Marie Reine du Monde

I did not feel like going anywhere these past couple of days. The temperature took a nose dive and the forecast for tomorrow is anywhere between 10 and 15 degrees less than the seasonal temperature. Ha ....
I did this quick sketch of the Cathedral from a photo a took two weeks ago during a snow storm.

Tree

I drew my sister's plant and painted the negative spaces with leftover paint from my watercolor palette.

Serenissima

MMFA hosts an exhibition titled "Splendore a Venezia". I went to see it last Sunday and sketched few objects on display.

Lessons learned

I painted this in multiple installments, which I guess could be lesson 1. Light kept changing and I could never sit in exactly the same position. Lesson 2 - mist the watercolor palette before starting to paint so that the mixes are juicier. Lesson 3 - draw the construction lines so that the eyes and ears are lined up properly.
The contrast should have been stronger. But in spite of everything, I am glad I persevered.

More texture studies

I hoped to do more work from Cathy Johnson's books, but all I managed were these little studies.

Grand Canyon

It is cold and snowy, so I took the opportunity to do another quick pen sketch based on the same postcard I used in class for the "Expressive Watercolor course.

Marché Casse-Noisette

This market has been around for about 4 years, but I only discovered it this year. I bought some very good tea from a local company - Thés C.G.

Lefties

Occasionally, I use my non-dominant hand to draw. The resulting sketches are lefties - here is a page I did last week:

A squished tube of toothpaste; handwarmers; two sleeping cats; one pine cone. 

Sugar overload

The customary sugar overload started on St. Nicholas - when accordingly to the tradition, we put out boots at the door and St. Nicholas fills them up with presents. This year, St Nicholas brought a great variety of chocolate, including a 1 kg box of Lindt chocolates.

Then during the week, I went to Melk in the Monkland village for a capuccino and a cranberry-chocolate scone.

Glass texture

I want to reuse the watercolor paper that I have from the expressive watercolor workshop. I am cheap, I know... I also have a jar of absorbent ground I bought way back for a reason long forgotten. I might try to use the paper with pan pastels - another impulse purchase whose reason is long gone. In the meantime, I used it with pencil.

By the time I finished the watercolor sketch, the light changed and I am "stuck" now with the wholes in the middle of the glass instead of the background shapes. Oh well...

Watercolor texture

I went on a book spree at the  library and collected all the books by Cathy Johnson. One of them is "Creating textures in watercolor". Hope to do some of the exercises in the book, but for now I only have these:

I ate the potato before I finished it, but I am happy with the apple. Usually, the highlights end up looking like wholes waiting for a critter to show up.

Feet up...

... at the end of the week, in preparation for watching "Columbo". I had only a pencil handy, so I added some color later. As for Columbo, I don't know how it finished, I fell asleep before the end. The cast was great - John Cassavetes, Blythe Danner, Myrna Loy...