Leaves – watercolor and ink

I’ve been sketching and painting leaves again. There is something about leaves that I find very calm and soothing.  Hope you enjoy…

Happy Sunday! 🙂

A fun practice with different shades of green and blue, my favorite colors. I used my Princeton 1/4 inch Dagger brush for these paintings.  I love that brush so much!

It was fun to play around with different shapes and just enjoy the painting process. ❤

Watercolor Tip: A clean tissue is always handy to have on hand for blotting. I use one when I put down too much color or too much water on the paper. Just remember to be gentle so that you don’t damage the surface of your paper.

Both watercolor paintings are on 6 x 9 inch individual sheets of Bee watercolor paper.

Continuing on with a few ink sketches…

I love the simplicity of this one. It just feels good.

When I am sketching or doodling, I try not to overthink what I am doing.

If I think about the pen in my hand and the movement of my hand, either the line I am making or going to make, things don’t work out very well for me. It sounds funny but I need a general plan and then I have to be deliberate with the pen and sketch without fear.

Ink on mixed media paper using black Micron pens

Thank you for stopping by and following along. I hope you find time to create art and do something you love. Until next time, have a great week.

Happy Painting!

Patty Anne

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Quiet Thursday – ink floral

A floral doodle and my inkspiration photo for you today.
This post is rather quiet. The doodle, well… not so much.

Happy Thursday! 🙂

 

While looking for something fun to sketch, this lovely red flower caught my eye. I snapped the photo below with my phone while visiting Leu Gardens this spring. A nice flower to sketch with some interesting shapes.

 

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

Thank you for stopping by and following along.

Happy Painting! ❤

Patty Anne

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Thursday ink – Pinwheel leaves

A fun ink sketch for you today.  These cute leaves remind me of a pinwheel.

This simple doodle just makes me smile.

I hope it puts a smile on your face as well. 🙂

Pinwheel leaves – 9 x12 inch

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

Have a great weekend!

Patty Anne

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Simple Petals & Leaves

It is always fun to play and practice.

A few simple flowers and leaves with my favorite Dagger brush. ❤

For this practice, I limited the colors used and tried to limit the number of brush strokes on each flower. At first I was a little disappointed that I could not master the rose shape but what I realized after playing around a while is that I actually like the irregular shapes best.

Simple Roses

Bud
I started at the base of the flower putting pressure on the brush and pulling up toward the top,  then the same thing on the other side to complete the bud shape.

Leaves
While the bud was still wet, I tried to cradle it with green leaves. Starting at the base with smaller strokes, I pulled upward to create little leaves on both sides.

Stem
The last step was simply painting the stem by starting at the base of the bud/leaves and pulling down to create a fine line.

 

Simple petals and leaves

I loosened up after a while and then tried some other playful shapes. I really like how they turned out.

 

For this practice piece, I added a blue sky and played a little more.
Nothing complicated, just a few joyful flowers. 🙂

I think it is important to allow yourself time to play…it helps keep things interesting and fun.

Rose buds –  6 x 9 inch watercolor on Bee paper

For this final painting, I kept things soft and loose. I really love this painting and plan on giving it to a very special couple.

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

Happy Painting!

Patty Anne

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Thursday – Ink Doodle

Sending smiles and a happy doodle your way today. 🙂

This fun doodle I worked on while waiting for my flight at the airport last week. It was a nice way to relax and pass the time…

Ink Doodle – Leaves

5.5 x 8.5 inch Canson Mix Media sketchbook

Hope you have a great weekend and do something fun!

Happy Doodling!

Patty Anne

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Leu Gardens Visit

I recently visited Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida while on vacation. It was really nice to spend a quiet afternoon in the garden enjoying nature and taking a few photos along the way. I have a few favorites to share with you today. 🙂

 

Lavender in the Garden

So many flowers on the property to enjoy and lots of inspiration for future paintings.

The lavender caught my eye in the herb garden. ❤

I love how the afternoon sun is shining through the cute little picket fence.

Lovely Lavender

Ahh, and another lavender photo but this one is a soft and romantic.

 

Green Palm leaves

I didn’t note the name of these gorgeous plants but I was lost in the beauty of the day strolling around and having fun with my best friend.

The extraordinary colors, shapes, and textures blew me away…

I am thrilled with how these photos turned out.

Lovely greens

It is always nice to be able to get outside and enjoy nature. I hope you’ve enjoyed these photos and have a chance to slow down and enjoy the beauty all around you.

Thank you for stopping by and following along. I hope you are inspired to create art and do something you love.

Until next time, have a great week! 🙂

Patty Anne

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Painting with a new brush

A number of months ago I bought a few Princeton Dagger brushes. This week I decided to practice with the small 1/4 inch brush. I found it to be a great choice for painting leaves, twigs, and branches. I need to practice with this brush a bit more but it was fun to switch things up and try something new.

Dagger brush notes:
The brush holds a lot of paint, be sure to have a nice puddle of color to work with.
The super fine tip is perfect for detail work and fine lines.
Dipping the brush in 2 different colors and then pulling the brush across the paper creates some very fun results.

 

I played around and painted a series of leaves. My favorite ones are below. I like the simplicity and soft colors, all very calming.

Daniel Smith watercolors:  Undersea Green, Carbazole Violet, and French Ultramarine
Each painted on 6×9 inch Aquabee watercolor paper.

Leaves watercolor series

 

I painted some pretty pink flowers with the small dagger brush. It created some nice loose shapes for the leaves and petals. I also used a few of my favorite go-to round brushes in this painting as well.
Pink Posies watercolor painted on 6×9 inch Aquabee watercolor paper.

Pink Posies watercolor

 

Try something new…
Mix it up with a new paintbrush or a new sketchbook. Maybe even paint something you’ve never painted before. Playing around and having fun can often produce some very exciting results.

I hope you are inspired to create some art and do something fun. Thanks for stopping by and following along. Until next time, have a great week and stay warm.

Happy Painting!

Patty Anne

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Holiday Holidays!

 

Holiday Wreath

Holiday Wreath painted on 6 x 9 inch Aquabee watercolor paper.

I hope you all get a chance to enjoy time with family and friends this holiday season. Thank you for your friendship, love, and encouragement. It means the world to me.

Wishing you Joy, Peace, and Love!

Patty Anne

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Raccoon in Watercolor & Inktober

This week I worked on sketching and painting a raccoon which was a lot of fun. I also worked on a few sketches for #Inktober.

I practiced sketching this cute little raccoon face a few times in pencil before starting my painting.

Raccoon Watercolor

My Raccoon was painted on Arches 9 x 12 inch cold pressed watercolor paper. I limited by color palette to Daniel Smith watercolors: French Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna Light, Payne’s Gray, and Carbazole Violet. I tried to keep things loose and just have fun. I used round brushes size 10, 6, and 2. I wasn’t sure how this would turn out but I am happy that I tried. I’ve been looking at this little guy all week sitting on my desk, and although he is in watercolor, it kind of looks like I used ink. 🙂

Below are a few of my Inktober sketches this week:

Colorful Leaves – Inktober

Just a little ink and lots of bold watercolor on these leaves.  Another simple composition that I really seem to like lately.

Pinecone – Inktober

Another pinecone in ink and watercolor this week. For the pinecone, I used a larger Micron pen size 1 for the darkest areas and a smaller .03 pen for the remainder. My platinum desk pen with fine nib was used for the drawing the branch and pine needles. This pinecone has more depth than the pinecones I shared with you last week. I am much happier with this one.

Tips:

•  “You win or learn, there is no losing”. I heard that quote this week and just love it!! Keep trying, keep painting, and keep on having fun. Do what you love and you never lose.
• It is helpful when sketching and painting to occasionally turn your work upside down and look at it. There have been times that doing that has helped me easily see just what needs a little adjustment.

I hope you enjoy seeing my work and are inspired to keep painting, creating, and having fun. If you would like to receive notifications of new posts by email, simply click the follow button on the right. I would love to have you follow me on this journey.

You can see more of my work on Instagram and my website, PattyAnneArt. I hope you have a great week and do something fun.

Happy Painting!

Patty Anne

Painting Simple Leaves

I decided to practice painting some simple leaves. I pulled out my round #14, 10, 6, and small flat angle watercolor brushes to give it a try. I watched a few people online paint beautiful leaves with just a few simple brushstrokes and that inspired me to practice and see what I could do.

Brushstroke notes:  Load the brush with paint, then with the tip down on the paper, press down and slightly rotate while continuing to pull the brush and then slowly lift the brush up and off the paper.

The small flat angle brush delivered some beautiful shapes and I was happy with the outcome.

Simple leaves practice – Flat Angle brush

My round #10 brush (a favorite of mine), did not work as well for this, and neither did my trusty old round #6.  Those two are usually my go to watercolor brushes.

I was very pleased and a bit surprised to find that my round #14 brush worked very well.  I was able to paint some large simple leaves with #14. I will have to keep that in mind for future paintings.

Simple Leaves practice – Round brush #14

Below is a quick painting of pink roses using the flat angle brush to paint the leaves. I will need to work more on my leaf painting technique, but this was a good exercise.

Rose – practice with simple leaves

Hope you enjoy and consider clicking the follow button on the right to receive notifications of new posts by email.

You can also follow me on Instagram: @pattyanneart

Happy Painting!!

Patty Anne