Danielle Donaldson

I've taken some of her online classes previously.... and all were fun.  So, when I saw this one for drawing whimsical little animals (little is the key word here) and how to watercolour them ... well, it had to be done.

What fun!

It is also a bit more than that ... she calls the bottom portion of the projects Story Blocks...  I still don't really get it.  I guess my mind just doesn't work that way.  To me it is collaged bits and bobs and using pretty colours that I think look good with my little guys I've drawn and painted.

So far I've only done a few... we are re-building a wall that divides the exercise room from the tv room...so I don't have many spare minutes to rub together... darn it.  I would much rather be having fun with paints and papers than making eleventy nine trips up and down the stairs every 10 minutes.  I have buns of steel already... and, we are only two weeks into the project.  But, we re-built the front side of the wall already ..and, will be starting the back side framing after a bit of re-wiring ...   It will be close to 2 months by the time we are finished it all I'm sure.  In between it all I try to find a few minutes to draw a few lines and even to drop on a bit of colour.

If you want to check out Danielle's class (or other artists) you could go to Jeanne Oliver's site  http://jeanneoliver.ning.com to see what I'm talking about.

Here is my first little dog . ....

and.... some little bunnies that I did ...

Click on them to make bigger if you like...and, you will have to imagine them matted ... and/or matted and framed for the time being....

The cat came back...

..well, she probably wasn't even gone... she was just hiding somewhere.  And, look how perky she looks.  ..ahahha...she was probably downstairs where the boarder is staying and I didn't want to invade or intrude.   But, I felt guilty that I had missed her dosage of thyroid meds and Googled to check how serious that could be ... decided it was okay to miss one time and left visiting her 'til last night.  I found her straight away and closed the downstairs door and pasted a big note on the door handle.  Do. Not. Leave. Open.  

I'm happy I have now claimed our own space.  The cat's and mine.  I feel totally relieved.

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Here is my first little attempt at Danielle Donaldson's water colour class.  I jumped to the second project as the first didn't appeal to me ...although, I did go through the video of course...as it had a lot to do with how to put down some watercolour paint.  Not that I figured out the part about more water til the fourth video actually...and, so my colours are a bit darker than she did.

I'm pretty happy with the results ... which are not too dissimilar to hers... except for the darker colours and the gnome hat on the little house to the lower left..hahahhha... reminder to self... don't put trees directly behind a house and expect it not to look like a hat!

I now realize than when she says add more  water to the brush and go from colour to colour taking some of the last colour with you...she means put it onto a mixing surface, get the right colour and then go to the paper ...  ...she didn't mean to take it directly from the pan of colour.  Okay, ...got it.  Next one.........

And, I  need some better white ink pens...mine are too transparent....