Soar

No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings (William Blake)

Summer of Colour - Finished!

It's the last week of Summer of Colour already, and I think this must be the first challenge I actually finished! I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I was away almost half of the six weeks and had quite a bit of catching up to do. 

Week 1: Citron Green & Turquoise

Week 2: Orange & Hot Pink

Week 3: Lime Green & Purple

Week 4: Charcoal Grey & Pale Pink

Week 5: Candy Apple Red & Yellow

Week 6: Sage & Sepia

I didn't quite know what to do at the beginning of the challenge, and somehow ended up just splashing the colours on the pages of my little sketchbook and adding some doodle flowers. Because the colours aren't quite so bright in the sketchbook, I decided to do a bigger version on a sheet of watercolour paper. I liked the two versions, and decided to stick with this concept throughout the challenge. I'm glad I did, it's great to see all the six doodle paintings together, and how different they all turned out.

I can't really remember the combinations I voted for each week, but I think that whatever I voted, it never came up. Which in a way was great, because it forced me to try out colour combinations I probably would never have used myself. Especially the Candy Apple Red & Yellow was quite a challenge, as I don't like yellow at all, and although I do like red, not really in the combination with yellow. But I was positively suprised by the result, and I must admit, it turned out to be one of my favourites of the six, together with the lime green and purple one.

I'm planning to keep up these sketches by picking random combinations from magazines or wherever I see them. I probably won't do it very regularly, certainly not one a week, but it's such an excellent excercise, especially when trying out new combinations.

Linking up to Summer of Color - thank you so much Kristin for hosting this wonderful challenge! - and to the fabulous Paint Party Friday, where I can't even remember how many weeks I've now missed, but it's definitely too many.

Know your materials

I love making reference pages of my paints and materials in my sketchbook. I spent most of Sunday adding some more paint boxes (and discovering some long forgotten ones), and some of my growing collection of watercolour brushes. It seems I now have watercolour paints for every occasion and sketchbooks; cheap, expensive,tubes, half pans, full pans, big boxes, travel kits...

Summer of Colour, Week 5

I wasn't too happy about this week's colour combination, Candy Apple Red & Yellow, I must admit. I like red, but yellow really is my least favourite colour, and I just wasn't convinced that the combination of the two could produce something I'd be happy with. But of course I decided to give it a go, and as the yellow wasn't a specific yellow, I decided to make the best of that and use as warm a shade of yellow as possible, bordering on light orange.

I've only come as far as finishing the sketchbook page, and preparing the background on the sheet of watercolour paper. But I'm determined to finish that one too over the weekend, and catch up with the the past two weeks too, to be ready for the final week next week.

I did the doodles only last night, and, with my head being full of all the new stuff that starting a new job brings with it, my imagination was a bit limited. So I decided to go back to one of my older designs from my trainsketches. I love these sketchbooks, they are becoming such a great source for inspiration.

I have to say that I'm quite pleased with the result. The colours work well together, and I'm glad I tried a combination I'd never would have chosen myself. Can't wait til Monday now, when the last combination will be announced (can't believe it's already the last week!). I already can't remember what combination I voted for, but I'm hoping that it's going to be one that includes blue. We haven't really had any proper blue so far, only the turquoise in week one. Anyway, still lots to catch up with, so I'd better start working.

Summer of Colour catch up

Back from my wonderful two and a half week's holiday in England, and I've got a bit of catching up to do. In the first week of Summer of Colour, I did a sketch in my sketchbook first, and then a second one on a sheet of watercolour paper. I enjoyed the different effects of the different papers and watercolours, but it also meant that I felt that I had to keep this up for the following weeks. Which is rather time consuming. I did take some watercolours and sketchbooks with me on holiday, and although I haven't been very productive, I did a page or two, and back home again, I spent today with preparing the backgrounds of this and last week's colour combination and with adding the doodle flowers on the background sheet for week two.

Week 2: Orange & Hot Pink

Week 3: Lime Green & Purple

Week 4: Charcoal Grey & Pale Pink

I found a sketchbook with a landscape doodle I did one and a half years ago, and thought it would make a nice change from the flower doodles. The flowers doodles from week two came from the same sketchbook. I didn't even know I had done these! I'm afraid the pale pink didn't turn out too pale though.

I can't wait to learn which next week's colours will be. So far, none of the combinations I've voted for has come up in the respective week, but I've thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of them. But then that's the fun of these challenges, to do something you wouldn't normaly do yourself, isn't it.