Dreaming of sunshine and the beach

Finally! I have got the time to sit down a write on my blog again. As a mother of a new born and a attention seeking tree-year-old, I do not have a lot of spare time. Which I don't mind! - most days :-)

Some days during the winter and early spring I long for warm days and trips to the beach. As part canarian living in cold and stormy Denmark, I often long for the cold waters and eternal spring of Lanzarote. So I looked for posters or such to hang in our home, which could remind me of Lanzarote. I did not find anything satisfactory. So I though: why not make my own poster? I immediately thought of beautiful "Playa Chica", which is the preferred beach for the locals and turist alike in Puerto del Carmen in the south of Lanzarote - the same town as my grandparents live in.  I started by drawing the sketch of the beach, skyline and the cliffs surrounding the beach. Then I added the mother and the child on the beach. My three year old then pointed out that I was the woman and her babysister could be the child playing in the sand - but where was she? So I added a second child in the water - which my big daughter loves. So far so good - then I drew a palm tree to add some green to the illustration - Otherwise it would be a lot of blue and sandy colors.

Subsequently I outline the sketch with my pental pocket brush. I used masking fluid to make the sea foam and the white of the cook and em. Then I painted the pale colors of the sand, waters, skin etc. and put on the darkers colors and shading.

I will finish the illustration by coloring the darkest parts (cliffs, shades in the sand and a mountain in the horizon).

Here is how it looks so far. It is soon to be finished - hurray!