Watercolour Doodles

Hello all, and thank you for stopping by.  I'm so glad you enjoyed wandering amongst the meadow flowers and in the birch forest with me (the forest is one of my favourites too, I think).  I'm here with some more flowers and trees today, but these are all my own work.  And for once there are no words!

As most of you know, I've been playing with watercolour paints here in Columbus, and these are some of my experiments with no stamps or stencils involved.






I'm still working in the tiny Moleskine journal, 3x5 inches, so these are small doodles.  The Moleskine pages are not watercolour paper, so there's not quite as much play from the paints as you get if you've got the right substrate.

And while I do like playing with the Koh-i-noor travel set, I do find the colours a little too vibrant generally... not quite to my tastes.












I've some watercolour paints at home which are in colour tones slightly more suited to my vintage preferences, but for now I'm happy to live with the vivid shades.

I've no idea what species either the trees or the flowers are - they're taken from my imagination, not from life!













I did a little bit of pen work for the detail of the stamens, a little definition in the grassy stems, and for the border around the edges.













I think maybe I liked the flower page better before I doodled the frame...















... and I also think maybe I prefer the flowers before I added the details.  I don't know, what do you think?













Trees have always been one of my doodles in idle moments - as I said in the birch tree post, I find them to be a source of mental nourishment.

Just looking at a tree can bring a sense of peace and proportion.  They have an ancient wisdom and a serenity.













The detail work here is all done with paint and waterbrush - no penwork this time.  As I mentioned with the birches, the Pentel waterbrushes have a very fine point, so you can get some pretty good detail with the thinnest of the set of three.













And I enjoyed creating the ground for these two trees to stand on - with a rocky area and even a pond amongst the grasses.













I really ought to try to capture some of the autumn foliage in the pages of my journal before I leave here - it's starting to look very impressive on campus.








It's strange how different it feels sharing something where I've made all the marks - a little bit scary.  But Craftyblogland feels like a safe place to make these creative experiments - so I'm always happy to hear what you think, and thank you for your visit.

Water supports all our endeavours, from the simple task of making paint flow, to sustaining life. It is the common denominator that all humanity shares.
Sharon Crosbie