Jacqueline’s Blog – Page 20 – Jacqueline Newbold

Here is a Fun Warm-up Exercise

March 6, 2014 Artist

Here is the post that I did for this month’s Sketchbook challenge.
Warm and cool colors are something that I think about all the time in my painting and enjoy playing warm colors against cool colors to create vibrate and dynamic watercolors. Here is a fun exercise that you could do with warm colors or cool colors – your choice! I did mine with warm colors. You will need your watercolor paints, watercolor brushes and a Gold Leaf Pen for this exercise.
Start by drawing big shapes in your journal with the gold leaf pen. I drew my initials JN. Make sure you go off the page here and there.

Then add smaller shapes within your large initials.

Pick a color scheme warm or cool. I chose a warm palette so I painted all my shapes with yellows, oranges, reds and combinations of these colors. The gold leaf pen lines will act as a resist to the paint.

This is my final page in my watercolor journal

Check out my Daniel Smith Watercolor Kit for great deal on watercolor paints. If you are just getting started, this is the kit for you!

A Time to Relax

March 5, 2014 Artist

The thing about the warm southern sun, tropical breeze and bright sand, is that it just makes you slow down, relax and enjoy. Coming from snow and cold winds, makes it next to impossible to paint out-of-doors in the winter so I love being in this Mexican warmth and painting what is in front of me. On our whale watching and kayaking trip I enjoyed painting the following scenes in my watercolor journal…..

Art Journaling: Whales, Birds and a Little Tequila

February 28, 2014 Artist

Ok, well maybe a lot of tequila! We are off on a camping/wildlife adventure with wonderful guides provided by Mar y Adventuras. We camped on beautiful white sandy beaches on two different island in Baja California, Mexico.

Our guides took very good care of us, offering lots of tequila, fresh fruit, and fresh caught fish. Happy hour awaited us every day when we returned from a day of bird watching, whale watching, hiking and kayaking.

I added at least 15 new birds to my life list. I started this list as a young teenager in Alabama so you can imagine how exciting this is for me. I finally see blue-footed boobies!

Zoom in to see the blue feet!

I see two birds that are endemic to Baja California, the Belding’s Yellowthroat and the Gray Thrasher.

The drive to Magdalena Bay, for gray whale watching, is a four-hour van ride through a land of cactus, lizards and turkey vultures, bare and hot. We stopped at a tiny cafe for fresh empanadas and quesadillas, which were served from a rancher’s kitchen.

There is no menu and we satiate our appetites by ordering from the kitchen window. The rancher’s wife quickly warms up our food on a wood burning stove. Delicious! We all order seconds. I wander outside to find meat hanging to dry like freshly washed laundry. Surprising, there is a flock of brightly colored yellow birds.

I take photos and identify them as Lesser Goldfinches. Off in the distance at the tip of a cactus I take a picture of another, not so colorful bird and find out that this is a Gray Thrasher found only in this region. All this is wonderful inspiration for painting in my Arches watercolor journal that I brought on this adventure. I had to pack my traveling light kit, as I knew there would be limited space. Here are some photos of how I prepared my small Winsor Newton palettes. I filled one with my warm colors and another with my cool colors.

Lots of Wildlife!

February 18, 2014 Artist

Did you know that I am an avid bird watcher? Part of going to a new location is the joy of spotting a new species to add to my life list. I thought it would also be fun to incorporate all the birds I have been seeing in Baja, Mexico into my watercolor journal. Here is a watercolor painting of a Brown Pelican…. they were everywhere!

This is a photo I took of a Black Crowned Night Heron who was doing some fishing right in front of our restaurant on the water in La Paz, Mexico…. (a painting waiting to happen!)

A Page in my journal showing a map of Baja with a painting behind it

Here is a photo of one of the Whale Sharks we swam with. Thanks Michi for sharing this awesome underwater photo. Look at those fabulous polka dots!!!

Art Journaling- Mexico

February 18, 2014 Artist

I have never been to Baja, Mexico. It was a long trip starting out in Oregon, Snowing and zero degrees at the airport. Here it is Sunny and beautiful. First thing this morning our friends tell us we are going to go swimming with whale sharks this afternoon ‘ This was unexpected,, but hey! why not! And let me tell you, what a thrill to be with these gigantic gentle beast. At first made me panic a little to be in the water with them.
Did you know they have polka dots?
I have been drawing and painting in my journal but the internet is too slow to load photos…. I will try again with my next post.

Using my Mom’s French Book in my Journal

January 23, 2014 Artist

One of my favorite things to do in my journals is to use book pages in foreign languages as a background for my watercolor paintings. If you would like to see more about how I did the page below, see my post on the Sketchbook Challenge Blog.

Free EBook for YOU!

January 22, 2014 Artist

I got a very nice email from Tiffany who manages the Cloth Paper Scissors community. She sent me this the link for a free eBook that features my art from my Travel Journals: Using Maps as a Starting Point article.

There are also several great articles in this eBook about art journaling prompts, journaling tips and a review of writing tools.

Just click on the link and you can download the PDF file for your use!

Using Black as Color

January 18, 2014 Artist

The second article that I wrote for the 2014 summer issue of Pages is about starting out with black on your journal page. We will be preparing some of our journal pages using this technique in my upcoming watercolor workshop, the Colors of Umbria, Keeping a Watercolor Journal, in Orvieto, Italy. There are just a few spots left if you want to join us!

New Article for Cloth, Paper, Scissors – Pages Magazine

January 14, 2014 Artist

I’m excited to tell you that I am just about finished with an article I wrote for the Summer 2014 Issue of Pages. I am putting the finishing touches on some journal paintings that I had started. This is so fun for me because it is like visiting old friends. I am getting them ready to send off to Interweave Studios in Boston to be photo graphed so I want them to look their best! This particular article that I have been working on is about my favorite water-soluble pen. I will tell you about the other articles I have been working on in a following post.

Playing with Water-Soluble Pens

January 11, 2014 Artist

Those of you that have watched my DVD, know that I love to play with water-soluble pens. I don’t think that I can pass up a good looking pen. I have so many that I really can’t keep track of them. I have been playing around with water-soluble pens for an article that will be in the 2014 summer issue of the PAGES magazine. To organize my pens, I made examples of each one in my watercolor journal. Do you have a pen you love? What is your favorite pen to use in your journals? How do you organize your pens?