World WaterColor Month Week 2

July is definitely speeding by quickly!  And I must say I've enjoyed every single day!  Don't get me wrong, I love teaching.  But having this month to decompress and create has been truly restorative.  And the piece above speak to my happy heart.  Continuing with using supplies I have, I used Holbein Watercolors to create this piece.  I knew I wanted a nebula-like background with white writing, so I started out using the Fineline Masking Fluid Pen to write the quote before painting.  Even after an hour of waiting, the masking fluid hadn't completely dried - it was somewhat still sticky to the touch.  The impatient me just painted over it.  Needless to say, the gummy masking fluid was really difficult to remove.  I ended up writing over it with white pen.  This is probably what I should have done to begin with.  

I wanted to recreate this on watercolor paper so I can print it as a poster for my classroom.  So I used Fluid 100 140lb/300gsm hot press paper.  It has a very smooth surface, very velvety to the touch.  I decided to skip the masking and patnted the whole hair and wrote the quote using Posca White Paint pen.  

I'm not sure if I like this one as much as the one in my journal so I'll have to decide later if I will print this.  But the decision to use the white paint pen was the right one!

Monday, July 10

The promt today was beach days.  I decided to paint an old photo of me floating in the ocean in Okinawa.  I had done this two years ago and it was interesting to see the comparison.

The drawing on the left is from two years ago.  The photo has faded considerably over the last several decades so I painted the ocean with colors I remember. I've no idea who the woman is.  I think that I'm able to sketch what I see better than I used to.  I'm never going to be those artists that can reproduce photographic images with watercolor, and I don't want to.  I think what I want is to be able to tell a story with my images.  I'm definitely not good with words, but certainly not good with describing emotions and thoughts so hopefully my sketches will fill in the gap.

Tuesday, July 11 - Summer Views

What does a blueberry muffin have to do with summer views?  Nothing, except that it was National Blueberry Muffin day and it was my view for the day.  I never have time to actually make breakfast for the kids during the school year, so it's nice to be able to do this on the spot.  I love blueberries and I usually snack on the them in the morning.  I also got to show off some brush lettering that I've been practicing.  

I love using Daniel Smith watercolors for baked goods, especially the Quinacridone Gold, Quinacridone Burnt Orange, and Burnt Sienna.  I've never been happy with other paints when I try to paint baked goods.  I started this sketch with Sennelier paints and I love them but had to switch to Daniel Smith to paint the muffin top.  By the way, the muffins were delicious! 

Wednesday, July 12 - did not use the prompt

This one required more time than I usually spend on a painting and several revisions. The first part was the girl.  It's a weird perspective for me, one I had not attempted before.  She is looking up and standing.  Because she's holding flowers, you don't see the rest of her body. 

As you can see, my original just doesn't look right, the arms are too rounded  she lookslike she's stretching.  So I decided to darken the bottom so that there is a fading effect.

Since I would be placing a quote, I thought this would work, and it did. Until....

I got to the last line of the quote and I wrote the worng word and my attempt to cover that up didn't work.  But since I had the previous picture, I could place the quote digitally. I used an iphone App called Over to place the quote.

But I wanted to see if I could somehow salvage the original.  So I gesso'd over the bottom but the letters still ghosted through.  I ended up using a correction tape over the words, and then added more gesso.

I then painted over the that and added the rest of the quote. 

I think I'm pretty happy with the result. 

Thursday, July 13

You've seen me use the ends of bok choy before, but this crop of bok choy came with yellow flowers in the middle of each stalk!  And not knowing anything about growing vegetables, I had to google to find out if it was safe to eat the bok choy.  I read that it could be bitter but still edible and we didn't eat the flowers but I painted them! Here's the finished piece with a quote. So at my house, not only do we eat our vegables, we use them as stamps! 

The prompt today was popsicle and I've never liked them much.  But I do love ice cream!  And lately, eating ice cream cones affects my waisteline significantly, so I've been having these Healthy Choice Fudge Bars.  And at 100 calories per bar, I can have it every day!

As you can see, I bought three books to help me with my creative process.  When school starts, it will be difficult to find time to journal everyday with illustrations.  So I wanted to loosen up my sketches so that I don't have to feel like I have to create a masterpiece everyday.  Art Before Breakfast by Danny Gregory and Urban Watercolor Sketching by Felix Scheinberger are perfect for this.  And those of you who are convinced you can't draw, you should really try Art Before Breakfast (Deedles, I'm talking to you!)  The third, Painting with Watercolor, Pen & Ink by Claudia Nice is to help me refine my skills. When I learn, I need to activate both sides of my brain, both the creative and the analytical. 

Friday, July 14 - Games in the grass

My kids usesd to love to blow bubbles and chase them! Especially when we lived in Michigan, we spent hours outside in the summer blowing bubbles.  I think they would still enjoy blowing bubbles, but definitely not outside in the hot Phoenix sun!  

Over the next few months (maybe longer) I'm going to be working on two art projects.  One is to create a comprehensive color chart and mixing chart using Tomoe River Paper, which is what my journals contain.  I've started a color mixing chart with watercolor paper, but TRP is behaves differently than watercolor paper so my chart is not as useful as it can be.  So I just ordered a separte TRP journal to serve as my color journal.  I actually can't wait to get this one started. I'm definitely using Jane Blundell's blog as my guide.

The second project is create a spreadsheet/database of my illustrated quotes.  I do have a bullet journal collection that lists the quotes and where the quotes are located in the various journals I have.  But I'm wanting a searchable electronic collection so I find the quote or the image easier.  I'm not sure yet how I'm going to do this, but will be exploring different options.

So, I have lots of creative projects to keep me busy.  By the way, I'm not going to use the Seven Seas Crossfield anymore because the company has changed the layout of the journal.  Instead, I'm going back to Taroko Shop Enigma on Etsy.  It uses a heavier tomoe river paper and comes with 380 pages, not as much as the Crossfield, but it has dotted pages.  I just ordered two journals, one for my color mixing journal and one for my bullet journal/art journal when my current Crossfield is finished.

I hope you have a wonderful week!  I'm going on vacation next week so hopefully, I can sketch/journal everyday.  My art supplies will be the first things I pack!

World Watercolor Month Week 4

It's hard to believe there is only one week left of the amazing World Watercolor Month! There are now almost 4000 artists in the group! And the quality of the pieces submitted are phenomenal! I'm glad I got to participate in this. And tomorrow, I ho back to work, for inservice. So hopefully, I will be able to participate until the end. So here are some of my watercolor pieces from this week.

July 18

I've had this quote in my journal for quite some time and when I saw in my mind how I wanted to illustrate it, it took me no time to get this done. Well, except that you have to wait for each layer to dry before deepening each color, because watercolors are transparent so in order to have rich colors, you have to layer. I used my Shinhan watercolors because they are bright in general and the set I have came with Opera Pink. It's not a color often used in fine art because it's one of the fugitive pigments, which means over time, the color can change. But I think I'm fine. I've used Mr. Poindexter's poems a few times and I just love his writing!

July 19

This was my day to play with wet-on-wet technique where you let watercolors do its thing. While one pigment is wet, you drop another color nearby (when the paper is wet) and colors will run towards each other. The piece on the tight was my feeble attempt at a impressionistic bouquet painting. And I absolutely love the quote because it's something I tell myself all the time.

July 20

I got a haircut on Tursday and in honor of it, I wanted to paint a selfie.. Here is the original.. 

I usually do a portrait when looking straight ahead so I wanted to try a different angle. I first glued a piece of sheet music by Bach that I've been trying to learn for years. And I also write the wave equation that describes the string vibrations. In my mind, they describe the two half of myself. I think art connects the two for me. The colors are somewhat muted because I used gesso over the sheet music and the equation to lighten them and I couldn't get the colors to deepen.

July 21

For this, I didn't have much in mind except, well, circles. I painted, dropped colors, and when dry, inked with a sharpie pen. Sometimes, going in circles is therapeutic.

July 22

I saw this image on a friend's Facebook page and I was immediately drawn to it. Nature has a way of warning other creatures to stay away from bright colors but some silly humans like me are drawn to it instead. I hope I never run into a real one. This is a red velvet ant, though it's not even an ant. This is a female version of a particular wasp and they are wingless and thus the ant-like body. I read that it's sting is quite severe. So stay away!!

July 23

I drew my friend, Charlie O'Shields in a superhero costume because I think he is quite impressive getting this whole World Watercolor Month started and organized. And he told me he would be a superhero if he could have a colbalt teal cape so that's what I gave him. He was quite happy with the "costume". Hehe

July 24

And finally, today's piece. You might be asking why are there four plates of challah French toast? Well, in one of the discussions in the WWM FB group, someone said in order to compare the different brands of paints, you should use them to see how they interact with other paints, whether the same pigments will actually produce the same color. And since I have several different brands of artist quality paints, I wanted to test them by painting the same subject. So I drew the first and made a copy of it and traced the rest. I used Daniel Smith paints for 1, Sennelier for 2, Holbein for 3, and Shinhan for 4. And for the first time, I used a 100% cotton hot pressed paper. It just means the paper is super smooth. I really liked how the paint glides over the surface! 

Though I didn't have all the same pigments from the four brands except for ultramarine blue, I tried to use similar colors to produce the image. I must say Amy favorite is #2, the Holbein. I love how the colors blended well and the intensity was easy to achieve. My second favorite is #1. I must say this might have been my first choice had I not overworked the piece. I think because this was the first one I painted, the need to be as exact as I could made me overwork some areas. It took me less than 5 minutes to paint #3 and 4. 

Overall, my favorite ultramarine blue is by Daniel Smith and I like the burnt umber too. I enjoy using all four sets of paint but the next time I'm working on a hit press paper, Im definitely going to grab my Holveins or Daniel Smiths. 

And I also used masking fluid for the white areas in #2-#4. But the blunt end of my paint brush was too thick as the masked area just looks like a blob of white instead of the fine dusting of powdered sugar. For the first, I used a white gel pen to create the dusting. Pure watercolorists would cringe at me using a white pen.. Oh well.

There are other pieces I created as cards and greetings but I won't share those. Next weekend when the month ends, I may do a video.. Stay tuned! Have a great week!

World Watercolor Month Week 2

Here are the pieces from Monday, July 4 - Sunday, July 10.

What you see above is Day 10. I used my compass to create the "seed of life" drawing which I've done before. This time, however, I used watercolors to to color the negative space. This ended up being more of a color study than a completed piece. I used three colors from Daniel Smith - Quinacridone Gold, Perylene Maroon and Neutral Tint. Using two colors at a time, I created several colors. Plus I added salt while the paint was wet to create the texture. I may use this again for othe tri-color combos.

Day 9

Sometimes when I'm stuck for an idea, I just draw myself drawing in my journal. It's a good practice to draw the hand. I'm disappointed in how light the hand is.. I always forget watercolors dry so much lighter. 

Day 8

Many things in nature follow a spiral pattern, petals in a flower, how leaves arrange themselves, pineapple rind, etc. There is a special sequence called Fibonacci numbers that appear quite a bit in nature. The sequence is simple, you start with 1 and and you add the previous.. So the sequence goes 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, etc. These numbers appear in nature. For example, the number of petals in a flower is one of the Fibonacci numbers. If you divide the two consecutive Fibonacci numbers, the quotient approaches 1.618 as you go higher in the sequence. That number is called the golden ratio. There is a relationship between the golden ratio and how petals are arranged. Ok, enough math. So I used my math knowledge to create the flower above. Pretty needy but so cool.. 

Day 7

My new favorite color is Neutral Tint by Daniel Smith. It's a wonderful grey/black on its own and it's great with mixes with other colors. So I used neutral tint in my journal and dropped tiny alcohol drops. Alcohol repels water and moves the color out to produce this light puff. 

Day 6

Here is another math related art. This is a tessellation art. Tessellation is just repeated patterns. You can slide, rotate or do a combination of both. I created a pattern out of a triangle and created a rotational tessellation art. The cool thing is trying to "see" what the pattern shows. I saw a bird, a butterfly, and a fish and decided to go with birds and butterflies. I should have gone with the fish. But I'm happy with the results. I decided to go with analogous colors (next to each other on the color wheel) for each. And I used a quote by MC Escher, who is know for his amazing mind-bending tessellation and optical illusions.

Day 5

Ok, the only watercolors you see are on the small piece of art.. I made that for a Facebook friend who is not doing well physically. But I also created that cool zentangle piece. I love transforming one pattern into something else. 

Day 4:

I actually worked on two pieces because I got up at 3:30 am and couldn't go back to sleep. So I fished one piece and started another. I love both quotes. The bamboo fountain piece was done in a realistic method so it took awhile it to complete. I used to love to watch these bamboo fountains as they fill and and empty. The second one was done without a pencil or pen for pre-drawing. All was done with watercolors. I was happy with the result..

So this concludes the second week. There are over 3000 artists that are part of this group on Facebook and it's amazing the talent! Check out the hashtag #worldwatercolormonth on various social media for pieces submitted!

Check out the website to order merchandise that benefit the Dreaming Zebra Foundation to provide art supplies for underprivileged children.

Weekend Art and October Video

Last night, I actually worked in my art journal. Yes, I do daily art in my Seven Seas Standard journal AKA my Fauxbonichi, but my art journal is different. How? Sometimes I don't even know. 

What's more confusing is that I have several different art journals, some wire bound, others are like the one you see above. I tend to use lots of mixed media techniques in my art journal. 

And in my Fauxbonichi, I also include my daily thoughts, ideas, or general nonsense. It really is meant to be a work in progress, not really planned. 

And here are my weekend pieces from my Fauxbonichi.

The prompts were:

Tinker Lab - Stencil (I used circle stencil)

DND Challenge - Paisely (I turned my Paisely into an enso)

Let's sketch it - Favorite meme (there are so many but this is one of them)

For today, the prompts were:

Tinker Lab - Copy (I copied the ribbon and the information)

DND Challenge - handwrite "be brave"

Let's sketch it - medical (this is what I used for the theme today)

And here is my October video! Music by Alexandre Tharaud playing Bach's Goldberg Variations No. 17

Forgiveness

Tonight at sundown is the Jewish Holiday of Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement. It is the holiest Jewish day when as a community you ask for forgiveness for sins committed against G-d. It is said that on Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year), G-d determines your fate the year and writes in the Book of Life. And on Yom Kippur, the book is sealed. So for 10 days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, you are asked to ask for irgiveness from the people for whom you have wronged. It means you can't pray all your sins away, at least those committed against people.

For me, giving forgiveness is easy but asking for it is difficult. Is it pride? Is it self-righteousness? Is it fear? I'm not sure. So I post the graphic above to ask for forgiveness from my friends on social media and hope that I'm forgiven. It is also said that if you are not given forgiveness, you should ask twice more. After the third attempt, G-D will grant you forgiveness. 

But for me, the most difficult thing is to forgive myself. And to give myself the permission to be imperfect. So to all that I have wronged, I ask for forgiveness, and that includes me. 

G'mar Hatimah Tovah!