Weekly Sketches

Sunday Sketches

This week has been super busy. I am getting ready for 3 fall shows coming up, so I am working daily to create plenty of inventory to sell. I will post more about those later.

Today I will quickly share a watercolor and pen doodle sketch that I worked on this week. I'm not quite finished with it, but I am liking the colors and the shapes. I think it needs a few more little tweaks, then on to the next one. If you have seen my latest doodle sketches, you can probably see the theme developing here. The whimsical flower designs are pretty fun to create and I feel like the design elements will be seen in future works. Possibly some mixed media paintings.

Check out Sunday Sketches on Blue Chair Diary Illustration Blog.

Stay tuned!

 Have a great Sunday and the rest of this week!

Beth ♥  

Greyhound Bus Station and Changes for 2013

Private Commission
Mixed Media
Watercolor, Pen & Ink, and Colored Pencil
Beth S. Macre©2012

Now that I am working on my art full time, I need to make some changes.  I am retired from teaching, but not from Art. If I want to continue to be retired from teaching, I need to take my art more seriously and do a better job at marketing.  So that will be my goal for 2013.  Taking my art more seriously .  That will involve more marketing and trying to figure out what direction I want to go with my art.  I have always loved to draw with colored pencils, paint with acrylics, play with watercolor, draw with pen and ink, and create little houses out of clay. I want to sell art from my heart and create custom art for my customers.  I am always open to ideas from customers when they want a commission, but I hope to create a more clear idea of what it is I do.  Too many directions is difficult to market.  I love whimsy and I love the more illustrative side of art. Not realism, but capturing a mood or feeling. Somehow I need to figure out how to combine the two.  I want to enjoy the process, but still appeal to my customers and find new customers.
In the photo in this post, is the last piece of 2012 that I created for a customer.  The landscaping was done by a local landscaper, Drew Bevill Lawn Care. This drawing was a custom order for a gift for him. The greyhound bus station behind it has been recently remodeled back to its original Art Deco style architecture and is being used as our Main Street Offices.  Drew Bevill Lawn Care landscaped the attached park next to the station. This piece was fun to do because it has 3 of my favorite media included in it.   They were all happy with the results, which makes me happy.

For more information about my custom art and the other artwork that I create, please visit my website here: 
Beth S. Macre Studio.
Beth ♥

Watercolor and Ink and Inspiration

If you keep up this blog, you know that I like to use a variety of art materials.  I like that it never gets tiring or boring to me.  Maybe it means that I'm ADD?  Anyway, it can be a blessing or a curse.  Most of the time it is a blessing.  This year I started playing around with some pan watercolors to go along with my pen drawings.  I can also add dry colored pencils on top of that if I want!  So its all good.  Before I go into the studio to glaze more of my little clay houses, I thought I would share this little watercolor/pen sketch of my daughter and her dogs, that I created when I went to visit and dogsit for my daughter earlier this year.   Below is a photo of the 2 'granddogs' that were the inspiration for the card. It's hard to get them to pose together, so I took advantage of this shot.  While I was dogsitting for my daughter, I wanted to paint something and this is what I came up with.  Its was just a fun little quick whimsical painting.  I want to do more watercolor when I have time.

Beth ♥

Sick Computer...

Whimsical Love Birds ~ Watercolor and Pen
Work in Progress
Beth S. Macre 2012

My laptop suddenly died on me a couple of weeks ago, so I've been working on my son's computer. My beloved laptop went to the shop to get repaired, but things keep adding up, so I think that I may have to bite the bullet (save some $) and buy a new one. The photo editing program that I usually use is not on this computer, so I have not done updated posts. I like to edit my photos before putting them on the web. But unfortunately, I don't think my old computer will be making it out of sickbay. I did have all my important photos saved on an external hard drive, so that is safe!  My son mainly uses his IPhone for computer use, so luckily I have had his laptop to use.  I've pretty much taken over it. Thankfully he has not minded. But I have been working on some artwork. Here I will show a couple of watercolor paintings that I've been working on.  Hopefully the next post will be from my own computer with my own photo editing programs that I am used to.

Whimsical Owl ~ Watercolor and Pen
Beth S. Macre 2012

Beth♥ 

Adding Watercolor to Pen and Ink...fun!

Hearts and Flowers

Mixed Media
Watercolor + Ink

After spending time looking at a lot of inspiration on Pinterest, I got the urge to work with watercolor and pen and ink. I recently ordered some new Grumbacher pan watercolor paints. So I played around with a pen sketch using my Sakura Ink Drawing Pens and added some watercolor. (I love to do creative doodles!) I just purchased some Strathmore mixed media paper, so I wanted to try it out. I was given some samples last year and I really liked it. What I really liked is how it took both the pen and ink and the watercolor.  So I will be ordering more of that paper. I like that it comes in a wide range of sizes from small tablets up to large tablets. I also want to purchase more pan watercolors. The Strathmore paper held up much better than the second image shown here.
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Mixed Media Paper

The second image was done with the same pen and ink and watercolor but on a different paper.  It was done on bristol paper, which is good for pen and ink, but it did not hold up as well to the watercolor. The paper ended up wrinkling up while it was wet, which cause the paint to run in places. But I already had the pen and ink sketch on the paper and thought I would give it a try. But this just reminded me that the paper choice is very important when using a water media.  

HeartHomes by the Sea

I really had fun playing with it and will definitely buy some good watercolors and more mixed media paper.

Beth♥