Miss Lucy

 

This is inspired by another photo from @mozarts_ride.

He says this about Miss Lucy:

1931 Ford Coupe... an "Around Town" shot...Spoted "Miss Lucy" at a local antique store, just down the street from where I live.. You just got to love her flax water bag, attached to the front bumper... 😎
.
."Desert water bags were once a common sight on the highways of the American Southwest. Designed to keep water cool under hot conditions, desert water bags were available at service stations and general stores, where they could be filled with water and hung on the outside of the vehicle to keep cool. Desert water bags fell out of favor in the 1950s, but they are still made in limited quantities, and vintage desert water bags are valued by some as antiques." (Gone Outdoors.com, "About Desert Water Bags" by Richard
Corrigan)

Miss Leona

 

There are lots of great photos to choose from on  @mozarts_ride Instagram feed.  His descriptions are priceless too:

1958 Ford Flatbed Truck... I spotted "Miss Leona" while driving on Route 66, near Hackberry, Arizona. She's not going to roll down the road anytime soon, but if she did I'm sure her radio would be playing "Just Got Paid" by ZZ Top.. 😎
.
."US Highway 66, popularly known as “Route 66,” is significant as the nation's first all-weather highway linking Chicago to Los Angeles. ... Route 66 reduced the distance between Chicago and Los Angeles by more than 200 miles, which made Route 66 popular among thousands of motorists who drove west in subsequent decades... The road is also known as "The Will Rogers Highway," "The Main Street of America," and "The Mother Road."... (NPS, "Route 66") ... Now you know the rest of the story

Double Loading

 

I began some practice of brush manipulation, but soon discovered some fun with double loading.

I loaded my flat brush in a puddle of watercolour pigment (rose or yellow) and then gently touched the chisel edge to a sticky pan of pthalo blue.  I was treated to some beautiful colour striations.

Sunbeams and the Enemy of Done

 

These are for my husband, who used to own a Sunbeam and who took the reference photos for these sketches.  

My sketches remind me of Goldilocks and the three bears - one is too short and one is too long.  But perfection is the enemy of done, right?

Making Prints

 

I didn't think my Epson WorkForce Brother MFC-J1012DW inkjet printer would be up to the task, but I was wrong.  I'm very pleased with how this print of one of my original watercolours turned out as a card.  I tried 4 x 6 paper in and 3.5 x 5 in paper

October 21, 2023 - Edited for new computer with Windows 11  

Feb  1 & 7, 2024 - Edited for new Brother Printer :

I printed the photo using Picasa Photos onto white cardstock, choosing to print a 3 x 4 inch photo.  My printer settings were:  the following settings:

• Orientation:  Landscape
• Paper Tray:  Cassette  Main
• Paper Size:  Japan L Photo 3.5 x 5 in  4 x 6 or 3.5 x 5
• Paper Type:  Photo Paper (4 x 6) or plain paper (3.5 x 5)
• Photo Size:  3.5 x 5 in
• Paper Margins:  Normal
• Fit:  Shrink to Fit
• More Settings:
• Quality:  High
• Borderless:  On

After printing, I trimmed the picture down to 3.5 x 4.5 inches.  I mounted the photo onto the card using foam tape, but I could also play with colored mats.

October 21, 2023 - While I was experimenting, I tested two different cardstocks.  Recollections (from Michaels) is slightly heavier cardstock but the print quality was pretty similar.

February 1, 2024 - I used inexpensive Forever in Time Matte Inkjet Photo Paper and it worked great.  I haven't tried any cardstock yet.  I think I may have printed on the wrong, less glossy side, but that may have been a good think.  I had put a note on the paper box that the ink pooled oddly when I tried it with my Epson printer.  The final output was more vivid and finer detailed than the cardstock I had tried before.  (Feb 7 I tried the glossier side and I found the ink pooled.  So, this paper can be used, but print on the wrong side!)

When loading the paper into the new printer, I use the 4 x 6 horizontal print guide but simply make the vertical guides a little narrower to fit 3.5 x 5 paper. 

Print quality, in order of highest, although all good:

1. Wrong side of Forever in Time Matte Inkjet Photo Paper
2. Cardstock Dianne sent me for colouring with Copic markers
3. Regular cardstock (Staples or Recollections)

This Little Piggy Goes to Market

 

Photo Reference by Talia2394, Paint My Photo

I was inspired by the reference photo because the tractor looked like a little pig to me!

Flat Brush Flowers

 

 I'm looking forward to the next session of Fabulous Flat Brush Flowers next week so I painted a bouquet of posies in my journal.  I'm happy to say that after some warm-up strokes I found I had enough muscle memory to pick up where I left off a month ago.

Violet, the instructor of the courses, starts each class with a page of  warm-up exercises, and I may have finally learned how important this is.  It isn't something that comes naturally to me, but I find when I don't know what to paint that making some simple strokes also gets the creative juices flowing!