Watercolors from El Salvador

It's been a week and a half since I returned from an amazing well drilling trip to a small village in El Salvador. I splurged on a nice sketch pad and brought my travel watercolors (same set I brought to India in 1999!). Some of my favorite moments (besides seeing that clean water shoot up from the ground, of course!) included time sketching with kids gathered around me and nights painting at the team house. Here's The Clinic where we did hygiene training with the women and kids (and piñata making as the painting shows…also, notice one of the old wells on the right — too shallow for access to clean water), the new well with plaque text, a little house I saw from the road and bits from around the yard at the team house.

 

Purple girl

I used to want to be a fashion designer. I ALWAYS used to draw girls. I love creating patterns. I loved that bright plum paper I saw at Daniel Smith the other day. I never use purple. Something HM would like. I discovered again my old tube of process magenta gouache. Perfect. Who knew the combo of that sheet of paper, these adorable little notecard dolls and my new pink-patterned coffee cup would be so inspiring — and give me something to frame for HM's room…and to use for my coffee mug?!

Dubsea Coffee gift cards featuring my artwork!

What a great way to start my morning! Going into my favorite coffee shop, Dubsea Coffee, and finding out their new gift cards displaying my artwork have arrived! They were so sweet to give me a loaded card AND a credit on the back! I always thought it would be cool to do a gift card art. The original {see blog post}, framed artwork on this gift card is displayed at Dubsea behind the bar — a gift to the owners after my art show last summer.

My Japanese watercolors

My Japanese watercolors Michael got for me years ago as a Christmas present. When you don't know what else to paint — paint your paints! :)

Flowers from Papa

Papa spent the night Tuesday night. He went on a run in the morning and brought me back this little bouquet. Sweet.

Bright {watercolor + Sharpies + black pen}

Just for fun. Maybe I will use it for a card set.

Sarah’s poinsettia

Guess some of those doodles from the last post helped me out on this one. A late night sketch from Sarah’s last Saturday night — after all the Christmas treats were baked, Mama had gone home and all the kids were finally asleep.

Coffe cup doodles

Doodling during Mom's
group this morning.

West Seattle Xtreme Makeover : Gingerbread Edition

I can’t decide if this should go in design, illustration or sketch — so I'll just post it here!
Fun holiday event with proceeds going to help drill a well in El Salvador.

Birthday morning :: Greenbridge birds :: View from Dubsea Coffee

I was only going to sit down for a few minutes. My birthday treat to myself — do nothing for 15 minutes at Dubsea Coffee. Then I wanted to sketch something. I got a napkin and thin wood stir stick to draw on, then discovered a blank postcard back in my purse. Perfect size. I had no idea what I was going to draw, then I saw those dark repeating shapes up on the wires across the street. Perfect subject. I wanted the emphasis to be the birds. I hope I didn't ruin it with the bits of color in the foreground. I couldn't help getting some fall colors to contrast with the gray rainy sky.