Illustration Friday "Asleep"

OK. Illustration "Tuesday" for me this week which is earlier than I usually post and thank you in advance to anyone who stops to see this. I doodled this cat and dog a few weeks ago for another IF topic (which escapes me at the moment) and I was happy to be able to go back to it for this week's topic "Asleep".

Marouschka - a little girl watercolor portrait

I joined in the Weekend Paint on Wetcanvas and couldn't resist painting little Marouschka. I haven't done a watercolor portrait for a while. I keep letting myself get distracted and also I've been trying to develop an illustration style which is like learning another language! This is my native language - straight portraiture in watercolor and it was without any commission pressure so it was a breeze to paint. Some day I hope that children's illustration will come as naturally for me.

The only part about this portrait that I do not like is that I didn't wait for my first wash on her face to dry before I jumped into the background and the purple moved in. You can't really lift it so it has a somewhat ghastly cast to it, too heavy. I really hate purple for flesh colors. If I were to try it again, I'd go for lighter and more scarlet lake in the complexion. But overall, I am happy with this.

Now, back to illustration.... :)

Illustration Friday - Safari

This was so fun and I'm so late hardly anyone will see this but here's my illustration for Illustration Friday's challenge last Friday "Safari".

Illustration Friday "Beginner"

So many things you can do with "beginner". The first thought that popped into my head was music lessons, this was #2 and I decided to go with it. 

Someday I hope to figure how to get my thumbnail sized correctly for the IF Blog. Does anyone else have trouble with this? I've done everything I can think of, followed directions online and they still come out bigger than 15K even when they 72 dpi and 50 x 50 pixels. ?? I'm taking my question to a Photoshop expert tomorrow night but in the meantime I really wanted to post this before Thursday. :) Have a super week!

Butterfly & Lilac Watercolor

Here is a painting that I also taught in my watercolor class. They wanted to try masking fluid and I introduced the concept of negative painting in the lilac. It's been a work in progress that I've fiddled with and now I'm calling it done.

Spring Blossoms

I spent around 5 hours this weekend cleaning up my garden. There is still lots to do but I have to wait for the trash to be picked up because I filled all of my trash cans. It finally feels like spring here and it was perfect weather to garden about 60 degrees. Tonight, my husband asked me why I had a red line on my back above the waistband of my pants. Apparently that part of me was in the sun long enough to get burned while I was bending over my plants. LOL

We have an enormous flowering pear tree in our front yard that is gorgeous for about 2 weeks every spring. This is a close up of the blossoms that I painted on a 6 x 6 piece of Aquaboard. A fun surface to work with and it just needs to be sprayed and framed.