Watercolor Letters

Watercolor on Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper

I rarely work in watercolor but I decided to play around a little bit with some old letter drawings. They measure a whopping 2.5 inches.

Drop Caps Autumn

These are some drop caps I just finished for a job. They will be printed in black and white but I wanted to create them in color for my own amusement. The story starts out pleasant, moves into sadness and then ends on a happy flourishing note. I made sure to correspond the letters with the part of the story. I being the beginning, A the end and J & T in the middle.

Drop Caps - Final

This is a follow up to a previous post on drop caps. They will be printed in black and white at probably about 1 inch in height. Keeping the final print size in mind I tried to keep the value somewhat simple. I kept getting carried away with the detail so I had to make sure those little areas were keyed in properly. Below I have a close up of the "A". I particularly enjoyed painting the Queen Ann's Lace as well as the drippy background. Karen Appleton sites a quote from Alfred Sisley that I found appropriate for this little painting..."Every painting shows a spot with which the artist has fallen in love".

Drop Caps

These are some sketches I'm doing for GreenPrints gardening magazine. They are accompanying a touching story involving a mother, daughter with leukemia and their garden. Along with these will be a key and spot. I plan to take them into Painter and work with black and white value. Right now I'm working on a bunch of sketches but I'll post the final when I finish. The deadline is coming up fast so I'll be working it!!

It's a little modern twist on Illumination which is one of my favorite genres of art history. I don't get a lot of chances to work with this style so I like to take advantage of it while I can. Off to paint!