and here is the finished sketch

     Sometimes I do a more finished sketch to work out how to abstract the design and tune the colors.  The coral colored outline along the bottom and up one side are an important element that I'll need to work into the painting some way other than an outline.  Without that color in the foreground it seems a little too bland.  

blank canvas

      I love the beginning of a painting, especially if I have a sketch I am excited about, which I do.  I mixed up a large batch of nice cool, but not too cool gray for an under painting.  It is a 30x40 canvas so I need quite a bit. 

  

the thumbnail sketch

the first two pages of my illustrated journal

     

 
 I just got a book by Cathy Johnson, Artist Journal Workshop.  I bought a nice big sketchbook with watercolor pages.  I decided that I really like playing with w/c, something I haven't done in years. 

I've had a cozy weekend, making mini ginger whoopie pies (King Arthur flour recipe) with a friend- yum! and watching birds on my back deck.  

new paintings

Bananaquits, 9x12, oil

Houses in Bermuda, 12x16, oil

A Brief Moment, 30x40, oil