Monthly Retrospective: December 2023

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I’ll do an annual retrospective in another post, but here’s my look at just the month of December.

Having finished my National Parks project in November, I took the month of December officially off challenges to do whatever. That said, I still ended up doing some challenges, as a treat – including finishing Magrish’s 3-week sky challenge and following “a bird a week” prompts by my friend Figment, and adding some birds to my bird series.

I even did a couple of tutorials for old times’ sake – one from Zaneena Nabeel’s “Bold and Beautiful Watercolor Skies,” a book I purchased ages ago but never opened until now because I was too busy with challenges, and one live tutorial with the incomparable Claire Giordano! She always teaches me something great; in this a grayscale winter tree tutorial, she introduced me to a wonderful gray made from Perylene Green, Quin Violet, and Phthalo Blue.

I also painted a bunch of sunsets this month, because that’s what I do when left to my own devices!

Total paintings: 30

By medium: 1 gouache; 1 watercolor + gouache; 28 watercolor only

By topic:

  • 2 tutorials
  • 2 challenge
  • 5 birds
  • 2 inspired by insta feed (Winter Sunrise & Northern Lights)
  • 15 inspired by photos from my photo archive
  • 4 inspired by memories/life

Those last four are:

  • The pigeon flock – inspired by seeing a bunch of pigeons flock while I was running by.
  • The Geminids – I do not have the ability to take astrophotography, but I did see shooting stars at the peak of the geminids.
  • The bald eagle at Walden Pond – really happened, but I didn’t take a photo; instead, I used composite reference photos.
  • The gulls – The sky is from life (through the window), and the sea and gulls are from various reference photos.

The Paintings

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Evening Star. December 2, 2023.
Somerville Community Path. December 2, 2023.
Week 2 of #magrish_challenge_sky 2023., in Etchr Perfect Sketchbook. December 2, 2023.
Cardinal in winter. Based on a reference by Megan Zopf on Pixabay. Painted December 3, 2023.
Red sunset, first project from “Bold and Beautiful Watercolor Sunsets” by Zaneena Nabeel @aurorabyz. December 4, 2023.
Oak leaves. December 4, 2023.
Week 3 of #magrish_challenge_sky 2023 on Lanaquarelle. December 5, 2023.
Winter trees from a tutorial by Claire Giordano. December 6, 2023.
Streaky clouds. December 13, 2023.
Soft sunset. December 8, 2023.
Soft sunset, take 2. December 12, 2023.
Variation on soft sunset: Hilltop man. December 12, 2023.
Variation on soft sunset: Over the sea. December 12, 2023.
Mourning dove on Strathmore 500. December 14, 2023.
Pigeon flock. December 16, 2023.
Industrial sunset on Lanaquarelle. December 16, 2023.
Soft sunset on Lanaquarelle. December 17, 2023.
Geminids on Lanaquarelle. December 17, 2023.
Ash-throated flycatcher on Strathmore 500. December 19, 2023.
Pileated woodpecker. December 21, 2023 on Strathmore 500.
Sunset with sparrows on Lanaquarelle. December 22, 2023.
Sunset/power line/crow in Etchr Perfect Sketchbook. December 22, 2023.
Bald Eagle at Walden Pond. December 23, 2023.
Winter Sunrise, based on a photo posted by @transcanadatrail. December 24, 2023.
Winter clouds. December 25, 2023.
Canada geese V. Watercolor sky; gouache geese. December 26, 2023.
Northern Lights. December 27, 2023.
Walden Pond. December 30, 2023.
Winter sunset tree. December 30, 2023.
Blue sky, gulls. December 31, 2023.

1 thought on “Monthly Retrospective: December 2023”

  1. Oh wow, you are so productive! I look forward to scrolling through your paintings! We like a lot of the same things: skies, birds, parks!

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