Roses, Red and Markers as Watercolors

If you've been following along the past few weeks you may be aware that I am taking Color Love with Joanne Sharpe. Now, I'm a photographer and a jewelry artisan who loves to doodle and sketch.

A friend asked me, in the kindest way, if I was playing with markers and taking non-photography e-courses as a diversion or avoidance. See, I am also working on creating my own e-course and focusing on taking more pictures. I thought about it, because it's a good question, and the answer is no. What most people don't know is that I've known for the past few months that I was going to be getting injections in my knees (an alternative to surgery) and I also knew that this would probably mean that my taking picture expeditions were going to be limited while I worked through physical therapy. And, I was right, PT has been more intense than expected and just my normal walk everywhere in NYC, assigned exercises and climbing the 3 flights of stairs to my apartment has been enough.

Color Love has given me a diversion in the evenings after my long 'day job' days to stay creative and to release stress. I cannot write after my day job, I am just too spent.  It is why I wake up every morning early to write before I go to my day job. So, this week I played with markers and painted.

So, Tombow Bloom was an assignment in Color Love and this month Louise Gale's Creative Color Challenge color and theme was red and roses. I didn't quite follow Louise's full color palette of inspiration because I added blue but there is red and I did create roses.

I used Tombow markers, blended and painted with water.  I'll be honest here... I had no idea that Tombow markers existed until I saw them on Joanne's supply list. I also didn't know that I could turn them into watercolors and paint when using them. So much fun!

For my first Tombow marker, water painted piece...I'm quite pleased.

So, I'm not only going to link up with Louise Gale and her Creative Color Challenge I am also going to be brave and link up Paint Party Friday for the first time. Which is totally inspired by the lovely Tracey Fletcher King. You have to be brave sometime, right? Ok, I'm pressing Publish now so I don't change my mind.