Day 2 World Watercolor Month.
This is an American draft horse breed that is also a color breed. This is a mix of watercolor and gouache.

There is a challenge going on called World Watercolor Month. There is a list of prompts and all that but you aren’t required to use the list. I haven’t done this challenge in previous years but since I am in the middle of working on a project that is a mix of watercolor and gouache, I figured I would post these for the Watercolor month.
I like to do self inflicted challenges. They are good for keeping me in the creative mode. The latest is going back to my roots and creating some horses. I used to draw and paint horses all of the time when I was young. I had a little handbag I would carry with me that had my “herd” in it. I can’t believe I shlepped my tiny Breyer stablemates and other horses around with me and they are still Live Show Quality to this day. The reason why I stopped drawing horses and segued into plein air and other art is because I didn’t want to be pigeon holed doing one thing. I never regretted that decision and the many, many years of painting plein air and sketching on location has made me a much more diverse and versatile artist.
I am not sure I’ll be posting horses every day. These take a while, but I will be posting something with watercolor, even if I am out “guerrilla” sketching.
Today’s horse is a Morgan. The first one I did in my sketchbook. I picked the Morgan Horse since it is the first breed of horse that was created in the United States. The Morgan Horse breed came from one stallion, “Figure,” or “Justin Morgan’s horse. From that one stallion, we have horses like the Standardbred, American Saddlebred and other American breeds. You can read a story about this horse in a book by Marguerite Henry called “Justin Morgan had a Horse.” It’s a children’s book with wonderful illustrations by Wesley Dennis. I still have my original book.
Hubby and I were out walking and came upon a tree that looked like it had washed out avocados hanging from it. Turns out, it was a mahogany tree. We were awed at the beauty of the tree and the rarity of its wood.
An older woman gave us cuttings from the tree and told us to root them. She told us how old her tree was. I secretly thanked the tree for the cuttings.
I found one of the pods on the ground and it popped open this afternoon, seeds spilling out.
I’ll try planting the seeds, as well.
Absence
You were the last thing
we wanted
You came to us
on a warm summer evening
Tiny and sick
dark as the night
We took you in
and you grew on us
You thought you were
a chihuahua
You ingratiated yourself
into our hearts
Soft and silky
svelte and lanky
A queen in your own right
Gardening with your company
Birds and mice brought
into the house
There were those times
we pulled our hair out
You ate almost
a whole cake
But we loved you
You went to Florida
with Erin
a companion and
a friend
We enjoyed your company
during lockdown
Then one tragic day
you fell ill
No vet could save you
You were only five
We didn’t want you
to go
But we had to let you
We feel your loss
every day.
The fourth prompt is “witch” and it happens to be one of my favorites. Usually for Inktober, I work on my “Little Witch” series, which started back in 2018 as a desperate need to find ideas for postcards to mail to my mom.
(Mom was placed in Assisted Living back in 2018 for memory care. I mailed her postcards to give her something to look forward to and help her settle in.)
This year I did the “TheyDrawtober’s Cook” list and that’s what I sent my mom this year. I thought the food art would give her some memory triggers. I haven’t seen her since December 2019, thanks to CoVID 19 but occasionally my sister is able to FaceTime with us.
I have to admit it’s been hard to keep up the daily practice. She likes cats and always dressed as a witch for Halloween, so that’s where the idea for the “Little Witch” series came from. I do enjoy doing the “Little Witch” series and Inktober made it fun to use the prompts for the character.
Here is the Little Witch as a pre-schooler….as I mentioned yesterday, I might switch to watercolor; I actually used watercolor and the Arteza brush pens together.
I still have a bunch of prepped blobs waiting to be turned into something.
This blob screamed flower. I kept trying to find a creature but this flower kept saying “me me, draw me!” So I did.
Day 10 – indigo
Here is my exploration into indigo. In my humble opinion, the best shade of indigo is from Daniel Smith.
Days 4-6 prompts:
Day 4 – Yellow – I was totally spontaneous and I used two Tombow Markers and a waterbrush to create this one. Simple designs like this can grow into something else…
Day 5 – Wood – They Draw had sent out an email about typography so wood became wooden letters.
Day 6 – Sea
I kinda went berserk on the prompt for Sea. I am also doing Carla Sonheim’s Year Long class and the lesson came up for working with crayons and melting them. I made a bunch with crayon and used other media over top over the crayons. I created many Inchies for the prompt “sea.”
Alvin, Trumpet and Puffygrinch try out for the circus.
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