Animal Portraits

This past Christmas, I only had a few gifts to give and very little money. The one thing about staying home with baby is that you don't have lots of extra cash for spending on anything you want! 

So I had to get more creative with gift giving. 

My friend/brother-in-law(ish) had gotten a beautiful Shiba Inu pup last year, and was completely enamored by her. So I wanted to create something for him with Yoshi as my subject. That's when I dug out my watercolors and brushes!

Yoshi, the Shiba Inu

Elie and I went over to visit, and I took a few pictures with my phone, kind of secretly, so he had no idea what I was doing... so they were a little blurry, or not composed really well. But I just needed the visual information on her markings, expression, etc. The photo didn't have to be very clear for a watercolor. I wanted to capture her essence, not details, exactly.

Visiting & taking secret photos

It's not perfection, but I think I was able to get her sweet-natured aura, and some of her distinctive markings & coloring. It's only my second animal portrait, so I felt pretty good about it! I had a vintage frame for it, which wasn't perfect, but again: no money! Had to make-do. 

My portrait of Yoshi

I think Kyle really liked it. He put it on his wall, so that's always a good sign! With more practice, I think I'll improve... but really, I'm not about absolute realism. I never have been. (Well, I was when I was learning to draw and paint in school, but you kind of drop that after you learn to do it.) I like being able to capture an emotion, or a quality in the subject... I think that's more interesting. Do you agree? 

Playing With Watercolors

You all know how much I enjoy watercolors... well, recently I made my own using dry pigments, water and gum arabic. I like the richness of color you get from watercolors that you make yourself.The tube colors don't hold as much pigment, so they're generally more transparent. You just need to be careful not to inhale any of the dry powders as you work them into pastes.

Creating the colors

After I made the colors, I wanted to try some color studies with this limited palette.You can see that by mixing, I got a wide enough range of colors... but I couldn't create a real bright green without a bright yellow. All I had was the ochre. (Cadmium Yellow is REALLY expensive to purchase as a dry pigment.)

All my greens were sort of khaki, and my yellows were dark, but the variations I got when colors were overlaid were quite nice. I made lots of dots, letting some dry and leaving some wet as I overlaid other dots, just to see how the colors reacted and changed. It was fun!

I also played with lines, using the same color palette I had created. I found new colors while I was doing this study. Corals and pale pinks came out, though I have no idea from where! Well, that's not exactly true, but it was nice to see them unmuddled by other colors on my palette. 


Here's the final products from my three pieces created for this study...

I had a really fun afternoon/evening making dots and lines out of colors. I essentially had five original colors that I created from dry pigments: Cadmium Red Medium, Ultramarine Blue, English Red Dark, Yellow Ochre, and Genuine Green Earth. Pretty crazy, huh? I encourage playing with colors, especially if mixing isn't your thing. You learn a lot from playing with things! That's how we start out as kids, after all... learning from playing! It's the best way!


xox

Rocking Cats

Okay, I had found this rock that at first I thought looked like a heart, and so I picked it up. It sat in my studio for months, until it changed from a heart to a cat.

Alexandre

I decided to turn it more into a cat with some acrylic paints. After I painted it, I sent a photo of it to K, who promptly told me that he looked like "Alexandre" from an old episode of Home Movies. And that is how he came to be. 


I've always had a fascination with painting rocks since I was really young and my mom bought me a little pamphlet sized book called "Rock Painting," which took the art to another level. The images were inspiring, colorful, and sparked my childish imagination like nothing else at that time. I painted several rocks, which ended up in my mom's garden in the back. Some of them my best friend and I tried to sell to our neighbors as paper weights, "or whatever!" But I can't remember if I ever did sell any of the earlier ones.... they weren't all that pretty, to be honest. You can probably imagine. Ha ha! 


Anyway, I wanted to post this because it's been a helluva week, and I needed some lightness. K's dad passed away last week, and the family had been planning the funeral, then attending the funeral, and now it's all over and I think we're just completely drained. It's a lot of emotional output, and input (from all the people who care) and a person can only take so much, you know? Once there is some time and distance from the past week, I will post my thoughts. Right now, though, I just need to breathe and let go of all thoughts. It's time to just Be.


Thanks to all who have been so supportive, both publicly and privately. You are appreciated and loved.


xox

Valentine's Day Cards

Day Dream Kitty

I like to make my own Valentine's Day cards for the people who are closest to me. This year my theme was "Love Cats" inspired by The Cure's 80's classic hit. Well, it was a hit with ME, even if it maybe wasn't a world wide hit. Ha ha. I've really been into 80's music lately, in a nostalgic sort of way. It's what I listened to in high school, and it brings me wayyyy back! 


I made my cards out of watercolor paper, with watercolor crayons and watercolor pencils, as well as drawing pencils.


I already sent two of the cards out without scanning them to share with you, which I'm sorry about. They turned out really well, as they were modeled after cats that I know.


The other card I made is for K, so I can't share it until after he gets it. (He reads my blog, so it would be a spoiler if I posted it now!) The card here I just mailed out to my good friend, Debbie. I have a couple more to make today...


I hope that everyone is doing well, and enjoying their lives. We have our ups and downs here, but are learning to really appreciate the ups as much as possible! We had a particularly nice evening out at the local pub, just talking and munching, and realizing how lucky we are to have each other. I'm grateful every day! 


xox

A Peek Into My Work Day

A day in my work week goes kind of like this... 


I get up in the morning, meditate for 20 minutes, make my coffee and then sit at my computer reading some blogs and sipping my morning cuppa. By the time I've gone through all my favorite blogs, it's time to grab Jimmy Boo and hang out on the back porch with him. It's become our routine, and we both enjoy it. My coffee comes with me if I haven't finished it yet. Beckham is typically sleeping or laying in a window watching the world go by. Since he doesn't allow me to hold him in my lap outside, he doesn't come out.


I might have some breakfast, then shower. It depends on whether or not I'm going in early or later. If later, I push breakfast into brunch, and then figure out what to bring for my dinner. Then I get ready for work and start off on my walk. You've heard about my walk, and know that I stop at least three times to take a photo of something along the way.

There are still lots of flowers blooming since we're pretty much still in the summer season. It's starting to turn, though... the air is cooling down, and some of the leaves are falling in shades of red, yellow and mixtures of red & green. But when you look up, you still see mainly green foliage up in the boughs of the trees. 


This walk has turned into a kind of mantra for me. I review all the things that I'm grateful for while I walk. It's a ritual that I don't want to give up, as it gives me some early morning clarity about my life and my choices. I try to be very present while I'm walking, and not get too lost in taking photos or following the tracks that my mind might try to take off on. It's very easy to get lost in mind-noise.

As I near work, I allow my mind to switch over to work mode. And when I walk down into the lobby, I feel calmness and know that I am helping in this place, and that they want me there. I've connected with a lot of the employees and clients, and it's a place of positive energy. The scents and the lighting create a relaxing atmosphere that calms. The cleanliness is helpful in keeping that calm around me. My day has started. I answer phones, schedule clients, do laundry, clean, enter data on new clients into the system, and chat with coworkers while they wait on their clients. I also enjoy chatting with the clients. They all start out like normal people, then they get their massages and they practically float back into the lobby with messy hair, lines in their faces, and dreamy expressions. It's awesome!


I love the morning shift, as I get to leave at 3 pm, and walk home while the sun is still out. People here still greet each other in passing, for the most part. I like to notice the little bits of whimsy that people have added to their environment. You only have to pay a little attention to see things like this...

The imprint of a leaf in the concrete. There were several, but I share with you the best one that I saw. I wonder at who might have done this... a child? An adult? A man? A woman? When did they connect with their inner child and decide to dress up a boring slab of concrete with their tiny transgression? I love that they DID. The area where this leaf imprint lies is not near a private home. It's on the corner of public building, and there were several leaf prints, though this one was the best. They had to push pretty hard, you can tell. The displacement of the concrete shows that it had already started to harden, and thus was forced out in thicker waves when the print was made. Determined and naughty!


On my way home yesterday, when I took these photos, I decided to stop at a little antique store that's connected to an antique book store. I wanted to buy an ink well for painting with inks. There was a real ink well, but it was made for quills. I needed something I could use with my calligraphy pens, as that's the way I make my ink drawings. I found something that would work... a tiny little bottle.

I took it home for $3 and found that it worked perfectly! Much better than the $39 antique ink well would have worked. It suits me better, also. After I got home, did some dishes, and changed clothes, I started working on a new piece. As I had drawn Beckham the other night, I decided to draw Jimmy Boo. The photo I chose to work with has Jimmy drowsing on my table, with the sun hitting him and one eye half closed and the other fully closed. It was probably not the best photo to use. He turned out looking rather demonic, yet sleepy. He's the least demonic of my two cats, so this isn't an accurate representation of him. I'll share it, anyway.... I worked some watercolors over the ink drawing... It's okay. It's not the best. But I need the practice, and this was my first watercolor of a cat. The next one will be an improvement! So that was my typical day.

Jimmy Boo looking a bit weird.

Not bad as far as days go, right? Not bad at all.

30 Day Drawing Challenge Day 4

Day 4 of the challenge is to draw your favorite place. Well, I wanted to paint it instead, so I got out my watercolors for this one. Also, I tried to make my own watercolor using pigment, gum arabic and water. The color of the ocean is painted using this handmade pigment.

I think I need to add some more gum arabic to get it a little more adherent, and to make it more transparent... it looks a bit muddled, don't you think? I had to lift out areas of it with a paper towel. To be fair to my painting, it looks better in real life than in my photo of it. Anyway, it was a fun process, and I'd like to make more of my own paints in this way. The problem is that pigment is a bit more expensive than a tube of watercolor or acrylic. So I have only two pigments at the moment. I had another three jars of earthen clays, but I can't find them yet. They're somewhere...... 


Check out Allison's blog to see the work of the other participants! It's cool that there are a few other people doing the challenge, and they're not girls! As far as I could tell, most bloggers were women, but it looks like there are some guys out there... very cool! I like what they've drawn, too... check it out! 

Colourless Art Masking Fluid - Watercolor Study

Good morning, friends! I have my cup of Hazelnut coffee to sip and I'm excited to share another study with you. Last weekend I made a painting using Colourless Art Masking Fluid. This is almost like using rubber cement. You use it on your watercolor paper to mask off areas that you don't want any paint to adhere to. I used it to layer color and words on this broadside that I did. It's one of e.e. cummings' poems. One of my favorites.

Above picture is after I did some washes with the masking fluid applied to the areas where the words will go. I first had to wait for the page to dry. Then I rubbed the masking fluid off with my thumb. I tried using a rubber cement eraser, as they suggest, but it didn't work as well as using my thumb & fingers. It peels off quite nicely, though when I got a build-up of watercolor on my skin, it smeared a bit on the white area (top right.)

Above are some close-ups of the page, before I did another few layers and the words. I also scratched the paper using a paper clip, to get the lines you see. The paint makes the lines darker, so you get some added texture.

Above is my finished broadside. I had done more masking, more color washes, and then painted the words of the poem with watercolors. The colors turned out more Easter-like than I had intended, but it's the season, and I just go with the flow! Below are some details up close of the finished broadside.

I hope that you enjoyed learning about this new process! I imagine it would work just as well with acrylics and inks. I haven't tried yet. I am fully immersed in watercolors, and loving every minute of it!


Oh! Tonight is my first glass-blowing class!! I am really excited about learning a new art form! It's been extremely warm here the past few days... Easter was around 70, yesterday got up to 79, and today is supposed to be hotter! So being in a foundry tonight is going to be sweaty, but I'm looking forward to letting the heat soak in... it's been too long since I've been warm on a regular basis! Check out these pictures I took during my walk around the neighborhood. I love using the Instagram app on my iPhone to add filters... so fun!

Pink dogwood

Same dogwood, different angle

I'm going to finish my cup of Hazelnut coffee (it's so yummy!) and read some blogs now. I hope you have a fabulous day. Remember to enjoy each moment you are in. It's a gift. That's why it's called "the present."


xox

Positive and Negative Space - Watercolor Study

I did a lot of painting this weekend... a lot of spring cleaning, too! The painting was a way to keep me sane during the process. It was intense, and yet satisfying, to get into the nooks and crannies of the apartment, and to put things away, and to reorganize and redecorate. I had wonderful help, of course, and by Friday afternoon, the place looked amazing! (Weekend started on Thursday, because K had spring break.) So, speaking of taking things away, I worked on a couple studies of positive and negative space... 

First half of first picture, using stencils I created

Other half of first picture

Detail

Detail (you can see the damage from stencils lifting)

Second painting, reusing stencils

Detail from second painting

The first picture I made, the stencils stuck to my soft press paper. I was disappointed, because I thought that I bought the right "contact paper" for this project, but it wasn't very good. Too sticky. However, when I reused the stencils, they didn't stick as much, but they also let the paint seep under. Not a big deal, really. I used cold press watercolor paper for the second painting to prevent the damage seen on the first painting (above.) Cold pressed paper did the trick, really. But I'm going to have to do some research on good contact paper to use for this type of painting, as I like the effect and want to do some more! I think the images remind me of illustrations on children's story books... as K put it, "Very friendly shapes and colors." 

Watercolor Study

I just can't seem to stop painting with my watercolors! I hope that I'm not boring you too much by sharing my work. (If I am, please let me know via email, ha ha!) 


Yesterday, I did a study of a sand dollar that I picked up on a beach in California. I love sand dollars... indeed, I love any kind of treasure from the sea! So I tend to use them in my still life drawings and paintings more than anything else. I hope you like it.

Close up of large sand dollar

I'm not much of a letterer.... though I wish I were! Still, I'm working on it, I'm working on it. For now, I'm just pretty happy with how my sand dollar watercolor turned out! 


I'm currently learning to use colorless masking medium, which is fun! I'll share that with you when I'm done with that piece. 


Today is going to be about spring cleaning! K's aunt is going to be coming over tomorrow evening, and I don't want to gross her out with the state of the apartment as it is now! All I've been doing is painting and making books, with only the kitchen remaining clean. A lot of work needs to be done! K's home for spring break, so we'll be busy little bees around here!


I hope you're all having a fabulous and creative kind of day!! xoxox

Two Things & Serendipity

First thing: I went to a vegan bakery called Vegan Treats this weekend and got these amazingly delicious treats...

All of them are so delectable... from the Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Bomb, to the Chocolate Encased Strawberry Shortcake... they're all amazing! Apparently, many restaurants in New York carry their desserts, but lucky me, I'm living 5 minutes from the source! 


Second thing: I'm painting again. This is my latest...

 It's an ink and watercolor painting that I've been working on. Sorry the photo looks so dark, but it's a gray day here today. I think that's why I added the warm lights in the windows and the smoke coming out of the chimney. I'm not sure if I'm done yet. I keep on tweaking it. I was inspired by Karla's painting from one of her posts this week. The idea of "home" is something I've been thinking a lot about lately. I think it's because I've been so house-bound lately. Anyway, I hope you like it. Obviously I'm still experimenting with watercolors and color-play. It's just so gratifying! I love the serendipity of watercolors... you often get a very different result than you first see when you're working. It shows up later, after the colors have dried. Things you thought weren't so nice turn out lovely. 


xoxox 

Experimentation Continues...

I am still playing with watercolors, and still trying to find the effects that I like. I've really been enjoying Water Paper Paint, by Heather Smith Jones! In my last post, I showed you the first few projects. Another one of the exercises that she asks you to do is shown below, along with a color study I made up myself...

Study of varying brush sizes

Color study (left side)

Color study (right side)

In the last two, every color I used was layered over a red and orange under-painting. I just wanted to see how it affect the cooler colors, as well as how it affected the similar warm colors.


I will probably be playing and experimenting for the next month, ha ha! It's so much fun seeing what the layering of colors does, and how the treatment of the paper before painting alters the effect of the paint. 


If you have any interest in learning watercolors, I really recommend that you get this book! I even took watercolor classes a few years ago, which taught me some good things, but this goes beyond classical watercolor techniques. It helps you learn to paint with the enthusiasm and unbridled creativity that you had when you were a child! It's so much fun!

Playing With Watercolors

This weekend, my book came in the mail... I've been excited to have a guide to getting back into the creative process with watercolors. This is a wonderful book for exploring the various ways you can use watercolors to paint images, find exciting textures, and mix it up with other media! You might want to have an artist's board and some painter's tape to start.

A process called dripping and blowing

Detail from bottom of "dripping and blowing" experiment

Another detail from same project

Two halves of "ochre color study"

As you can see, I had a lot of fun, and created some interesting color studies! I did some drawing in the last one, of a leaf, a seashell and a quail figurine. I didn't show the whole painting because I felt it wasn't quite balanced right. But I liked some of the details.


I have to take Jimmy Boo into the vet this morning, so this is going to be a short post today! Wish us luck... only think good things!


I hope you're having a great day! xox

Hand Drawn Recipes

I've mentioned to you before that I like to paint and draw.... and you know I also like to cook and bake. After seeing a blog post on Shannon's blog, ** Happiness Is...**, I decided that I'd like to try my hand at doing both! So I submitted my hand drawn and painted recipe to They Draw and Cook's website, and they posted it! I didn't win the contest that I was also entering, for California Fig, but I concede that the submissions which did win were just lovely!


Here was my submission:

My art work, recipe from California Fig

Also, after I posted this on my Facebook, I received a commission to do one for my friend's Mother's Day gift to her mom, of one of her own recipes. So I'm currently working on that project! Very exciting! As I haven't actually painted in a long time, other than abstract backgrounds for my book pages, it was a real change of pace and definitely required a different kind of thinking. I'd forgotten how to look at things with my Artist's Eye. It's taking some getting used to!


So as I do more, and get into the groove of painting again, I'll post my projects for you to see! It was definitely a lot of fun to do. (Of course, I'm dodging cat paws and breaking up the tussles over who gets to sit on the paper most of the time....) It's still a magical process for me!


I hope you're all having a lovely and creative day!


xoxo