In Honor Of April the Giraffe

Well, April the giraffe is still pregnant.  I started viewing her over a week ago, and my family has been watching every night just waiting for her to give birth.  I tune in every morning hoping that there is a new baby, but as of yet...nothing.

I'm amazed that each day another news outlet picks up the story.  Last time checked there were 128K viewers watching her, and the camera is now sponsored by toys-r-us.  hmmmm.  Just thinking, maybe that is why she hasn't given birth yet...  She's waiting for a little privacy.

Well, I given that she has given my entire family something else to do together and allowed for a little learning lesson for my children, I thought I should give back a little bit.

So, April, good luck, and know that my family and I will be watching and sending you good thoughts.

Seagull

Ahhh the humble seagull.  I don't know if I love them or hate them.  On one hand they remind me of the ocean and the soothing sounds of the crashing waves.  On the other, they are loud and really pester you if you want to eat something while at the beach.  Hmmm.

Well, I guess it doesn't matter, because I love painting them.  This one is standing on a bit of a piling, or other piece of old wood.

He was a lot of fun to paint, and I would encourage anyone who has an interest to go ahead and give it a shot.  If you need a tutorial on how to do it.... I've got you covered.

Enjoy, and thank you.

Monday Practice

A little Monday watercolor practice.  Fist is this nice little lighthouse.  I see this as just sitting on the edge of a quaint ocean inlet.  In this picture the lighthouse is on a concret jetty of some sort.  On the other side of the bay are lush green trees.

The second painting as you can see is painted on the same sheet of paper, but lower down.  This one looks to be kind of a high desert scene.  There is a tree that has fallen to the left and some scrubby little pine trees behind.  

I tried to work in a few more wet in wet steps with these paintings and I think it paid off though it may not be obvious at first glance.  The sky and the trees on the lighthouse painting were done all at once.  and the sky actually extends down into the trees.  If you look, there is just a tiny bit of green that bled into the blue (but just a bit).  Each time I went back for a different brush full of green paint, I altered the color of green.  I think the end result is fantastic.

In the desert painting the sky and distant trees were done at once.  (perhaps the mountains should have been just a bit bluer) If I could do this one over I think i would make the foreground value much stronger to really pull it forward.  I think it shows pretty good on the paper, but in this picture the foreground and midground are the same strength and I'd like to change that.  

Hope you enjoyed these.  Don't forget to check out my Youtube Channel - Watercolors With Michael and If you didn't know, I now have a gofundme campaign.

Pink Rose

A Pink rose watercolor.  Maybe I could have used a few white highlights? What do you think?

Practice sailboats

 Feeling a little nautical this morning.  With the weather turning warm and my wanting to be outdoors I thought I might as well get in the mood for spring and summer. 

I hope you all like this.  I'll probably be doing more nautical paintings in the days and weeks to come. 

A Little Practice

Thought I would do a quick painting this morning.  This is what I came up with.  A cute little tree frog.

I guess I could do more to finish the painting, and I might go back and do more.  My intent for this was to get a quick painting done before starting work.  Since that is all this little guy is for, I'm totally happy with how he turned out.

I'm hoping to be able to do a few more 'before work' paintings in the future.