Lighthouse

This is the final page in my Imaginary Visit to the Beach sketchbook. It was not part of the lessons, but I had one page left, and I couldn't leave it blank. Since I love lighthouses, I decided that's what I would paint. I'm quite pleased with it.

Cover

This was my final lesson from Laure Ferlita in her Imaginary Visit to the Beach class. I have enjoyed it so much and learned so much! This page is the cover of my journal.

Old Banyan Tree - Again

I put this in my regular journal. It's amazing how much more you learn by doing the same painting more than once! I wanted to see if I could get clouds in my sky (I did) and make my roots look more gnarled (I think I did). And I wanted to get more colors and values into my tree. There is a white spot in the water that must be some sort of flaw in the paper - it wouldn't take the paint. So I put a few more white spots around it to make it look a little more natural. Weird.

And I think I've finally learned how to use my water brush. Sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake - I finally realized that if I squeeze it while I'm painting, I'll get water on the page. DUH! Up until now, I'd just been holding the brush, being careful NOT to squeeze it. I don't know why that never clicked with me before, but better late than never I guess.

Single Shell

I decided to paint this shell for my regular journal. I am quite pleased with how it turned out, especially since I didn't have Laure's video instruction for how to paint it.

Shells

There is only one more lesson in my Beach Visit. I'll be really sad to see it end.

Old Banyan Tree

I'm still learning to use my waterbrush. This is lesson 8 in my Imaginary Visit to the Beach with Laure Ferlita.

Sea Turtle

There are only a few days left with Laure Ferlita at the beach - I'll be sad to see it come to an end. But I think I'll join her for An Imaginary Trip to Paris in April. Anyone else want to come along? You can read about it here.

Boardwalk

I'm continuing to enjoy my Imaginary Visit to the Beach with Laure Ferlita.

Flamingo

I had a lot of fun painting this guy and learning a little bit about flamingos.

Eventide

I enjoyed painting the sunset for my class - An Imaginary Visit to the Beach - so much that I wanted to paint it again in my regular journal. I'll write about it on the facing page.

Eventide

I loved painting this page. I had fallen behind in class, so I completed this page and the Beach Bugs page on the same day. They are on facing pages, so my comment refers to enjoying the sunset after spending (an imaginary) day painting crabs at the beach.

Beach Bugs

This lesson was intended to get us out of our comfort zone, and it certainly worked for me. But I really enjoyed doing this.

We are painting from photographs provided by Laure Ferlita, but if we were painting these guys on location, we wouldn't have much time. So this lesson was all about capturing a likeness of the crabs based on coloring and suggested anatomy.

Each crab was to be sketched and painted in 15 minutes or less, and I was able to complete my entire page in 45 minutes (except for the writing, which could be done after the crabs were gone).

It certainly isn't my best painting, but I was very pleased to finish it within the time frame. I also painted the shadows without sketching them in pencil first, which I almost never do.

Brown Pelican

Lesson 2 from my Imaginary Visit to the Beach class from Laure Ferlita. This one was much more challenging than lesson 1, but I really enjoyed painting it. And Laure always has good feedback for improvement.

Starfish

I've started another class with Laure Ferlita - An Imaginary Visit to the Beach - just what I need this winter! It snowed a good part of the day today, although most of it melted by the end of the day.

Edited - I added a title to my page and replaced the scan with the new one.