Showing posts with label Rebelle 5. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rebelle 5. Show all posts

Thursday, 13 April 2023

A Cute Teapot, and a Welcome Return...

Hello there, and I hope life's treating you well.

Picture shows a digital watercolour line and wash painting sketch of corral-pink roses, growing out of a cream teapot, against a pale green background.
"Teapot and Roses" by Clare Walker



This week, as you can see from these cute flowers coming out of a teapot, am sharing the latest in my  "Flowers and Containers," series. 

In the meantime, by the time this gets to you as a newsletter, there's a strong chance that this particular design will already be for sale as a teapot-shaped card sheet in my Craftsuprint shop, and this will be a live link to that if so. (Update: the link is now live).


A warm welcome back

In any event, it's definitely time to give a warm welcome back to the blog to Marion Kimberley-Scott, who has already been busy making and crafting cards from the sheets featuring previous paintings and designs in this series.

Here's her take on the Lavender Cascade:

Image is a photo of a handcrafted card, featuring many layers, decoupage, and a watercolour cascade of lavender.
Photo by Marion Kimberley-Scott, and used with her permission
Click or tap here to see it on Craftsuprint.Com



And "Wellies and Flowers"...

The image is a photo of a multi-layered and crafted pink and white square floral card, featuring a watercolour drawing of pink flowers growing out of green wellies in the centre.
Photo by Marion Kimberley-Scott, and used with her permission
Click or tap here to see it on Craftsuprint.Com




Not forgetting the  "Purple Planter":

Image is a photo of a multi-layered hand-crafted card, featuring a watercolour drawing of a formal stone garden planter, festooned with small purple flowers.
Photo by Marion Kimberley-Scott, and used with her permission
Click or tap here to see it on Craftsuprint.Com


Thank you so very much Marion. I really appreciate both you *and* your awesome crafting skills.


That's all for now from me, but thanks ever so much for reading down this far, and have a lovely weekend.

Thursday, 30 March 2023

Bits, Bobs and Two Unexpected Visitors...

Hello there, and as ever, hope that life is treating you well.

Now, this is the time when you get to peep behind the curtain, and see how creativity really works, instead of the, "yes, one-neat-product-appears-every-week," version of events into which this blog might (accidentally) have lulled you before now.

line and wash digital watercolour sketch of a sunny park garden bench with wisteria around it.
"Wisteria Bench" Work in Progress
Digital Watercolour Sketch
in Rebelle 5,
by Clare Walker



First up, there's a park/garden  bench sketch. I drew it mostly to celebrate humble-but-wonderful  benches in the sun, and a vague idea that, when finished,  it might one day join what I might (in a grandiose moment) call the "garden art series,"...The start of which is in my Society6 shop, at least for now.


Line and wash digital watercolour sketch of a ball of pink roses on top of a be-ribboned pole.
"Roses on a Pole"
Digital Watercolour sketch
 in Rebelle 5, by Clare Walker



Next there's these roses-on-a-pole. The start of a wedding design? Maybe. Something for May Day? It could happen. But they got created because they were fun and reminded me of summer on a rainy day. Which is much more in line with how creativity really works than the "uploading-on-a-schedule," online world might suggest.

And then there's this post itself. For a perfect Easter post, in a world of productivity-over-creativity, there should be bouncing bunnies or similar. (And yes,  it's with some relief that I can announce that there'll be a more "correctly" seasonal post (if you want to call it that) *next* week.


Those Two Unexpected Visitors...

But if I had gone along with that particular script this week, then some real life inspiration which landed in the window box,  three feet away from my keyboard, wouldn't have got a look-in, almost literally.

Let me introduce you to the first of them. Both these photos were taken by my husband, so massive thanks to him (a.k.a. often on this blog  as, "The Computer Man").


Photo of a very round robin on a window box.
Round Robin-Photo by Jim Fernbank


Yes, it's a robin. That most famous of Christmas birds (in the UK, anyway), gracing us with his presence (like the snow of  a couple of weeks ago) much closer to Easter.

I had a vague memory from childhood that robins like to eat tiny pieces of cheese.

That turned out to be the understatement of the century. He clearly *adored* cheese. And soon had us trained to leave out cheese for him in response to loud and disappointed squeaks each morning.

But the cheese kept disappearing *so* quickly, that we became suspicious. And sure enough, a second, sleeker robin is also dining at the window-box buffet.


Photo of a more svelte robin bird on a window box.
Sleek Robin- Photo by Jim Fernbank



Which, combined with the fairly recent memory of snow, now meant that a snowy Christmas design just had to be begun, at least, even though you might not see a final, end result,  "on" something, for months.


Line and wash digital watercolour work in progress sketch, featuring a red robin in the snow.
Red Robin Sketch
Work in progress digital watercolour
by Clare Walker





(And yes, I know that my robin sketch features a red bird, and these robins are distinctly orange. But I'll save that debate (and the huge, bizarre, difference in popularity between robin designs in each colour) for a post nearer Christmas.


It's *all* OK...

Thanks for reading down this far. This post has rather wandered and wound its way round, a bit like how creativity itself seems to work. Am hoping that it's been fun to read, and that it might explain why things don't or can't always seem to appear, "When they *should*". 

Most of all, I hope that it may have inspired you to follow through on creative ideas, whenever and however they appear for you. It's all *OK,* and you, I, or anyone else, all have permission to follow those inner-and outer-promptings, as they happen.

 Even if that does mean that you draw robins at Easter :-) .

That's all for now. But my current plan is to be back a little sooner next week, with some genuinely spring-like or Eastery treats.

More soon.

__________________________

Thursday, 9 March 2023

Escape Into a Secret Garden...

Hello there

This week's post is an invitation, to step into the imaginary world of a whimsical secret garden, full of cascading lavender,

Image shows a line and wash watercolour of a garden border, in which the focal point is purple lavender, cascading out of a large terracotta pot. The pot is laying on its side, which allows the lavender within it to cascade over a pale yellow garden gravel path.
"Lavender Cascade" by Clare Walker


quirky plant holders,

Image shows a digital watercolour line and wash sketch of a pair of green wellies (rainboots) filled with small pink flowers.
"Wellies and Flowers," by Clare Walker


and flower-filled planters...

Image shows a digital line and wash watercolour of a stone planter against the summer sky. The planter is full of small purple flowers and green leaves, some of which trail down the central column of the planter.
"Purple Floral Planter," by Clare Walker

In part, this images were a lovely way to escape from the really-very-cold-for-the-time-of-year weather here. And on a practical level, yes, they are likely to make an appearance in some downloadable craft sheets soon.

But they were also fun, relaxing, a homage to lovely parks and gardens everywhere...and something am feeling I might like to draw more often. Escaping to an imaginary secret garden, it turns out, isn't only for children...

For now though, hope you've enjoyed this, and that you have a great weekend.

More soon.

Thursday, 23 February 2023

New Painting: Wild Flowers by the Sea

This digital watercolour looks more like a traditional one, showing a path between a green wildflower meadow and the splashing sea or ocean. The path leads up into soft green hills...
"Wild Flowers the Sea," by Clare Walker

Hello there

Hope that you've had a great week and are thriving.

This week's post is all about giving you a chance to breathe, relax, and take a stroll along a deserted coastal path, bordered by a wild flower meadow, and leading into soft green hills...

I hope that you enjoy this as much as I loved creating it, and it gave me a sense of peace (and mojo) that have been missing for a while, all-in-all. It is a digital watercolour (in Rebelle 5...But somehow, it came out looking surprisingly traditional.

So please do watch this space for more like it, and for the final destination for this painting too.

In the meantime,  please relax into this image if you'd like, and have a lovely week.

More soon.

Friday, 7 October 2022

Rebelle 5 Initial Review, and Cosmos in a Field...


Hello there and I hope you're  doing well, wherever and however you find yourself today.

Update on Oct 14th: This post originally referred to a Rebelle 5 sale, through which I bought Rebelle 5, but which  has now closed.

The review, the resulting picture, and that which the picture became, still hold good, though. :-)



Digital pen and wash painting of cosmo flowers wafting happily in a summer field.
Cosmo Flowers in a Field, by Clare Walker, BoundingSquirrel.Com.
Digital Watercolour in Rebelle 5.



This is in no way a full review,  (just an initial one) as this is my first outing with Rebelle 5. But the painting above took only about two-and-a-half-hours (and that's including watching an introduction video or two and getting re-acquainted with the user interface). My first thoughts from all that are:

-It is incredibly intuitive and easy to use.

-Unlike other apps and software, it seems to focus primarily on bringing the feeling of using "traditional supplies," to the digital user.

-I loved the mixing possibilities, and the huuuuuge sizes and resolutions at which it seems Rebelle 5 can now export files (all whilst keeping a painterly look and not having to vectorise them-that's a big plus).

-The real paint granulation, textures, splatters and paper textures are incredibly authentic. (I admit it, I squealed with joy when I saw some of them in action...). You don't even need to take my word for this, as the effects are right there in the painting above.

 
On the other hand...

Should probably also add that I'm probably now ready for Rebelle in a way that I wasn't when testing it for the first time. I'm using a faster computer, and a small Wacom tablet, for one thing. 

But more importantly, I now have a lot more experience and practice in traditional watercolour than I did then. And I think that that experience really helped me to "hit the ground running," this time.


There's more...

Rebelle 5 also includes lots and lots of brushes and tools that aren't watercolour, such as digital acrylics, which do look great fun to try (and would probably put me off with their messiness in a traditional art context...I may be the only art person anyone knows who *hates* the feeling of extreme gunk on their hands...:-) ).

It looks like it's going to be a fun winter of digital painting ahead around these parts. :-) :-) :-).


And...


One person who has already visited the shop for these is the wonderful Marion Kimberly-Scott, whose lovely pic of the cards she made as a result are is featured below, with her permission, and my grateful thanks.

Photo o a hand nade card featuring pink cosmo flowers in several  layers.
Card made by Marion Kimberly Scott
from a design by Clare Walker.
 (Photo used by kind permission of Marion also)




Take care, and more soon.