Watercolor Painting – Circadianreflections Blog

Whatever Weds. This and That…

August 14, 2024August 13, 2024Posted in Astro Photography, Bird Photography, Hummingbirds, Photography, Rufous Hummingbirds, Whatever WednesdayTagged Corn Flower Leaves, Crimson Columbine, Delphinium, Lupine, Perseid Meteors, Rufous Hummingbird, Watercolor Painting, Whatever Wednesday, Wildflowers40 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Here’s some of what I’ve been up to lately starting at the beginning of the month with a birding walk up in the mountains above Lake Tahoe. The wildflowers were in bloom. Here are a couple of favorites I saw.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
Delphinium

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
Crimson Columbine

A beautiful view from the trail with Lupine, and Cornflower leaves in the foreground.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
*View from the hike*

There were all sorts of juvenile birds being taught how to forage that morning. I saw Young Cassin’s Finches begging their parents for food, and the parents trying to encourage them to forage on their own, and young White-crown Sparrows foraging with their parents, but the highlight for me was the juvenile Rufous Hummingbird perched on a branch. That was a first for me.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
*Rufous Hummingbird-immature*

On Monday I got up at 2:45AM to go on my back patio to see if I could spot and photograph any Perseid Meteors. I very nearly went back to bed as there were still clouds from the day before in the sky.

I saw 3 great fireballs streaking across the morning sky, but one was completely out of my frame. One just looks like a streak with no fire ball that was disappointing, but it has a green tail, and one was just partially in my frame. The others I photographed are pink and green. Which I think are from the Aurora Borealis that was visible here. I missed the peak of that. I slept through it.

Here are two images of Perseid Meteors I photographed.

Look how close that fireball came to being in my frame! See it left side bottom edge? There’s another meteor below center as well.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
*Fireball just out of my frame plus another meteor*.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
*Perseid Meteor Streaking over No. Nevada…pink and green too.*

And, I’m still painting. I just finished a big painting for me at 9×12 inches of the Le Moulin de L’Abbye in France. I used a photo from a book called Hotels de Reve en France that I picked up years ago from a Little Free Library. I’ve been sketching from this book for years, but have been afraid to actually add paint out of fear of messing it up. I drew it freehand which took me hours, because drawing is so hard for me, but I am improving! Practice really helps. Anyway, I transferred the drawing to drawing paper so if I did mess it up I could half the drawing time by tracing it. This time I was determined to add paint!

Here’s that painting.

watercolor painting

The reference photo from the book Hotels de Reve en France.

I also made the boys some little handmade sketchbooks. I hope they fill those pages up!

The weather is cooler and the smoke from the Calif. fires has cleared so I’ll be out birding later this week and getting my morning walks in outside.

This is getting long so I’ll close with I hope your week is going well.

Nikon D850\ iPhone 14Plus

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Watercolor Painting

March 13, 2024March 13, 2024Posted in Photography, Watercolor, Watercolor Painting, Whatever WednesdayTagged DaVinci, Hobbies, iPhone14Pro, Learning to paint, MGraham, Photography, Trees and Woodlands Ready to Paint, Watercolor Painting, Whatever Wednesday64 Comments

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I’m working my way through a watercolor book called Ready to Paint- Trees and Woodlands. They say you can do these exercises and little paintings in 30 minutes, but it takes me hours.

This is Nº7 called Farmhouse. The lesson was working on a variegated wash of colors, and painting around a negative space. That means painting in the wash of sky, and the background behind the farmhouse and barn first then paint the farmhouse and barn.

*Farmhouse in Watercolor Nº7 Trees and Woodlands-Ready to Paint*

It took me about 1.5 hours to paint this. Pretty quick for me. I painted the sky and background then let it dry overnight before tackling the trees and buildings. I find myself letting things dry, then ruminating about the next step before actually taking the next step. Fear of making a mistake? Oh yes!

Anyway, it didn’t come out too bad just a little wonky. I see things I would change the next time I try something like this. On the whole I think the wash came out okay, and I used the negative space like I was supposed to. The rock wall was supposed to be a hedge but, I added my own spin on it, I wanted a wall instead. On y va!

I’ve been birding a lot so, I’ll have bird images to share soon.

I hope you’re all having a good week.

140lb 100% cotton paper| M.Graham and Da Vinci Watercolors| iPhone 14Pro

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Painting

March 2, 2022Posted in WatercolorTagged arches watercolor paper, Canson Paper, learning to draw and paint', mgraham paints, Sukura micro pens, Watercolor Painting, Whatever Wednesday65 Comments

February I was in the mood to dig out my paints and try some online tutorials. Here are two finished watercolor paintings, a study of trees, and one pen and ink line drawing.

My favorites are the horse painting and the pen and ink drawing. I did that drawing by hand no tracing! It’s wonky but it’s not bad for me. 🤣

I bought a new book on Urban Sketching for beginners by Liron Yanconsky so far so good. It was his book that motivated me to try to draw the Clark Administrative Bldg from an image I made of it. I’m not ready to go out with my pad and pen and try drawing on site yet, but I hope to one day. In the meantime I’ll be working my way through this book this month.

My week-end away birding with friends was so fun and we saw so many Bald Eagles! I’ll be sharing images from that trip soon.

We firmed up plans Monday to have #1 Grandson here for part of his Spring break…not Littlest though. Baby Girl isn’t ready for that yet, but we’ll take what we can get! 😀I’m making plans for trips to the zoo and looking at other things to do with him while he’s here. We’re excited! That’s all that’s new here.

I hope you all are having a good week!

more to come…

With a Thankful Heart I wish you…

November 26, 2020November 25, 2020Posted in Holidays, Holidays and Observances, Nikon DF, Pen & Wash Watercolor, Watercolor PaintingTagged Holidays and Observances, Nikon D700, Strathemore Paper, Thankful, Thanksgiving, Tom Turkey, Turner Watercolor paints, Watercolor Painting34 Comments

A very HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Strathemore Watercolor Card stock 140lb paper| Turner Artist Watercolor| Nikon Df for image

more to come…

Thursday Doors- Watercolor Doors

June 25, 2020June 25, 2020Posted in Pen & Wash Watercolor, Photography, Thursday Doors, WatercolorTagged Canson Paper, DaVinci Watercolor Paint, learning to draw and paint, ScratchmadeJournal curate Palette, Thursday Doors, Watercolor Painting58 Comments

I haven’t photographed any doors lately and those in my archives are marinating nicely so I thought I’d share two doors I’ve painted as homework recently.

I’m doing two online architecture sketching watercolor classes while I’m on a hiatus from the local watercolor class. This first door is from an image I made last year when a friend came to visit and we did Photowalk in downtown Carson City. One of the classes had an assignment to practice drawing something in 1 point perspective and this is what I drew and painted. There’s something special about a red door isn’t there. A note to myself only partially seen says, ” not good!” It’s wonky, and the portico and window aren’t quite right. I need to redo this one!

Red Door Carson City watercolor

This second painting is exercise 3 in Phil Davies Arttutor Sketching Architecture online class. An Old Blue Door.

Blue Door Arttutor homework_IMG_4282

His assignments are getting more and more complex. I’m a bit anxious about this weeks!

This is part of Norm’s Thursday Doors weekly roundup. If you have a door image or painting to share head on over and share yours, or just go visit to see all the lovely doors people share from all over the world.

DaVinci Watercolors in the Scratchmadejournal palette on Canson Watercolor 300g cold press paper, and Sakura Micro .05 ink pen.

more to come…

Whatever Weds. This and That

June 3, 2020June 2, 2020Posted in Photography, This and That, Watercolor, Whatever WednesdayTagged #drawbirds2020, Corora Virus Flyover, Ducks, Fuji Camera, Hororing our First Responders and those who work everyday to support the communities they live in, Nikon, Photography, Shorebirds, This and That, USAF C130, Watercolor Painting, Whatever Wednesday54 Comments

This and That. What does that mean to me? Things that I photograph that I don’t feel really define who I am as a photographer. Things that catch my eye while I am out photographing things that I love and things that are happening in our time outside of my usual genre that I make an effort to go out and photograph. Can we call those images journalistic images? I do. Yes, I have a journalling file folder even for photography. 🤓 And just stuff I’m doing.

Let’s start here with the USAF’s Air Guard who flew over Carson City and many other towns in NV and CA to honor the First Responders and those countless other people who are working every day to support the citizens of their counties and communities during the Pandemic of the Wuhan Corona Covid-19 Virus. Do you see them just coming over the Carson Range? Three tiny little specs with a whole lot of impact and respect for those braving the virus on the ground every day? HERE THEY COME!!! 3 C-130's Fly Coming into Carson Valley

Here’s a closer look at one of the planes… Damn, they were awesome!! Thank you for flying and honoring them all!! 🙏

USAF C130 Flyovrer 2020

A view from a boring “Stretch my Legs Hike”. The 4-mile round trip hike is boring…the view…not so much.

Home is down there. That makes me smile and very happy. The rock formations are pretty cool too. Just sayin.

The View from Clear Creek

Backyard View and Golf Cart traffic…The fruitless Olive trees are beginning to bloom. April 2020

…I’ve been painting on and off throughout the lockdown.

My Grandson Kneeboarding for the first time from a photo Baby Girl sent us while he was doing it.

Jaxon Kneeboarding First Time

I subscribed to the JohnMuirLaws Drawing Birds webinar while my watercolor class was on hold due to the pandemic and I tried sans success to keep up with the homework. However, I did manage to draw and fill in with paint a Duck and Shorebird I drew freehand from my own photographs then added watercolor to them after watching his webinar. I’m rather proud of these paintings. They look like what I intended them to look like! That’s huge! 😀

Lesser Scaup and Avocet watercolor

Okay, that’s 6, six images in this post. Way more than I usually post, and I have loads more of images that fall into the This and That category. I’ll stop, but you can count on more images from this category coming one day in the future. 😀

I hope you’re all doing well, and hanging in there! It will get better!

Nikon Camera and Lenses, Fuji Camera and Lens, Lumix FZ200, and Iphone 7 Plus

more to come…

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