A Day to Play

Today started off pretty gloomy and rainy so I decided to try a watercolor technique that I learned from Susan Harrison-Tustain where she uses a yellow underpainting to give her subjects a glow. The Japanese magnolia below isn't finished yet but I wanted to see it online to see where I need to go with it next. It looks slightly more vibrant here than it actually does in person. I hope I can continue on with it and give it that glow that Susan speaks of!

"Japanese Magnolia"
copyright
Jan Gibson

The second painting was done a couple of days ago and is colored pencil on drafting film. I'm pretty pleased with it but the film wouldn't take as many layers as I needed to get the proper shading. I'll probably do more with the drafting film as I like how quickly a painting can be completed as opposed to colored pencil on paper. The translucent film was backed with a textured scrapbook paper. The reference photo was taken by Kalilo at the Stock.Xchng and is used with permission.

"Rosebud"
painting by
Jan Gibson

All in all, today has been a pretty good play day as I also started another colored pencil painting on drafting film. This new painting will probably be a little slow going as I'm still feeling my way using film. So, not only did I get to play, but we got some much-needed rain!