Category Archives: Cacti & Succulents

Day 30, That’s A Wrap Folks

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Day 30. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, mixed media on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.
Day 30. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, mixed media on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.

The Creative Gathering was created to carry on where the Leslie Saeta challenge left off. Meant more for painters, our gathering is also open to artists in the visual arts. Watercolor, acrylics, printmaking, photography, journaling, crafts, sketching, charcoal, pastel, to name a few. It is open to professionals, beginners, and everyone in between.

The goals of the gathering:

  • Create daily and post it in the daily folder
  • Develop a daily habit
  • Connect with new friends and old
  • Have fun

Our first gathering has been a huge success. Thanks entirely to the participation of the members. Give yourself a high five! Keep up your new habit, continue to create daily. Or at least regularly. Find the time for your creativity. For you.

If you pick the right small behavior and sequence it right,
then you won’t have to motivate yourself to have it grow.
It will just happen naturally,
like a good seed planted in a good spot.
BJ Fogg

Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand,
as if it were necessary to understand,
when it is simply necessary to love.
Claude Monet

Habit is a cable; we weave a thread each day,
and at last, we cannot break it.
Horace Mann

Day 24, 25 And 26 Of 30

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Day 26. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.
Day 26. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.

I goofed. I forgot to add the purple pears. I had already painted most of the pads before I noticed. There was only a small area of clean paper left. And so, only one pear.

If I were to name this, it would be the loneliest number. Haha. I also just noticed, I did not outline this in pen. Hmm. Should I or shouldn’t I?

Day 25. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.
Day 25. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.

Inspired again by Carla’s wacky florals. Haha. I found the tutorial after I did the painting. The point, for me, is to loosen up. To not be so tight, so literal. I admire Carla’s playfulness.

I used a stencil with Inktense pencil. Painted with thinned acrylic. Then I used the stencil to outline some of the shapes, again with Inktense. The shadow areas this created are more viable in person. I added the vase, collage, and painted it with watercolor.

I scribbled the blooms with Caran d’Ache crayons. Wet some areas. Added pen details to the purple, and used watercolor pencils on the orange blooms. (Thanks Nelvia!) I added the green, (leaves) which turned out to be too light. So I added scribbles to that. I wasn’t really happy with this. But I added splatter, and now I feel it is not a total loss. Haha.

Day 24. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.
Day 24. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.

Trying to be a little wacky and loose. Maybe I shouldn’t have made the Crysanthmums perfectly round. And the green line on the top flower is too light and too close in value to the rest of the bloom. I really like this color combination. I’ll have to use it again 🙂

Day 23 Of The 30-Day Creative Gathering

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Day 23. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.
Day 23. 2019 C.G., 8 x 8, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed paper. © 2019 Sheila Delgado.

I’ll be trying this one again. My first thought was to do the background in the dark blue I used on Day 20. I am tempted to go back in and do that. The reference I used was a huge plant, so my second thought was to just do layers of pads, and play with the colors in each one.

I was reminded by Val van der Poel, that Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils are permanent. That sort of slipped out of my brain. For the first layer of this, I used a stencil and Inktense. I applied the color with a small make-up wedge sponge. (Thanks Natasha!)

First step.

Well, you know watercolor. WET, watercolor. Made a mess even though I dried the sponge. But I like the result. I grabbed a #2 pencil and used the eraser to add more color.

Next time I will try to remember to plan better. To plan period. Haha. Painting this is always fun. Might see one or two more this week.

Scenes from my neck of the woods. There was a fire a couple of days ago. The second in as many weeks. The smoke came in over Mingus late in the afternoon. No one was in danger, and it was a distance from us. I always jump into research mode when I spot smoke.

Fire in the valley. SMD 2019
Fire in the valley. SMD 2019
Glorious rain this afternoon. SMD 2019
Glorious rain this afternoon. SMD 2019

We had a lovely, gloomy afternoon. I watched as the white clouds rolled over Mingus. They moved in very quickly. Soon after we had thunder and a downpour. Yes!