Adventure is the best way to learn

I absolutely love watercolors of the sky. This week I decided I would practice some paintings of clouds. I'm not entirely disappointed in them, but I think I've got a lot more practice to do. I'm hoping to get really good at these!

A Western Sky

Sunlight

Flying

 

Sunset on the Plains

"My soul is in the sky."

- A Midsummer Night's Dream

Mount Rainier

When I first moved to Washington, it was two months before the clouds dissipated enough for me to catch a glimpse of Mt. Rainier (and I almost wrecked my car when I did). The Cascade's tallest peak is visible for hundreds of miles on one of these rare clear days, and it dominates the skyline. Its size relative to its neighboring mountains is awe-inspiring, and even after a year and a half of living in the presence of this mountain, it never failed to impress me.

This painting was a quick watercolor landscape I did to remember my time there. I certainly won't miss the rain, but Washington sure is a beautiful place when you get down to it. I took the picture with my phone, which resulted in losing a lot of the detail, but I am fairly satisfied with the way the painting turned out.

"Great men are rarely isolated mountain peaks; 

they are the summits of ranges." - Thomas W. Higginson

For spacious skies...

I decided to record my moves by painting a watercolor of each state I have lived in. These were really fun to do! I'm unhappy with the Georgia painting, because it was the first of this series, but I'm planning on painting that one over now that I've got the hang of it. I have also opened up an Etsy store, and I think I'll post these there soon. If you are interested in buying an original watercolor of your state, please contact me!

Georgia

South Carolina

Connecticut

Washington

Texas

 I hope to add California and Colorado to this list for sure! 

"Not all who wander are lost."

Painting Indirectly

     My grandfather-in-law and I both love watercolors.  While I was visiting in Texas, we got together to paint, and this was what I came up with (it took about 45 minutes).  I wasn't looking at a reference or anything, and I didn't really have a plan when I started painting. Considering that, I'm pretty happy with the result.  I don't think I'm going to do anything with it, but it was fun painting together! I can't put my finger on what it is I like about this painting, but landscapes always evoke certain emotions in me and I really enjoy looking at them.  I'll probably do a remake of this when I have some time to put more thought and planning into it.  Hope you enjoy.

"One must act in painting as in life, directly."

-Pablo Picasso

Exodus 8:1-4

     I've recently started to paint again, as well as do some graphic design work. This is one of 5 pieces I did for a church's art exhibit featuring the book of Exodus: "The Nile will team with frogs."  Simple and colorful.

     I have a few other watercolors I'll be posting soon.  I've also gotten an internship in communications and graphic design, so I may be posting some things from that soon as well. It's good to be making art again!

USS Jimmy Carter Beer Label

I know I haven't posted in a WHILE, but my house is having a lot of work done (long story...) so everything is a mess and I don't really have a place to spread out my art/paintings/etc. I DO however, have a brand new MacBook Pro so I will post some graphic art instead! This beer label design was done for an Oktoberfest contest for David's boat (USS Jimmy Carter). Unfortunately we didn't win but that's okay. Just so you know, the Jimmy Carter has an extra 100 foot section added to it, so the name of the beer is "it's 100 feet lager". Get it? I thought it was pretty clever, but the people judging the contest apparently did not agree.

Brighton Pier

Can you tell I wish I still had flight benefits? Brighton is a town on the southern coast of England, and is one of my favorite places to visit. This is a quick watercolor and pen sketch I did of Brighton Pier... I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, especially for such a small piece (5x7). I'll be doing several more paintings of Brighton (it's such a beautiful town)! Not to mention, I'll be doing some paintings of London as well.


I want to go!

Thomas the Rhodie puppy

Here is a quick sketch of Thomas. He's now almost 5 months old! He has the most expressive face, and of course I think he's the cutest dog ever. He's so big I forget how young he still is, but he definitely has a lot of puppy in him! Anyway, here's the picture... it took me about 10-15 min.

Zebra

Yay zebras! I've been working on some big cats lately, but I'm not happy with them so I decided to post this instead. (I photoshopped it to get it to have only two values) but it was done with marker... because cool artists color with markers too! I will be posting big cat pictures as soon as I get my act together and stop drawing like an idiot.

My Futute Ride...

This is my first attempt at drawing a car EVER, and I'm pretty happy with it. It is my future Porsche 911 turbo. Yes, one day I will have one! You probably won't be seeing too many cars from me though... I don't have the patience for them. Anyway, here you go: