Danielle Calabro

This is my last Watercolor for #worldwatercolormonth. A Madala drawn out and partially painted in watercolors, I got some awesome metallic paints and had a chance to use them on this. I was not able to do a painting everyday but I can say I was able to be apart of it. During this time I have seen a lot of watercolor artist that do the same type of paintings, like landscapes and still life, I did not see too many watercolor illustrators but the ones I did see were great. Techniques were different, there were all levels of artist and it was nice seeing that no matter what level the artist was at there was no negative comments. I even saw people giving advice. I think it is great they will be keeping it going, if you are interested check out  worldwatercolorgroup.com . I will keep up on the watercolor challenges for the month of August and September but my next will be Inktoberfest. Really looking forward to getting my Inktober package from Artsnacks.

This was the second background I was playing with, I wanted to change it up a little. Since the background was so dark I used white gouache to paint a tree. When I started I figured it would pull some of the watercolor into the white paint, which it did. I figured I would just give it another coat or two to get it pure white...... Well about 4 coats later and still have blue paint bleeding into the gouache. I even tried to paint it as dry as I could but it still came through. Not a big deal just a lesson learned, I am pretty sure it would have done this with the white ink also, I still like the way the background came out.

This started off as practice, since I went back to work my creativity has been lacking a lot. It is amazing how stress can wear you out.  I have been going back and forth with ideas and finally settled with playing around with backgrounds. I ended up with this nice night blue background and figured it would make a great background for a moon. So this is my full moon done in white ink and the background in watercolors.

It's been a funny month, since I have went back to work it has been harder to stay creative, especially since the kids are out for the summer. We are also trying to finish getting things unpacked, shelves on walls, patio fan going up. I am ready for a nice lazy weekend where I can paint and spend time with my hubby.  This little piece was done with watercolors, gouache, white ink and gold jelly roll pen.

I had a friend ask me to do a painting for her and I happily said..sure. She said she wanted something with the Om symbol, I had to quickly look it it up, I had no idea what it was. Come to find out it is a symbol of something I did when I took Yoga (long before I had children). It is a beautiful symbol with a lot of meaning. Something worth looking up, here is what I have been able to research:  Watercolor, Gouache and gold paint pen The Meaning: Om is the all encompassing Cosmic vibration of the universe. There are 5 states of Om: The Unconscious State - Deep sleep The Waking State  The Dream state The Absolute State Illusion/Maya I have also noticed there other variations of this symbol.  I am not knowledgable enough on this subject to go into detail but when someone asks me to do a piece of art and I am not sure what it is or what its meaning is, I do the research. 

This was done with watercolors I was practicing with the lettering, which I am very happy with the way they came out and on shading.  This was for Day 6 of #worldwatercolormonth.

Watercolor Painting #2 for my wonderful crazy customer (my mother) and Day #5 of #worldwatercolormonth. I am really liking the way the background came out on this. I think I will be done with painting coffee for a while, I really want to use the month to try new things with my watercolors. I made a promise and I finished the two painting that were requested. Now it is time to spread my wings  paints. I returned to work today with only a few hours of sleep, so I am beat. I had this horrible kink in my neck that woke me up every time I moved, thank goodness its almost gone because I look forward to coming home and not actually needing coffee to keep me awake. Happy #worldwatercolormonth

In Honor of our wonderful Independence day and day 4 of #worldwatercolormonth: Watercolor and black and white ink

As I am preparing to go back to work tomorrow (boo!), I am getting caught up with my posts. This watercolor painting is for day 3 of #worldwatercolormonth: This was done in watercolor and pen

With #worldwatercolormonth underway I have found I have stuck with the same style. Always afraid to try something new, one of my biggest challenges is shading in watercolors. With this being a holiday weekend, a birthday party today, putting a fan up on the patio, fixing the grill and more people showing up to our 4th of July celebration than originally expected (the more the merrier), and lets not forget about Church on Sunday, I have very limited time. So last night I decided to work on some shading. I can honestly say, I am not too disappointed in the way this came out. I like the 2 on the left side the most. Still have work to do, but I have a whole month and some new found friends that may be able to give me pointers. # worldwatercolormonth