm light I was able to capture in this painting. It went through a lot of changes before I finally settled on this version. (Available on my DPW gallery here.)
This was just a little love letter to a pretty pear. (Available on my DPW Gallery here.)
I tried painting these several ways, with just the vase and flowers, with a whole lemon, and then a lemon wedge. It’s all about yellow. And springtime. And daffodils. (Available on my DPW gallery here.)
This was a fun two afternoon painting. Below are the steps in the work in progress and photo of the setup. This was painted about a year after my mother passed away. It’s poignant to be painting some of her special glassware.
Continuing on with my big May catch-up on posting work from the past few months. It was a gloomy winter day but one of the volunteer calla lilies was blooming and I had to paint it. This was a one-session alla prima oil painting.
Jana Bouc, Artist 