Hoedown Sisters

Title: Hoedown Sisters
5" x 7.35" digital painting
©2009 Christine Pierce
(please click on image to enlarge)

This month's Virtual Sketch Date features a photograph of two young sisters dancing at a hoedown. The reference photo is really small, but I think I captured the essence of the image. And I had great fun smooshing around the colors for the background!

Virtual Sketch Date: Rhododendron Bud

Title: Rhododendron Bud (hot press)
4x4 watercolor, micron pen, Fabriano 90-lb hp
(please click on image to enlarge)

Title: Rhododendron Bud (cold press)
4x4 watercolor, micron pen, Arches 90-lb cp
(please click on image to enlarge)

This month's virtual sketch date reference photo features a vivid, magenta-hued rhododendron bud. I liked it so much, I decided to paint it twice. I am always trying to decide if I prefer hot press or cold press watercolor paper. Hot press is appealing because my micron pen flows smoothly across its surface, whereas cold press paper causes my pen to skip and scratch a bit.

But cold press paper is desirable because it gives such a nice texture to the painting. I'll let you decide: The top version is hot press, and the lower version is cold press. Your thoughts? Thank you!

And be sure to visit the Virtual Sketch Date blog and Flickr group to see all of this month's entries.

March 2009 Virtual Sketch Date: Two Birds and a Feeder

March 2009 Virtual Sketch Date
Watercolor, Micron 02 pigment pen

This month's Virtual Sketch Date was fun — I saw two birds with great attitude!

Please click here if you'd like to see the reference photo.

And here are the drawings and paintings from artists around the world on the VSD flickr site. It is always a treat to see the different interpretations people create from one photograph.

This is such an enjoyable monthly challenge. I encourage anybody who is interested to just jump right in and give it a go! Many thanks to VSD admins Rose, Jeanette and Stacy for making this challenge possible.