Virtual Nature Walk (swim?)- Sea Mammals

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Happy June! (what? No one’s ever wished you a happy month before? Well, now someone has!)

I absolutely love the summertime and June is the greatest month because it’s not too hot yet, but it’s warm enough to hit up the pool and get your tan on sunburned.. haha..

Many of my friends and family know this about me, but I LOVE the water! When I was a kid I was on a club swim team for a few years and then I was on the local high school swim team in my teenage years, and I loved every minute of it! (ok, maybe not the burning sensation when water got sucked up my nose or trying to hold my breath for an underwater 50, or the constant stench of chlorine oozing out of my pores for years…… I think you get the picture.)

I grew up in Washington state and if it was warmer than 75 degrees we were out playing in the water (crazy, I know.) Living in a warmer climate now you’d think I would have almost all year to be out in the pool, right? Wrong. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, or some such nonsense, but I don’t even consider going to the pool until it’s 90 outside..! (whaaaaaa?) … I know. (My Washington friends are probably laughing at me now)– go ahead.

no, really- I’ll wait.

. . .

Finished?

. . .

The point is, I’ve often thought that if I were an animal I would absolutely have to be some kind of aquatic one. (an Otter to be precise. I’ve always loved cats, but cats don’t like water so I decided Otters are like the cats of the water, haha. Ok, sorry I’ll stop being weird.)

Without further ado, I give you the sea mammals:

dolphins
Bottle-nose Dolphins- rendered in watercolor pencil and ink.

 

Sea Lions
Sea Lions- rendered in watercolor pencil and ink.

My favorite animal in the entire world are these guys: (Maybe I’ll do some full color images in the future!)

OttersSketch1
Otter- pencil sketches

I actually saw a river otter last year trotting down the bike trail behind our home. .  . It was a magical experience for me! I always hope I’ll see another one. . .

OttersSketch2
Otter- pencil sketch

And even though these aren’t mammals, I had some special requests for them, enjoy!

SeahorseSketch1
Seahorses- pencil sketch
SeahorseSketch2
Seahorse- pencil sketch close-up

⇒Art Tip for Today⇐

There is a really great book that I found at the library Called Painting Nature in Pen & Ink and Watercolor by Claudia Nice. (Find it here) It has been such a fantastic resource! (In fact I was just looking on Amazon and she has a LOT of other books about using Pen & Ink and watercolor together!! I’m so happy now!- wait right here while I go add a bunch to my wish list. . . )

Ok, I’m back.

Where were we . . ? Ah, art tip. right. I tried a new technique that I learned from this particular book and that was using salt on wet paint to give it a fun texture. (if you look closely you can see that I used it in the water on the Sea Lions page.) I never would have thought to use salt on my artwork, but I am really glad I did!

I guess I would just encourage any artists (or whomever) out there to never stop exploring and trying new things. Let your imagination go crazy and don’t worry about it “looking perfect” I absolutely need to remember this advice because I stress out trying to make my pieces look perfect if I know someone else is going to see it…Sigh.  It’s ok to make mistakes because, hey- if you do something to your current piece that “ruins” it, you can always grab another sheet and try again!

 

Thank you so much for following me!

~Sandra

P.s. Let me know what you think about the new look of my website! 😉 Thanks!!

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6 Replies to “Virtual Nature Walk (swim?)- Sea Mammals”

  1. Awwwww!!! LOVE the sea animals!!!! And I really like the new layout, too! Looks AWESOME 😀

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