Sunday Sketch - Watercolor Flower Doodle

Here are some flower doodle I did in pencil in my notebook.  I had the background already painted with Dr. PH Martin's Hydrus watercolors with a bit of Ninji Pearlescent Watercolors on top.  I used my go to pencil for doodling, a Staedtler Mard technico with HB lead, and added details with a Sakura white gen pen.  

Here 's the doodle in my notebook, it looks really cute peeking out from behind my Sacred Road card from church.  

BTW, the bottom says "Brandon Butler is awesome!"  I was demonstrating to Brandon (the hubs) how I would use colorful the paper to take notes and doodle. 

On My Table - Messy Painting with Kids and Silks

My daughter has been asking for a couple of days to paint, and yesterday was our first opportunity so I broke out all the kids' paints and let them at it.  They had a great time, Lula ended up with half of her paint on her shirt and skirt, and Grayson had his hands and arms covered.  Nothing a quick bubble bath couldn't fix though.  That's why we use washable and watercolor paints!  Aren't they so cute!?!?!?!

March the first was my birthday, and my sweet darling sis-in-law got me a card to Hobby Lobby.  This was the first "me money" I have had in a while that didn't end up going to bills, so I had a blast with it.  I wanted to get some Vintaj metal patinas to go on my metal clay jewelry, but the only ones they had in stock that I liked were in really rough shape.  I ended up with a single black one that I really like (and might review on my other blog), then I wandered around until I stumbled across some sale items in the scrapbooking section.  They had some Twinkling H2Os and  Silks Acrylic Glaze marked down, and I just had to grab them up.  I ended up with the Summer Fun Set of the H2Os, and the Mardi Gras and Tropical sets of Silks.

I have been dying to use them, so I broke them out yesterday for a project I plan to submit as an article.  Here's a sneak peek.  

I really like the Silks a lot, they are vibrant, shimmering, and thin.  Perfect for a solid or mixed wash for a background.  I plan on doodling on these little circles in black and white ink.  I used all three colors from the Mardi Gras pack, and the pink Plumeria from the Tropical pack.

This is definitely a purchase I would make again.  I can't wait to experiment a bit more with these.  Have you been playing around with any new supplies?

Wednesday Work in Progress - Owl Doodle Mandala

I've been working on this one for a while now, and I thought I would share it.  Maybe it will help me get to work on the completion of this particular mandala, this giant of a project.  Please excuse the image quality, I really need a better lens!

Here is a detail shot of the pencil drawing I start off with.

Once everything is penciled in, I work on outlining everything with my Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph pen (.25 mm), then fill the lines in with a bigger pen (.30 or .50, depending on what I have to fill).  Here's the outline.

And about a third of the mandala completed.  I do much better when I outline the whole thing, then fill lines.  My lines are more even when I do.  But I often can't wait to see what the sections look like and go ahead and fill them one section at a time.  

Here's the whole piece.  It's on a 19x24 piece of Bristol, and it is the biggest mandala I have ever attempted.  That's probably the reason it sits on my piano, only 1/3 done, waiting for me to make time to finish it.  

   

Soon I'll have this one done, and I will be sure to post the finished piece.