Strollin' Beeza

Another cute one.  :)

ACEO, Canson XL Mixed Media, watercolor marker and watercolor crayon

Sunset, another

I don't even know how to title these.

ACEO, Canson Montval Acrylic paper, Japanese watercolor and watercolor crayon

Sunset - Mysterious Isles

The light was just amazing.

ACEO, Arches coldpress watercolor Artboard, Japanese watercolor and conte crayon

When Snow Still Filled the Earth...

This is actually from last week...or something.

ACEO on Arches coldpress watercolor Artboard, watercolor and watercolor crayon

Red Buds

This looks more like fall than spring, but I promise it's spring.

ACEO on Arches watercolor coldpress Artboard, Japanese watercolor and watercolor crayon

2016 First Flower From Scarlett

I hear some people are denying it is springtime.  Poofing Shibe and the flowers prove them wrong.

(Spring can be a fine season, though it's not my favorite.  What I have to deal with in my backyard reinforces this.)

Anyway, this is the first flower this year brought to me by Scarlett.

I did a number of iterations of it, as you can see.  These are all ACEO size.

Japanese watercolor on Strathmore Artagain

(see the gold!!)

Sumi ink and Japanese watercolor on Strathmore Artagain

Sumi ink and Japanese watercolor on rice paper

Sumi ink and Japanese watercolor on rice paper

Sumi ink and Japanese watercolor on rice paper

Sumi ink and Japanese watercolor on rice paper

Sumi ink on rice paper

Mad Butterflies!

Mad Butterflies!!

Butterflies are so incredibly interesting.

I have been thinking Scarlett needs a butterfly unit.  She was thrilled with the idea of going butterfly hunting (though was a little put out that we couldn't do it *today*...it snowed today).  Combining this idea with our theme, I thought I'd take the opportunity to do a scientific-esque drawing of a butterfly.

Even though we won't see Monarchs til summer, I thought it would be an appropriate start.  I've done a few copies of this...started out in pencil, traced it on some funky new graphic art plastic paper, and I have been working on inking it.

The wings were a bit mesmerizing.  The image started out on Bristol vellum and is 4x6.

Those don't have any color yet, so here is an ACEO on rice paper with sumi ink and Japanese watercolor  :)

Just-Barely-Not-Full Moon (photo)

I took a picture of the just-barely-not-full moon the other night.  The only thing I did to this photo was crop it a bit.

Clydesdale Comparison

This was painted on the same surface as my first Clydesdale, but that one was regular watercolors and this one is Japanese watercolors.

ACEO, Arches Artboard coldpressed watercolor, Japanese watercolor 

I scanned them side by side so as to see the comparison.  I wasn't trying to match color schemes exactly, and my methods were not exactly the same for painting these (the watercolor has conte crayon), but I think you can see how much I love love love the Japanese watercolor.  The colors are just smoother and brighter.  Both paints have their places, but I am really smitten with the Japanese.

Oh, also...the new one uses my new gold paint...ohhh my I love it!

小さい願彩

I got a big surprise last week when Jessica sent me this adorable little set of Japanese watercolor.

Oh it's so cute!!!

It's the same brand as my others, and Jessica thought she was just sending me duplicate colors (albeit in adorable-little-box form), but in actually I did not have this gold!  And it is an amazing gold, especially in the convenience of being in a pan.  Wow.  Such amaze.  <3 p="">

I have been using it, and I love love love it.  (The pen is very nice, too!  And the waterbrush!)

Mad Beer

Our theme this week is beer.

Haha!

Actually, I think beer is funny.  I don't drink it.  I can't claim to think anyone else should drink it.  Somehow I find it funny.

Go watch Strange Brew and maybe you'll understand, lol.

Anyway.  Actually...I do have more than this, technically, but this is all I got *done* as far as the theme.  It would have been better than this but my head hurts.  Not from beer.

ACEO, Arches coldpressed watercolor Artboard, watercolor crayon

Beer Shake

(does that sound delicious or what?!)

Awww Says the Dinosaur

Something a little different today.  :)

I wanted to do a little bold colorful work with my markers.

These are ACEO on Canson XL Mixed Media with watercolor marker, ink, and watercolor crayon.

Walk down the street

I went on a walk this afternoon and stopped to do a painting.  (Actually, I messed up my first attempt and went back home to get another board.  But eventually I was victorious.)

ACEO, Arches watercolor cold pressed Artboard, watercolor and watercolor crayon

Mad Space

Back to another theme done with Jessica, this one is space.  I was experimenting a lot and thinking about how water can look a lot like how we envision space, and vice versa.  I also just wanted to do a lot with color.  :)  These are all ACEOs.

Canson cold pressed watercolor with watercolor marker, Japanese watercolor, watercolor crayon, and oil pastel

 Canson XL Mixed Media with watercolor marker, Japanese watercolor, and watercolor crayon

Canson Montval Acrylic with Japanese watercolor and watercolor crayon

Sennelier oil pastel card with watercolor crayon and oil pastel 

(this one reminds me a lot of the ball-of-light-type aliens on Star Trek, which is good since that is what I was going for)

Canson Artboard canva-paper with Liquitex soft body acrylic 

(I found these on Awesome Clearance at Michael's this week)

I got a lot done this week; I'm a little proud of myself.  :)

Dear Budweiser...

Your commercial yesterday sucked.

The justification I saw for it was that "horses don't sell beer".

Um.  Yes they do. I don't even drink it and I've bought Budweiser before.  (In fact, I have some *sitting right here in this room*.)

(Nevermind that the beer is fifteen years old.  That is how awesomely horses can sell beer.)

The (boring) abomination you showed yesterday will certainly not sell beer.

And really, is anyone not buying your beer because your commercials are not...whatever?  Manly, I guess?  Bartendery?  People are not unaware of Budweiser's existence.  The purpose of your advertising is exposure, getting people to think of you.  But who on earth ever wants to see that torpid piece of coma-inducing narcolepsy again?  No one will ever look that up on Youtube.  

"Hey, you remember that one with the, uh, pouring beer?  And the...words?"

Not so much.

Let's think about it. Better idea, A or B?  A: Advertisements which create a unique appeal beyond your "normal" base (invoking powerful emotions which are not usually associated with your product and which are likely to be recalled spontaneously).  B: Uninspired flashes of images and "power words" which are clinically designed to appeal directly to your typical target customer (really really obviously appealing to your typical target customer, that is, to a point where only the most ignorant individuals of said customers will not realize it is anything except propaganda directed specifically at them).  

Advertisements are always propaganda, but let's be a little subtle and clever about it and at least produce something enjoyable, especially if you've proven yourself capable previously.  Then I won't even resent you!

In protest of the gross negligence on display yesterday, I painted the above painting today.  It is an ACEO on Arches coldpressed watercolor Artboard with Japanese watercolor and conte crayon.

Carribean

Above: Coral, Grand Cayman (aka Chicken Island)

 Last month I went on a cruise to the Caribbean.  It's a little ironic for me to have gone there since, well, I don't care about the Caribbean.  The Caribbean is one of the last places I would say, hey!  Let's go there!  (Admittedly, there are many such last places.)  But, the trip wasn't at all about the stops.  (We would have gone to Alaska had that been an option in January.  For some reason it is not.)  I basically did nothing except sleep, eat, paint, read, and shop.  It was both the most relaxing and the most productive vacation I have ever had.

And I learned a lot.  (Not least of which: "how to make fellow cruise passengers cringe"...namely, don't go on any tours or to the beach.)

I painted the sunset *every day*.  That itself was an incredible experience, but not only did I do that but I painted over two dozen paintings during the time.  I almost couldn't believe I had managed such a feat.

I won't post them all here, but I will share many.

Another feat: I packed exactly what I cared to have.  I was a little dubious as to why I was bothering to pack a few of the art supplies that I did, but I ended up using it all and I was soooo glad that I had each of them, as they all came in handy at one point or another.  If I hadn't packed both my conte crayons and my pan pastels, I would not have been pleased with many of my paintings, and I would not have learned how awesomely they consistently went with my wet media.

Sunset south of Galveston, TX

ACEO, Canson XL Mixed Media, Japanese watercolor and pan pastel

North of Grand Cayman

 ACEO, Strathmore Toned Gray, conte crayon, pan pastel

Sunset after Grand Cayman

ACEO, Canson XL Mixed Media, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon

Between Aruba and Bonaire

ACEO, Canson XL Mixed Media,  Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

Bonaire

ACEO, Canson XL Mixed Media, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

Between Bonaire and Grenada

ACEO, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon

Grenada

ACEO, Arches coldpress watercolor Artboard, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon

Martinique

ACEO, Arches coldpress watercolor Artboard, watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

St. Maartin

ACEO, Canson XL Mixed Media, watercolor, conte crayon

Sandbar, Aruba

4x7, Canson coldpress watercolor Artboard, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

Martinique 1

4x6, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

Martinique 2 (continues to from the right of the above painting)

4x6, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

I was fascinated by the water right by the ship, and I painted it a lot.

5x7, Canson Montval Acrylic, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

6x6,  Canson Montval Acrylic, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

6x6, Canson coldpress watercolor Artboard, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

8x10, Canson coldpress watercolor Artboard, watercolor marker, Japanese watercolor, conte crayon, pan pastel

I learned a great deal from painting so much (and reading about Japanese grammar...who does that on a cruise??  I do.  Yes, I do.).  I had no idea the Caribbean could be so pleasant.  :)  The color of the water really was unbelievable.

I'm sad I couldn't post my Grand Cayman Chicken, but I don't have it anymore and I forgot to get a photo of it; I will try remember to post it later when I get one. :)

Today's Sunset 2

While the kitties and horsies have been battling it out, I have been painting.

Today's sunset, all Japanese watercolor on Arches artboard, ACEO

Sunset Today 1

Today I painted and fixed dinner at the same time.  And dinner wasn't even burned.

This is an ACEO on Arches watercolor Artboard using Japanese watercolors.  (Only one thing this time!)