What weather we’ve had today! Stormy, hail, wind and rain! Torrential downpours then bright blue skies. Ah, the start of spring! Seemed appropriate to work on a few water droplets caught on a leaf. A few days ago, I spent a bit of time wandering around the backyard looking for leaves and grasses harboring water drops. They are pretty amazing things to gaze into since they reflect everything upside down. I have a smidgen more color adjustments on the leaf before moving on to the next page. Not certain what I’ll put down yet, but it will come. I really shouldn’t be revealing everything as I progress, but I just enjoy sharing.
To create the image, I pulled out one of my dad’s art toolboxes of watercolor supplies. This particular box holds much more than watercolors: carving, drawing and many other surprises! I discovered he actually organized the watercolor tubes in ziploc bags, separated by color family (which totally surprised me because he wasn’t the most organized person). In general, painting is not an area I play with because it really baffles me. Give me a block to carve or a copper plate to scratch, and I’m a happy camper. Put a brush in my hand and it just feels wrong, but I’ll try anything.
A5 handmade sketchbook, watercolors, sakura micron pigment pen.
Sticks, Stones, and Paper Stew Blog 
Love your adventurous spirit… you shouldn’t be afraid of a brush, you do well with every other medium.
Thanks Cynthia! The collaboration project is certainly pushing my comfort level and stretching boundaries! Deadlines help too! 😉
Plus this is an area that DOESN’T hurt my fingers/hand! A huge plus in my world!
Gale, I actually considered pulling a page/ spread out of my book because I was disappointed in what I did. I used to carve like crazy and loved the graphic nature of the image, I think I connected with your block prints immediately. Maybe it’s an internal fight between graphic and real life. Your images are beautiful, just keep going, water in all forms, beautiful. What you have shown is so perfect, don’t second guess it, just keep going.
Thanks Cathe! It breaks my heart to hear you’re contemplating pulling pages! But I can understand when things just are not going well. I’ve had several projects that never made it out of the studio due to that reason. I’m so excited to see your book and thrilled to be able to so some artwork for it!
Don’t stop sharing the in progress posts, I like that we get to go on the journey with you. How cleaver and brave of you to draw the water drops, it looks great. Karen
Thank you Karen! 🙂
How Wonderful to see you utilizing Daddy’s art supplies and tools, Gale! Thank you for the pictures.
The book pages are also from his stash of watercolor paper. My studio exploded with all the extra stuff. Still trying to figure out what to do with some of it. Eventually I’ll get a handle on it. 😀