Danielle Calabro

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post. We have been very busy, we finally found a house! After being in a contract for over 9 months with a short sale house we decided to step away from it and see if we would qualify for a new house, we did. So between the kids being back at school and getting all the necessary paperwork together for the house I have had very little time to blog. However, that does not mean I haven't made time to create. I have been doing a lot of artwork in my smaller sketchbook lately, It is much easier to carry around on the go, and we have been on the go. The flowers were drawn first then painted in with watercolors and sketched out the rest in pen.

Some how I have been able to keep my creativity flowing, even with everything going on. I am calling this one, "Ladybug Landings." This is page 2 of the new sketchbook and try to my word, I tested out the watercolors. They worked great, didn't lead through at all. I also used water-based paint markers and of course my trusty Copic markers and pens. I did something a little different on this one. I wanted a little more depth so I added extra shading with multiliner pens.  I like the way it turned out, there are a few areas I would like to re-do but for the most part very happy with the way it came out. With a little more practice shading with pens and that won't be a problem anymore, of course we are our own worse critics.  Do you see the ladybugs? 

There is a place in Orlando, FL called Leu Gardens , it has been well over 10 years since I have been there but I remember it like it was last year. It is magnificent, I remember walking around there for hours. When I was younger I would go there to photograph the flowers. Sadly I have lost touch with it, talking about it makes me want to go again, take my kids to one of the movie nights they have there. Go during the day and photograph some of the flowers all while listening to my children tell me how hot and bored they are, it's great to torture your kids with a little fresh air. Honestly I'm not sure how they will act bit hopefully they would enjoy it. I sat down last weekend and started this sketch and I finished it up last night, it reminded me of the times I use to go to the garden. I sketched this out in pencil then went over the sketch with my Micron pens and color was added with Copic markers. I am sure you have heard me say this before and I am going to say ...

After spending a while on Tangles I have decided to focus on how to handle watercolors more besides just using them for the backgrounds. I have always been a little afraid of watercolors because the can be so unpredictable, however I am finding that to be the best thing about them.  I am not a patient person so practicing is pretty much out of the question, with me, it's do or die when it comes to art. So instead of taking a scrap of watercolor paper I dove right into my new watercolor journal and sketched out my little bugs world and went right to painting it today after my hubby went to work. Of course I had to take a few breaks but it is finished.  Still trying to get the blending down but I am happy with the way it turned out. It was painted in watercolors and outlined with Microns, the little bit of white you see was done with my Uni-ball broad white pen. Of course I still don't have the right lighting so the picture doesn't do it justice. 

I originally started this garden with the intentions to do tangles on it and as you can see I changed my mind. I started with a watercolor background and used salt to add some little effects. Once the background was dry I drew out my little garden. I then painted it in with gouache, outlined and added some details to the plants and rocks. After staring at it for about 30 minutes I figured out what I was missing....some depth. To be honest I have been staying up so late lately that the last thing I wanted to do is get the paint out and then have to clean up a mess but I wanted to finish. I grabbed my copic markers and figured what the hell, lets see if they will work on top go the gouache and they did. All of the shading was done with Copic markers.