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red – Matthew French-Holt

Rose with Emma Goldman quote

I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.
~ Emma Goldman

After liking the heart so much and running across this quote in my list, I couldn’t help myself from painting this rose. I love having fresh flowers in the RV – they really brighten up any space!

Prints, notebooks, and more available here.

watercolor painting of rose with quote

Watercolor Heart with Seneca Quote

Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

I’ve always been a list maker and a collector. While playing with my watercolors it only made sense (at least in my head) to combine a drawing with a quote that I’ve saved in one of my lists.

Sometimes it’s easier to start with a quote and create the image that comes to mind. In this case I painted a heart and found an appropriate quote.

Which Witch?

I’ve been having fun playing with my watercolors, and decided to try a new type of project. While I have a comfortable grasp on drawing portraits, I haven’t spent much time adding color to them.

While my sis-n-law was visiting and trying on a hat that I crocheted, I snapped a quick photo of her. Currently in the middle of re-reading the Harry Potter books, it occurred to me that the image would make a great illustration of a witch.

I quickly sketched her out and added some color to the sketch. Definitely not my best drawing, but as a proof-of-concept for a new-ish style and the addition of color, it worked fairly well.

After years of practice capturing every detail and trying to draw realistic images, I am trying to develop a looser, sketchy style. I love the zig-zags in the hat and the wrinkles in the bottom right corner of the shirts, so I’m making progress.

A fun experiment, one well worth repeating.

Words and Watercolors

I’ve always loved the intersection of pictures and quotes (the stick figures series is a prime example). So when I stumbled across a new drawing-plus-quotes project while reading a watercolor book, I couldn’t wait to try it!

Not only do I get to peruse my quote collection, but I got to try out a new watercolor technique. Win, win!

The heart and rose are on post-card sized watercolor paper. After finishing the painting I added in the quote with a drawing pen.

 

Ashley on her bicycle was the first painting that I did in this line. It’s not yet complete, as I haven’t yet added in a fitting quote – though I do have a couple of them picked out. This is a larger work, nearly 8×10″.

Not sure what happened with that “antenna” sprouting up out of Ashley’s head – re-painting the image will give me more practice with the procedure and the materials and hopefully end up more as I intended it. 😀