Hello Friends,

A couple of nights ago I decided to find the part of the nature show I watched that showed the “Blanket” octopus spreading herself out to make herself look bigger.  I found it and paused it at the best place to draw from.  I couldn’t really get the brilliance of the sunlight shining down into the water and “through” her body, but this is the best I could do with watercolor pencils.

Watercolor pencils are very different to work with than paint out of the tube or even the solid cakes of paint in a pan, which I have never liked much.  With pencils, you can either draw first and add the water which is what I do so the colors won’t bleed too much, or you can wet your paper and then draw.  I have just always done it the first way I mentioned.

So here she is:  “Blanche” the Blanket Octopus!  (I have been watching reruns of “Golden Girls” lately!  Blanche is my favorite character.

Over the next few days I will be posting more turtles I have drawn to fit a 5×7 card!  (I would love to know if you think they should be smaller on the card with more background or fill the card as I have drawn them??? Let me know!) So watch for them to come swimming along.

The weather here has been cooler the last couple of days!  I have not had to turn the A/C on until almost noon!  Nice!

Have a wonderful day, and give someone you love a big hug!  🙂

Hello Friends,

Here is a quick sketch I did the other night with my watercolor pencils.  I was watching a nature show about sea creatures a couple of weeks ago, and I had never seen this type of octopus before!  I sketched it in graphite pencil first, but made a note that it was a vivid red color!  (My watercolor pencils don’t do it justice, and I will probably paint it again bigger and closer to the real color at some point.)

This type of octopus is called a Blanket octopus.  This is a female.  They can grow as long as 6 feet!  They drift in the open ocean at all times.  When she feels threatened by predators, she can unveil her “Gossamer shroud” to make herself look bigger.  She can also detach part of her cloak to confuse her predators as well as release ink!  I thought it was interesting.

And if you want to see the first octopus I did, it’s called Octopus on the Loose!

I painted this on a Canson 5×7 watercolor sketch pad I picked up the other day.  I haven’t used my watercolor pencils in a while, and this is not exactly how red it appears in the show, but I am going to watch it again, and hopefully be able to match the red better with my paints from the tube.  Also, I am going to try and paint her with her shroud spread out a lot more like it showed on the nature show.  And who knows?  Maybe I will get some octopus cards made, too, someday!

Have a wonderful day, and give someone you love a big hug!  🙂