Painting Snowy Pine trees

I’ve been painting pine trees the last few weeks. Today I have some snowy pines to share with you.

Hope you have a wonderful day friends! 💚

Before I jump into my painting I wanted to share a few tips and pics of my setup.

I started saving toilet paper rolls that have just a few last sheets on them. I keep a little basket of them nearby to use while painting.

I can easily remove excess paint or water from my brush using the tp roll. I also save and reuse big plastic yogurt tubs for my water containers.

I started at the top with small loose tree shapes using a light color. As I worked my way forward I painted larger trees with slightly darker greens.

The foreground trees are the largest with the darkest colors and most detail. At this point I stepped back for a bit to decide what was next…

Adding more color and detail to the large trees up front was next. Just enough paint to wake them up and add more interest. For the snow I used my white gouache to sprinkle on the branches.

I had to be careful to find the right balance and not overwork things. It’s often hard to know when to stop. 😊

I hope you are inspired to create art and do more of what you love. Until next time, share a smile and stay excellent!

🌸 Patty Anne 🌸

Join me on Instagram at pattyanneart

Indigo skies and a little sparkle

I have a landscape painting to share with you today.

Something calm and soothing…

Hope your day is wonderful, friends! 💙

 

For the distant sky I used a cool Indigo. I also added in a little touch of peachy pink (quinacridone rose + yellow ochre) similar to the warm peach color used in the foreground.

Watercolor Tip: To create the sparkle in the center I dragged the side of a large wet brush across clean dry paper. Some areas remain unpainted and it creates a little sparkle. I always love how that looks. 🙂

 

I hope you are inspired to create art and do more of what you love.

Until next time, share a smile and stay excellent!

🌸  Patty Anne  🌸

follow me on Instagram at pattyanneart

More practice with different landscapes

I have more landscape practice to share with you today.

Happy Thursday, friends! 💚

 

Mini landscapes are a great way to play and learn.

I used a pencil and ruler to divide my 7 x 10 inch watercolor page into four sections. This mini size is just perfect for playing with different colors and ideas.

 

Using the lower right landscape above as inspiration, I worked on a larger painting of countryside pines. I did switch a few things up in this larger piece and that’s ok. I think it worked out well.

Watercolor tip:  The pines (or objects) that are further away should have less detail and be a lighter color. This helps create distance and depth.

 

This landscape was inspired by a picture from my daily calendar. I wanted to try something different with a pretty green countryside. I love the distant hills and am happy with the calm soothing feeling.

I hope you are inspired to create art and do more of what you love.

Until next time, share a smile and stay excellent!

🌸  Patty Anne  🌸

Follow me on Instagram @pattyanneart

Patty Anne Art

Quiet Sunday – Blue landscape

A quiet post today sharing an abstract watercolor landscape. 💙

Happy Sunday, friends! 😊

 

Blue landscape – 11 x 15 inch

I enjoy painting landscapes and hope to work on more of them this year.

I hope you are inspired to create art and do more of what you love.

Until next time, share a smile and shine on!

🌸  Patty Anne  🌸

Join me on Instagram at pattyanneart

Watercolor landscape squares

I had fun playing and painting watercolor landscape squares this week.

I was inspired by the beautiful work and creativity of fellow blogger and friend Jill Kuhn. I love her November Square-A-Day landscapes and decided to try a few squares.

You can check out Jill’s post here, November Square-A-Day Landscapes

Happy Thursday, friends! 💙

 

I started by taping off a few sections in my watercolor sketchbook.

My plan was to keep it simple and limit each square to a just a few colors.

 

Daniel Smith watercolors used:  Sap Green, Pthalo Blue, and Carbazole Violet
Brush used: Round #12

This was a fun way to play and work on ideas for future paintings. Although a large part of this exercise was about trying different color combinations, I was reminded how important it is to leave some unpainted areas. Leaving a little white of the paper adds interest and also a little sparkle.

I hope you are inspired to create art and have fun.

Until next time, share a smile and stay excellent! 😊

🌸 Patty Anne  🌸

follow me on Instagram  @pattyanneart

Looking back

Looking through some of my earlier work, I ran across this watercolor and ink painting. A sweet little scene of a family enjoying time at the beach.

Happy Thursday friends! 😊

I hope you are inspired to create art and do what you love.

Until next time, share a smile and shine on.

Happy Painting!

Patty Anne

follow me on Instagram

Patty Anne Art

Quiet Thursday – Snowy Pines

A landscape with snowy pines for you today.

Hope you have a wonderful Thursday! 😊

Frozen daydream – 9 x 12 inch bee watercolor paper

I hope you are inspired to create art and do what you love.

Until next time, share a smile and spread kindness all around.

Happy Painting!

Patty Anne

Follow me on Instagram

 

Cityscape watercolor

A landscape practice and a few lessons learned.

Happy Sunday! 🙂

As I started working on this painting I quickly realized that things weren’t going as planned. When I dropped color on my damp watercolor paper I could see that my timing was off. My plan was to create distant trees but that was not what was happening. I was disappointed at first but continued on and did not fight it.

Lesson learned: Go with the flow and allow the painting to guide you.

Chilly Cityscape  9 x 12 inch watercolor

I continued dropping in color and resisted the urge to fix things.

Stepping back I could see an unexpected cityscape with buildings and trees. What a happy surprise. Things didn’t go as initially planned but that’s ok. I learned a lot from this exercise and in the end I love the cityscape painting that resulted.

Lesson learned: Watercolor sometimes delivers a happy surprise.

I plan on keeping this painting near my desk as a reminder of these important lessons. 🙂

I hope you are inspired to create art and do what you love. Thank you for stopping by and following along. Until next time, share a smile and have a great week.

Happy Painting!

Patty Anne

follow me on Instagram

PattyAnneArt

Beyond the Meadow

A little landscape practice with an exercise from Zoltan Szabo’s book, 70 Favorite Watercolor Techniques.

Happy Sunday! 🙂

Beyond the Meadow – 9 x 12 inch Bee watercolor paper

The flowering tree in this landscape caught my eye. It looked like a good exercise to practice painting trees using the wet on wet technique so I decided to give it a try.

While painting the distant trees I reminded myself to leave enough white space for the flowering tree in the foreground. I was pleasantly surprised with the depth that I was able to achieve with this landscape and how quickly it all came together.

It feels calm and peaceful, I love that. 🙂

I hope you enjoy seeing my work and are inspired to create art and do what you love. Thank you for stopping by and following along. Until next time, share a smile and have a great week.

Happy Painting! ❤

PattyAnneArt on Instagram

PattyAnneArt

 

Simple Watercolor Landscapes

I’ve been working on a few simple landscape paintings. I used similar color combinations for my distant trees in each painting and have 3 very different results to share with you today.  Oh, and lots of blue. 🙂

My first step on any landscape painting is thinking about where I want the horizon to be. Once I decide how much space I want to reserve for the sky, I lightly draw a line for the horizon using a pencil and ruler. With the horizon line in place, it is easier for me to visualize the big shapes in the painting.

Using the wet on wet technique, I tried to indicate some distant trees.  When the wet paint hits the damp paper, it creates color blooms on the paper. It is so much fun to watch this happen!

I tried to keep things simple and not overwork my landscape paintings. I had to remind myself before starting each one, no fussing allowed. Hopefully that will get easier with more practice.

Distant trees Landscape

Indigo worked well in this painting.  I am very pleased with the addition of the foreground here, it seemed to balance things out. Although I like the other paintings below, this one is probably my favorite because I’m pulled in and feel something.

 

Simple Landscape

I really like the varied tree shapes in this one. The bits of white paper beneath the trees in the center area worked well. I need to remember that for future landscape paintings.

 

Abstract Landscape

This abstract landscape is very different from my usual style of painting. I love the blooms of color in this painting. ❤ The granulating effect of the French Ultramarine Blue is quite interesting.

I hope you enjoyed this simple landscape series.

Thank you for stopping by and following along. Until next time, create some art and do something you love. Hope your week is awesome. 🙂

Happy Painting!

Patty Anne

Instagram

PattyAnneArt