Perennial Favorites (Chomp, Chomp)

Illustration Friday
Theme: perennial

copyright 2011 Susan Faye

Apparently Bob the Cat (the stripey one, pictured above) has a thing for perennials.

Cat Lady Karen explains: "My kitties Zoe and Bob are both rescue cats. Certainly if this were a real picture, those flowers would be little green stumps because Bob would have eaten them all before the flash went off."

Hey, a guy's gotta make sure he gets plenty of fiber somehow, doesn't he?

Does your furry loved one have a thing for greenery? Please share in the comments section at the end of the post.

The custom portrait of Zoe and Bob was drawn with pen and ink, then hand-painted on super-heavy Arches 300-lb. acid-free cold-press watercolor paper with professional quality watercolor and gouache paints.

Thanks for visiting!

My All-Time Favorite Top Secret Watercolor Technique

Impress your friends and family and give your watercolors the WOW factor with my All-Time Favorite Watercolor Technique. To create intricately mottled textures in your backgrounds, foliage, and landscapes as pictured below, you need go no further than your kitchen for the top secret ingredient.

It's SALT!
Here's how I created the foliage texture in my latest painting. Give it a try... it's fun!

First I dampen my watercolor paper (Arches 140 lb. Cold Press). Then I start plopping down washes of watery, but color-dense watercolor paint. You will need lots of rich color--remember, watercolor paint fades a bit as it dries...I start out with yellow and a bit of rose.

Next I plop in some thalo blue and let it mix and run and bleed into the yellow to make varying shades of green. Letting colors mix right on the paper will make the greens much more interesting than if you mix one flat color on your palette. It's important to work fairly fast so that the area you are working on stays damp.

Once I have lots and lots of deep colors on the paper and I've let them all run together in interesting ways, I take common table salt and sprinkle it here and there. You can experiment with sea salt and other types of salt--larger grains will produce different effects. Also experiment with the amount-- sometimes less is more.

Now it's time to sit back and relax. Don't touch anything; just let the salt work its wonders. Here's a close-up.

Here it is after 5 minutes. You can see the salt chemically reacting with the paint and creating white "stars" and concentrated speckles of paint:

Here it is after 10 minutes. Fun, eh?

Now wait until it is completely dry and brush off any remaining salt crystals before resuming painting. (You do not want to get salt on your paint brushes or transfer the salt back to your palette-- it will make all of your paint come out blotchy!)

I used this technique to create the background in my latest watercolor illustration. The painting is almost complete and I'll share it when it's done. In the mean time, here is a peek at one corner that I've finished...

Now go forth and have some watercolor fun!

Work In Progress Sneak Peek...It's A Real Hoot

Just a little snippet from a new painting that I am working on... Here's the pen and ink outline drawing.
I painted in the background first with watercolor paint. In my next post, I'll tell you my little secret for painting that mottled, textured foliage-like background. (hint: you don't have to look any farther than your kitchen)

I decided to add some leaves...

And filled in the rest.

What do you think of my little wise guy?

Lavenderlicious Winners Announced

Congratulations to our two winners, whose names were drawn at random! Each prize consists of a ceramic cat lover's mug from my Cafepress shop and a matching lavender-filled sachet from my Etsy shop.

Marija's favorite color is " the blue of a crystal clear lake on a calm day- crisp, bold, and shimmery" and she enjoys nature photography. Marija lives in The Land of 10,000 Lakes (Minnesota)-- hope you are finding ways to stay cool this week, Marija, near one of those crystal clear lakes!

Marija won this gift set:

Hannah #2 (we had 2 different Hannahs that entered) said: " My favorite color is definitely blue!" She is a college student and also enjoys photography. She has one brother, 4 cats, 2 dogs, and a Guinea Pig named Cookie. Check out her website.

Hannah #2 won this gift set:

Thank you to everyone who entered! I loved reading all of the creative and beautiful descriptions of colors. Check them out in the comments section of the original post: Lavenderlicious Giveaway

Check Out My Brand New Tutorial Over At Someday Crafts

I'm very excited today to be a guest blogger at Someday Crafts! Click here for my tutorial about how I make my Desktop Dioramas. Crafty Mom Michelle is the head blogger at Someday Crafts and created this very popular blog as a way to highlight and catalog creative and crafty ideas for herself and for others to create... someday (we all have those someday lists, don't we?).

A big thank you to Michelle for this opportunity to share one of my favorite projects with my fellow artsy-crafty types. Enjoy!

A Kind Gesture... Illustration Friday

Illustration Friday

(theme:"gesture")

As a gesture of goodwill, Tiger Tim has offered to make dinner tonight. Cat Lady Monica appreciates the kind gesture, but has respectfully declined the offer.

What would YOUR pet make for dinner tonight if he/she could?

A Rainbow of Favorite Colors... What's Yours?

Violet, plum, moss, sapphire, eggplant, mimosa, watermelon, orchid...I'm loving the beautiful and creative descriptions of favorite colors that readers have shared in the Lavenderlicious Giveaway! Here are just a few:

K said: "The only way I can describe my favorite color is 'that green you only get in the early spring'. It's a high cool green, almost bordering on a yellow and full of light. In the first months after leafing, the picture window in my living room is filled with it. Coming as it does at the end of the long, cold northern Michigan winter, I think of it as 'hope green'."

Cyndi said...Buttery yellow. I just painted our new kitchen that color. My husband even compared the walls to an actual stick of butter. Yes, buttery yellow! It makes me happy. :)

skkorman said...My favorite color is emerald green, the exact color of my beautiful red tabby Joey's eyes!

Marija said...My favorite color is the blue of a crystal clear lake on a calm day- crisp, bold, and shimmery.

Alyssa said: My favorite color... hm...I love the kind of teal/navy blue of the sky right at Dusk. It's so incredibly gorgeous! But then I also love the salmon-y, purple-ish of the sky when the sun is setting. The sky is my favorite place to look for color inspiration.

Visit this post to read the rest of the entries in the Comments section, then add your own for a chance to win one of two prize packages: Lavenderlicious Giveaway. Giveaway ends the evening of July 17.

Thanks for participating!