Rhododendron painting update

I had painted the majority of the flower earlier, I think before Christmas even...  And now, a couple of paintings later, I'm getting back to it to get it done for an art contest that I'm entering soon! I've painted more than half of the leaves and background now and really love how it is all looking with the colors and the contrast. I am more pleased with it than I thought I would be. The colors  are so vibrant, it makes me happy! Gotta love COLOR! I have had a very productive week working on this painting and launching my Etsy shop, Jule's Fleurs. Check it out etsy.julesfleurs.com 

Exciting times!

Birch Tree Lesson ish

So last week at one of my schools we did the standard birch tree watercolor lesson from:
http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2011/01/birch-trees-watercolor-lesson/
We tore masking tape and laid it down as a mask for the trees. I had a couple assistants helping me, but I think we could have done more with helping them tear the tape and lay it down to look more like trees (like thinner towards the end of branches etc.) Even still they turned out great. :)  The kids had fun with painting sunsets and those looked awesome in watercolor.  We didn't all do birch trees, but I had them all make a shadow side on their trees and showed them how that made the tree look round. I have a lot of new students so I'm having to teach them blending and shading like I did for the class last semester. Also, we switched it up and used colored pencils for our trees.

These are a few of the projects from one of the classes :) The one on the bottom right is not finished yet ;)
This project is good for students beginning in art. It is simple enough, but it teaches about masking an area to keep it clean and how that looks afterward, how to use watercolors, horizon line, and shading with colored pencils.