Watercolor Inks Practice Piece-Updated & Rain's Art Date

   Happy Midweek Friends,

     Of course it is still very hot and humid here, which keeps us indoors most of the day.

     Along with a little house work decided to try painting another mountain scene mostly with inks.  I am really liking the black walnut ink I made to also use for painting now, also grabbed a few of the watercolor inks, and a little watercolor paints

    This time I did the sky area last instead of first, I am not real pleased with it so far-once dry will work on lightening it more. I used the blue watercolor ink and even watered down was pretty dark.

    I started with the mountains and then really watered down the black walnut ink to cover the bottom of the page. Used inks for the grasses and little dots of flowers, also the tree is watercolor inks and black walnut. I did mix a little watercolor paint into the black walnut  ink to color the tree trunk. I also used watercolor green for the leaves

   I don't think it's finished but this time will let it sit a bit instead of jumping right in like I usually do haha Not sure what it needs yet perhaps more trees?

  Honest opinions and painting advice always welcome for this very newbie "painter"

I am using watercolor papers torn from a spiral. I was using painters tape to tape down my piece but it tore the paper so that did not work out. Now I just use a large clip on one end. When finished will weight it down.

   I really do not like this dark blue sky at all and looking at these photos, for some reason the grasses look lighter in the middle, perhaps the camera did that

Ok I am finished now, friend Barbara suggests less is more in the back of my mind-smiles.

    I added a little melting snow-or mist to the mountains, added in a few more grasses-in person the middle green is the same shade as the others

Updated:  I have been working on this watercolor practice-learning piece off and on most of the day today. One suggestion for improving the composition was to add something to the left side.  So a few hours later I messed around and added another tree-however I didn't have anymore of the same watercolor inks mixed up and ooops the tree turned out way too dark, and I didn't get a nice shaped tree for this one either--but I decided to go ahead and share for Rain's Art Day   I also worked on lightening up the sky a bit too.

    I am a work in progress with painting, so I am putting this piece out there any suggestions always welcome for improvement  I will say I really enjoyed working with the my handmade black walnut ink and winsor newton's watercolor inks for this piece.

Food Wednesdays & Art for Rain

  Hello everyone, and welcome to Food Wednesdays, where we share food posts in the link up below.

     Since this link up is all about the Food no rules except to post anything related to food-a recipe, a cookbook or food magazine you would like to share, a restaurant you enjoyed and would love to share, anything about Food.

   Also beginning today for the month of June we will have Food Wednesdays the first Wednesday of each month only, instead of every week. 

    With summer keeping many of us busy I think this will be easier. Summer months are busy too especially if you are a gardener and preserve your foods, or go on vacations.  We will re evaluate for September.

  Are you familiar with Mary Jane Farm's magazine?  I have gotten this magazine off and on for many years now. It's a magazine I usually read cover to cover. Being in my 70's I still enjoy the magazine and learn something new with every issue. This magazine is more for an audience of younger people I think, but I still enjoy it.  The magazine uses recycled papers which are great for making up your own handmade papers. 

   I couldn't find a current magazine cover but here is one older issue

  This latest issue had some totally new to me summer ideas for making cakes with melons and frosting. I don't get out anymore so maybe you are familiar with these?

  I was assuming that the recipes would also be online, so passed on the magazine and they are not there-sigh. I did find a few from other sites. You cut the melon into slices like a cake, rind off, and then frost it. Thinking this is a cake that would need to be made and served soon after. The Mary Jane magazine had several different recipes using also yellow watermelon, you may spot the magazine in a magazine aisle.

 Found this one online from a different site

Here is a recipe using whipped coconut milk  I think this would be a fun cake if you had several people over The Mary Jane's recipes used several layers like this one-made a prettier cake.

Here is one using cool whip for the frosting

  I also wanted to share a watercolor page that turned into a mixed media page. I will link up with Rain's Thursday Art Day

   I began with a new to me wet on wet watercolor page--I liked it. Had thought of trying to paint a bird in the water, but was a bit leary of "messing up" my page that I liked.  So I added some trees and brush and some rocks in the water. A so so page, as there were elements I liked but not as a whole. I went into my saved magazine paper stash and found the butterfly I cut out, and I found this boy talking to a turtle.  I thought it came together pretty nicely so I added it to my journal book and I enjoyed making this page.

I liked these rocks with the water over them-a little better than the last time I attempted moving water

Now it is your turn to share your Food Wednesdays Post. Please link up with your Food Wednesdays URL and not your blog's URL thank you and have fun.