Stormy Weather

Another Inspiration Avenue challenge under my proverbial belt. Maggie chose the theme for this week as "Stormy Weather" and it flooded my brain with such rich possibilities! I could do rain or umbrellas or darkened wet streets or the ocean or a meadow in a storm... I could go on and on! I trolled the internet for photos I could use for inspiration and came up with like ten! I finally settled on the ocean but I'll be painting, drawing and doodling all day on other "stormy" artworks.

What fun this painting was to do! As I've mentioned before, I'm trying to learn to relax my style by doodling and it's working, yippee! This is my first attempt to truly loosen up and stop worrying about perfection. I allowed the highlights to be "scratchy" instead of perfect, I mean, it's supposed to be tempestuous waves in the ocean so it shouldn't be neat & tidy!

Title: "Ocean's Turmoil"

I was inspired by the artwork of my friend Dion Dior, she has such a wonderful whimsical and easy style. She paints as though it's the easiest thing in the world, I never look at her wonderful, colorful work and think, "geez, this is overly detailed" or "did she even enjoy painting this?" It always makes me happy to look at her art. 

Close up #1 of "Ocean's Turmoil"

I thought for the first time I'd take a page from my friend Tracey and include some close ups of this painting. I knew it was a great piece for close ups. I love how the waves look like they are cut out and pasted one on top of one another. What I did was sketch out generally where I wanted waves, then I inked it out using a Micron 01 archival ink pen. (what would we artist's do without these, Tracey said she was totally envious that I got a 36 count bulk order of Microns. I know what she means, it just feels so "safe" to have so many back ups. Since I use these pens on cold pressed watercolor paper I tend to go through them quickly. The paper sucks up ink like a sponge! Tracey keeps trying to get me to try hot pressed Arches but I haven't found any as of yet.)

Close up #3 of "Ocean's Turmoil"

Then I wanted the thickness of the lines to change and I had a Pitt sepia brush pen so it got a work out! Now I know I need to get some brush pens in black. Up until now I never liked them because they weren't as accurate as a fine point. Ya, that perfectionistic streak again. But now I see their value. I guess I'm going shopping again, lol. After fleshing out the thicker lines I took handfuls of my new Prismacolor markers in all colors blue, green & purple and I started coloring in the waves, trying to keep a balance of color across the paper. I didn't want symmetrical, just balanced. I found it difficult to find many light colors as the color darkens significantly when added onto cold pressed 
paper, one point for Tracey, lol. ;o)

Close up #2 of "Ocean's Turmoil"

Anyway, I used the Prismacolor markers and filled all the waves. Then I took light taupe and two slightly darker colors and started adding strategic shadows to the bottom of the waves. Finally, I got out my trusty white gel pen. (unlike others, I really like Pentel Hybrid Gel Grip white pen instead of the Sakura Gelly Roll that's highly touted by so many artists and crafters.) I added highlights on to tops of waves and then found that it wasn't enough so I added white highlights above the thick sepia lines, that worked wonders for giving the waves dimension. What a fun piece this was. Next time I'll do it larger, it's only 5x7, I think this general pattern would look spectacular on a large scale.

Click to Enlarge for
easier reading!

One last thing, since we're talking about weather. I came across this on MomTo8Blog and I just HAD to share it. It's just so darn funny I almost chocked on my hazelnut coffee. I can just see the weather person looking out the window at their "rock". Sometimes I'm betting it'd be more accurate than the whole meteorologist's education and computers put together. I especially got a chuckle from the last one, I still have a giggle bubbling up when I think of it!

I'll talk to you all soon, I'v got lots of posts in the queue, just ready for an empty day and Blogging 101 Part 2 is coming soon.

Best,



P.S. I'd love it if all my readers would follow in the Follower Tool ------>
(in my sidebar). I'm happy to follow back, just leave a comment with your blog link and the request! I do love finding great new blogs to read.


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