I guess I just couldn't say goodbye to summer since I produced the painting (on the bottom) of this summer girl and her puppy last week. I love playing with that madras plaid pattern that I water colored in her dress. I had spent some time creating quite a few watercolor "patterns" and it is tricky to use that medium and be successful. I just keep at it though! I created these trees within the last couple weeks too. I know these two images have nothing to do with each other I think I just keep trying to take watercolor, which I believe is wonder when illustrating people, and some how putting into a repeat pattern like these tree trunks. Ha! Well, experimenting is a good thing! Sometimes when I try something like the trees (above) I will watercolor them and then take the same sketch create it using pen and ink and maybe some digital color. Then I hang them up in my studio for a couple days. My family usually wonders in and tosses out a couple of opinions. Boys and men, the ultimate critics! It helps actually. If you have read my blog of any amount of time, I have had a continuing dialogue about whether I should take water color illustrations out of my portfolio. I have often felt that using multiple mediums makes my portfolio appear to have too many different "styles". I can mentally run down the work on my online portfolio and both mediums have gotten me work so I finally relaxed and decided that it just "is what it is". One thing I have realized recently is that if I cannot focus or if I am a anxious about something in my personal life, sitting down and using old fashioned paint and paper calms my mind. When I have an actual paintbrush in my hand I have no choice but to completely concentrate on the task at hand. Especially when I am using a medium like watercolor where mistakes cannot be easily erased!