Wooden post landscape

My muse struck again, this time I decided to paint from one of my photos of the property.

This is the view looking toward the west, the wooden post came from a friend's house, the rusted wire came from a local ranch that was replacing their fencing, we got a few rolls of that wire. Lots of history in the post and wire.

I did this on Fluid Watercolor Blocks, 130 lb, 9x13, I used Derwent Inktense blocks and pencils to paint the picture, I started it about a week ago and put the finishing touches on it today. This is the first time I've used watercolor block paper, it's watercolor paper that is glued down on 2 (or more) sides so you can wet the paper without fear of buckling or warping, I really like it. This is the cold pressed paper, I just ordered the same brand and type but in a hot pressed form, I can't wait to try that.

I plan on painting from the reference photo again, maybe several times, I really like this view, and I need to polish up my trees, they look just fine here, but MY trees are more rounded (more cedar like-less fir like), I also want to improve the mountains in the background and the sky, basically everything, I'm very happy with the wooden post and the rusted wire.

I am giving this to a friend for her birthday, she saw it last week before it was fully completed, she liked it. I'm pretty happy with it too :) This is the first full page landscape painting I have done in quite a number of years, I'm thinking the last time I painted anything like this was over 30 years ago, I'm happy to get back into the swing of painting.

Western Scrub Jay in Derwent Inktense

I am following a wonderful artist Rebekah R Jones, she does art journaling in Bibles, this intrigues me very much, I added more links to Rebekah at the bottom of the page.

This is my second attempt at art journaling in a book, I will eventually start working in a Bible, but want to get better (and more confident) before I start working in my Bible.

Here is my first attempt, I had to find a book I was willing to practice in, fortunately we have a plethora of books around here :) I also went to our local library and local used bookstore recently and found a Bible and another book that lays flat quite nicely. This picture was done in watercolor and ink.

Here is the painting I did today, it was done using Derwent Inktense blocks and pencils, the idea was to make it transparent enough to still be able to read the text below, the picture above I got a bit heavy with the brown on the roof, I am a lot more satisfied with the picture from today, I worked in thin transparent layers, building up each layer until I was happy with the amount of color. You can tell I am happy with this one because I signed it :)

I joined a free site called Paint My Photo, it's a place where very fine photographers upload their photos specifically for artists to use as reference, I have been uploading pictures of my local area, landscapes, animals, flowers and such. This is my first painting done from a photo there.

Rebekah R Jones blog, FaceBook, YouTube, Pinterest.