Happy Halloween

Have a wonderful Halloween everyone who's celebrating it! As I've mentioned before, we don't really have Halloween over here, although when walking back home from the station, I've actually seen a few kids here and there dressed up in some rather improvised bedsheets-turned-into-ghost costumes running around with bags ready to collect some sweets. I'm not sure how many of them actually know what Halloween is, and where it comes from, but I guess the sweets are just too tempting :). Well, they didn't ring my doorbell, which is just as well, as I didn't have any sweets. All I've got are my gorgeous pumpkins, and I'm still fascinated by them. I just love their colours and shapes!

And they're a perfect subject for practising my sketching and watercolour painting skills. The green spotted one I enjoyed particularly, patiently buidling up one layer after the other. Here's a step-by-step of how I did it. It really isn't that difficult, it just takes some time and patience. (Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to make that picture series bigger than this):

 

It's so relaxing, like meditating! Just concentrating on the colours and patterns, putting one brush stroke or dot after the other, down on to the paper. I've done three of the five (although the warty one isn't finished yet), so there are two more to go. And then one of them also wants to be turned into a nice soup!

And then there are all those lovely leaves everywhere outside! I've started painting some of them too, and I've got lots more to do. I'm so glad I re-discovered my watercolours. All these autumn things are just perfect for them. I'd never thought I'd enjoy them so much!

Week 35 ~ Oh my Gourd!

This week (week 35) at Picture Inspiration is all about the gorgeous pumpkin: Let us celebrate the gorgeous gourd!, Tracey declared, and wanted us to focus on "relationships" with our subject matter.

Now we don't have Halloween here, and so pumpkins aren't quite so "big" a thing as in other places. But we still like to use them as seasonal decorations, bringing the beautiful warm autumn colours into our homes with them. But we most of all love to eat them - as tasty, delicious, creamy, rich pumpkin soup (with curry, a splash of cream and some pumpkin seeds in this case).

I had a lot of fun with these pumpkins (and I'm sure I'll have lots more, as I intend to devote some of my weekend to the intense study of them, trying to sketch, draw, and paint them). I took so many photos that I risked the soup getting all cold in the meantime. I had a hard time deciding which photo to chose for the prompt, but finally went with the one above - and made a little collage with the rest :).

And I got to enjoy my lovely soup. It was delicious (and still hot enough). My relationship with my subject? - Very satisfying! :) Now I'm really looking forward to the weekend and to bringing those shapes and colours on to paper.

And I really intend to keep up with Picture Inspiration. I've been trying to, but didn't do a very good job so far, I'm afraid. I've posted some pictures in the group pool, have taken some more but never got round to process, let alone post them, and with quite a few prompts didn't even manage to take a picture at all in the first place. It's less than 20 weeks to go now, and I will do my best to keep it up now for the rest of the course, and take and post a picture each week, both here and in the group pool. It should be doable, right!?