This week has been a bit different for me as I was getting ready to travel and then I got on a plane and landed in a different country far away from most of my art supplies!

So, as much fun as I was having with messy acrylic paints and texture mediums, it was time to make some choices on art supplies for the trip – something that would pack smaller and lighter. So, I brought Gouache, watercolors (limited), markers, colored pencils, and ink pens with me.

This week I worked on several different pieces. I haven’t found my groove yet, but I am still letting my art follow the ideas in my head (as dangerous as that might be!).

The first art project this week was an Iris coloring page. I thought this could be something I color in with markers on my trip. Stay tuned for progress on this one…. Meanwhile, here is the black and white design with a teaser of color.

Not feeling overly inspired, I painted up some simple little irises on my watercolor pad. After much arguing with my laptop and with Photoshop, I ended up with a repeat pattern which is *almost* done.

Next on the agenda was a watercolor on my Strathmore 140lb paper notebook. After painting with acrylics all of last week, it took me a moment to get my bearings with my watercolor paints again! I also realized I didn’t bring nearly enough watercolors with me, so hmmm…. I’m going to have to switch to Gouache sooner rather than later!

And lastly, I’ve been thinking of doing a super simple tall Japanese iris design that would go on a mug (because I need one like that) or maybe on plates or a platter. So, I painted these little flowers very quickly. They don’t have much detail and they are more of a study than a final design. I played around with some effects on several graphics programs and layered them over a background from one of the earlier Iris paintings (also manipulated). The mockup below is a pretty good representation of what I had in mind. Who knows, a variation of this one may end up on my product list at a later date.

That’s all for this week. I hope you are enjoying my random explorations of Iris flowers.

Thanks for following!

Lisa