Sketching pencil

Followed your tip Lin and went shopping... bought some Fabriano Artistico CP 140# and 300# :).
Also spent some money on sketching pencils and a flat brush for washes.:)
How frustrating not being able to find any W&N Artists watercolors in my country nor in the nearest Italian city... Well, lots of material where to practice on is waiting on the desk anyway.

Leaves

Tried to paint a leaf on smooth watercolor paper (the green one) and it turned out a complete mess.
Did the red one on rough paper and realised how much easier it is for me to paint on such a surface.

Palms plantation

Trying to figure out how to paint a palm. The only ones I like are the three of them in the right up corner. Could be mistaken for palms in the distance. I see the more simple I make it, the better. Would like to join the WC February Invitation to paint, but I guess by the end of the month I'll be still doing a palm-painting marathon. ;)

Fancy a new coat?

Two 'five minutes sketches' made on a weekend evening. Both drawn on normal 'year calender' paper. The graphite one is made after a photo from a clothing catalog. Not casually I guess - thinking about buying a new coat in these days ;)

January paintings

Here are some paintings I did earlier this month.

The 'Oranges' are my first try on Arches paper (300lb, CP) and my first post on the WC forum. :) I like the oranges, but I think I've overworked the leaves.


'Coffee time' was painted from a reference photo of the cup and I added the rest myself. Never tried to paint from a changed reference before. As some valuable critiques on the WC forum let me knew, perspective and values are not ok. One of my goals this year is to study perspective, which is still Greek to me. And I'd like to re-do this one later on.


Painting a snow scene was a WC January painting challenge and this is my try.


C&C very welcome.

Sunday evening thoughts

A nice welcome to everyone who is reading this.

I was playing with the wish to create a blog for a month or so now. Since I remember I've always spent lots of my spare time making stuff with different creative techniques.
I'm a newbie in painting, with watercolor being my greatest fascination among the painting techniques. For quite a while I was lurching at the great painting forum WetCanvas!. ;) But one of my resolutions for 2008 is to dedicate myself to painting more actively. And I must also say that reading some blogs about every day painting has been very inspiring as well. So I consider this blog as a way to encourage myself to sketch and paint on a more regular basis.
You can expect very amateur work on this site, and I'd be very glad for every critique and comment that I'm sure would let me improve on my painting journey.