koukla carolyn

Muffins, watercolor

For quite a few months I have been on a special diet where I can only have two servings a day of wheat and dairy. As a result, I have been experimenting with gluten free baking. I made these muffins using Pamela’s Ultimate Pancake and Baking Mix. These muffins have no added fat and no dairy so they are perfect for my diet, plus they are very tasty.

Rose and Lily, watercolor (10×7)

Lately I’ve just been doing little watercolor landscapes and florals—nothing very unusual except I have been practicing working wet on wet. I haven’t been very ambitious lately, but I want to do some still lifes or something along those lines in the next week. I am feeling a little uninspired overall, but I am trying to keep on practicing because I feel I will never improve otherwise. I did this rose and lily a few weeks ago from some flowers that Jeet gave me. I do like how the rose came out and I like it’s color. Lately, I’ve been disappointed with myself because I feel I’ve been overworking my watercolors and making up the colors too muddy.

I sketched this bag right before Christmas last year. I am already starting to get my ideas together for my Christmas shopping this year.

Hibiscus, watercolor and ink (on Strathmore watercolor greeting card)

I painted this flower a few months ago from one of the photos that Jeet took when we went to The Domes in Milwaukee, WI. This flower was in the tropical dome and I really enjoyed painting it. I have not been doing very many watercolor paintings lately and I am going to start again this week. I had a really long and tiring weekend and I spent most of today recouping and getting back into my old schedule. My sister’s wedding was really nice and I actually had a lot of fun at it. It was in my parent’s backyard and it was a really casual, Hawaiian themed wedding. I got a chance to see a lot of relatives plus some friends that I haven’t seen in some time.

Jeet and I went to Elizabeth Park a few days ago and I brought my sketchbook along. I love to draw scenes from nature but I don’t usually draw them on location. I especially don’t draw animals because they move around too much for my liking. But I had fun with this and I think the practice is definitely important.

Green salad, marker (5×7)

I just happened to be at my parent’s house yesterday and I was eating salad for lunch so I decided to wait a bit and draw it before I ate it. Normally I don’t like the idea of drawing a plate of food because it would get cold, but I didn’t mind with a salad.

Generally, I have only been doing small sketches these days, but I am happy with that because I have other things to worry about right now. I am hoping to do some more watercolors next week after my sister’s wedding when things are quieter.