World Watercolor Month - Final Week

I can't believe it's the final day of July. There were days when I didn't know what yo draw, other days, when I thought everything I created was not good. But Si made it! The motto for the World Watercolor Month was 31 Watercolors in 31 days and I'm proud to say I did a few more than 31. But before I get to that, let's look at this past week's submission.

Day 25

This was done in my daily journal. My girls and I went shopping and stopped st Garbanzo's for lunch. It is a Mediterranean version of Chipotle's. It's not gourmet but pretty tasty. The drawing is in a weird perspective since I was holding the wrap as if to eat it and I snapped the picture. I had a difficult time drawing the hand because I kept trying to draw my hand like I think they should be rather than what I saw. I think this is a common obstacle among new aspiring artists like me because we have an ingrained image of what things should look like. Practice, practice, practice!

Day 26

This piece was probably the most "liked" piece in the FB group that I shared. Funny because this was done fairly late the night before because ai just couldn't decide what I wanted to paint. I really wanted to keep practicing the loose painting method but Ibthought my previous attempt was a major fail. So after watching several YouTube videos, I started to paint...no pre-drawing; only paint. And once I got going, I felt somehow connected to the piece. And one of the videos I watched the artist used dark green and purple together so I added purple. I actually felt good when I was done. Perhaps that feeling was transferred into my painting. I definitely love the loose style so much when I see other paintings posted. And I'm not sure if it's really my thing but I'm going to keep trying!

Day 27

The end of the month was approaching and I hadn't painted any of my favorite subjects! So for this day, I chose an elephant. Although not completely loose, Ibtried not to worry too much about all the textures. Instead, I focused on light and shadows. I used neutral tint, ultramarine blue for most of the body and added a bit if quinacridone rose. I was really happy with the way this turned out.

Day 28

If you've been following me, you know how much I love coffee! And I can't believe I hadn't done any coffee art. I've never done a top view before. And I really wanted to try painting the bubbles. After drawing the cup and painting the inside with watered down raw umber/burnt sienna mixture, I began darkening with burnt sienna/ultramarine mixture, leaving the reflected light and the inside edge clear. For the bubbles, I just jabbed lightly with my brush. And it worked! For the background, I used the four-color theorem to create the mosaic look.

Day 29

You've seen me draw lots of Okinawan things before. And this is my third attempt at drawing Hanagasa, the flower straw hat that Okinawan dancers wear.

I can see an improvement in my drawing skills but I really like the saturation in my second one. I used the Japanese brand of paint called Kuretake Gansai Tambi. I was too impatient to let it dry and layer more color do that's why my painting looks pale. Some day, Im going to try the kimono! Some day...

Day 30

This is another math-related piece that uses fractals. Fractals are simply shapes, designs, patterns that repeat infinitely. So technically, this is not a fractal in the strict sense, but it does have a repeating motif.  I've always loved swirls, so that was my main motif, done mainly with circles. I love how colorful this is. I painted the background and I added layers of color for the circle swirls.

Day 31

And for day 31 - July 31, I painted my odest two children as it is their birthday. And they only let me photograph them on special days, I used an old favorite from when my son was 4 and daughter was 2. And I can't believe my son is 17!! Time flies.

And so this concludes the World Watercolor Month. But the group is going to continue.. I won't be able to paint everyday but I will try to contribute..

This is all that I painted in July. I didn't share everything with the WWM group but I wanted to use this month to create as much as I could, not only larger pieces but also in my daily journal. And I enjoyed every minute! 

I start work tomorrow, only professional development for now and school starts August 10. Teaching for me takes much of my time so I may not get to paint much. I hope I can. 

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 3

I can't believe we are half way through the month already! This past week for me was getting back to my "roots" and doing more journal art rather than art pieces. And as much as I love seeing others' works, I found myself trying to create pieces that others would appreciate or acceptable rather than what I find inspirational. So I'm trying to learn from others but apply the learning to my style, if that makes sense. So here are the pieces from this past week!

Day 11

I had jury duty on Monday so I took my art supplies with me to pass the time. Good thing too, as I waited 6 hours and being excused. Luckily, I won't have to appear for at least 18 months. I found I don't like people staring at me while I painted. It's natural for people to be curious, but I kinda had performance anxiety.. Lol. 

Day 12

So if you have been following my art process, you know I usually start with a quote. I thought about things that scare me artistically.. There lots of things of course but I chose painting glass. It's difficult because of caustics (how glass reflects and refracts light) and dealing with different shadows and highlights. So I tried painting my olive oil carafe. I think for the most part I was successful. Green is so hard to render. Most greens that come in a kit or you buy are bright Christmas green and that's not what most greens in nature are. So you have to mix. What I found helpful is a YouTube video by Teoh Yi Chie about color mixing. So I used his method of using the color temperature to mix my greens.

Day 13

Today's focus was people. In my journal, I painted Dustin Pedroia, the second baseman of the Boston Redsox who happens to be my son's favorite player. The night before was the All-Star game and though Dustin was not chosen, I wanted to try to paint him. The second piece was done in my journal last year but I wanted to do it on a larger sheet so I can have it printed. I've been playing with creating skin tones so this was a great exercise. I'm liking Perylene Maroon as my red for skin tones.

Day 14

I practiced brush lettering with watercolors. Brush lettering with brush markers is hard enough but trying to use watercolors and blending the colors is really hard. So I practiced and created this.

Day 15

I had drawn a pair of eggplants in my journal the day before because I made baba ganoush which is a creamy dip made from roasted eggplants. And for day 15, I thought I'd created an illustrated recipe spread. Though both sets of eggplants look good, Ibreally liked the first better - I thought the color and the reflection were better in the first. 

Day 16

I have these inkpads that are dew drop shape. They are India ink pads which means once dry, they are permanent. So I used the inkpads to stamp a few dew drops on watercolor strips and immediately sprayed with water. Some of the ink ran but the shape remained. And while the paper was wet, I added watercolors. Once the whole thing dried, I used metallic gelly roll pens to draw embellishments. These will be bookmarks, though my kids said who uses bookmarks anymore.. Lol

Day 16.2

Here is a spread with lots of zentangle patterns and shaded with Neutral Tint (watercolor paint that is grayish). It's so much easier to shade with paint than with a pencil and a blending stump!

And finally Day 17

I used two colors, Quinacridone Gold and Ultramarine Violet and a straw to create this piece. I used water to create the flower shape and dropped quin gold and used the straw to blow. While wet, I dropped ultramarine violet. Together, they make mud, or a cool brown. Once dry, I dropped more violet so you can see a bit of the violet. I've been holding on to this quote for awhile and thought perfect with this painting. But I almost ran out of space!

This month so far has been so fun. I actually have to start planning for the upcoming school year next week and I actually have to go back to work the last week in July! I'm so happy that I got to spend time creating again. Hope you all have a great week!

World Watercolor Month

Charlie O'Shields over at Doodlewash has launched a world-wide celebration that brings artists from all over the world in different skill levels together! The whole month of July is dedicated to creating watercolor paintings!

The challenge is to create 31 pieces in 31 days. So I'm going to participate! The piece you see above is Day 3. I tell my math students all the time that it's important to know how to solve equations but it is equally important to see if your answer is reasonable.. I think I'm going to have this printed as a poster for my classroom.

Day 2

I played around with masking fluid today. I used an old brush and some liquid Frisket to write the quote. And then painted over that. Once dry, I removed the Frisket and voilà! The quote does apply to me.. 

Day 1

My husband and two of my children (on the ends of the painting) are in Boston visiting family. My other daughter had mandatory cheer practice the whole month of June so she and I stayed home. My sister-in-law sent me a photo of some of the cousins so I tried to paint it. I left the details of the face until the end and I should have stuck with just using watercolors. The pen I used just made their faces too harsh. Faces are difficult..

And yo get ready for the World Watercolor Month, I did color charts of my watercolor supplies in my fauxbonichi.

Yes, I have probably too many.. And then of course this happened...

I bought a set of Sennelier paints because they are heavily discounted. And two new brushes. Who knew brushes would make such a huge difference. 

So I hope to post my pictures on Sunday's of this month. It's great to create again.

July is World Watercolor Month!

My friend, Charlie O'Shileld over at Doodlewash petitioned to have July be the official month dedicated to watercolors! And Charlie has challenged artists from all over the globe to participate in 31 watercolors in 31 days. Check out the details here.

I can't wait to participate! Hope you can too! 

Only Art..

It has been months since I went a whole day not doing math. I needed to take a day off even though I have so much planning to do for my summer class of algebra 2 that starts next week. 

I learned a new zentangle pattern called "Skye". I think this pattern has lots of potential for variation with all the ribbon-y twists and turns. The pattern itself didn't take me long to do, but it was the pattern, Quandry underneath that took forever! Here is the drawing before color.

I don't know what made me add color (since most of my zentangle pieces are b/w). Like I mentioned yesterday, I'm out of practice, but it feels good to doodle again.

Happy Tuesday!

Siblings

Today is my little sister's birthday!! Happy Birthday, Muts! (Pronounced moots, for Mutsumi) If you noticed the date on the art, you'd know that I painted this last weekend. That's because I wanted to send the card to my sister for her birthday.

My sister and I are very close. In fact, she's my best friend...someone I confide in, laugh or cry with. There aren't many pictures of us together because we weren't together until she was 8 and I was 12.

My parents divorced when I was 4 and my sister was a few months old. My father took my sister and I stayed with mom. I did get to visit my sister but she was never allowed to spend time with us at mom's. Mom tried through the legal system but as a single mom, it was difficult to convince the judge that my sister was better off living with us than my dad and his new wife.

My mother remarried to an American soldier and about a year before my dad (I've always called my stepdad, dad) was transferred back to the states, we found out that my sister was living with her aunt. My biological father had divorced and no one wanted to take care of my sister so she was sent to his sister. Once we found out, we finally got the custody. It was hard at first. She didn't really know mom and dad didn't speak Japanese. And for a few years, she clung to me. 

My dad had adopted me before we left Okinawa and did the same with my sister. She went to the American school on the base but she spoke no English. It was a tough adjustment for her.

I remember at the end of the school year, I was to attend a week long camp to a neighboring island with the 5th grade class. My sister begged me not to go, but my parents though I should go. When I boarded the ship, I could see my sister hysterically crying. It was probably the hardest thing I had to do. Mom told me later that my sister didn't go to school the first two days but was fine enough to go to school on the third day. It also gave mom and dad and Muts to get to know each other.

I think because of the past, we are very close. My kids can't believe that my sister and never fought. It's not that we didn't annoy each other, it was that it never was important enough to "win." For the longest time, she was my shadow, always wanting to hang out with me. And it was in middle school that she began to really hang out with her own friends. It was a little sad for me, knowing that she had others that she could rely on.

Muts is a beautiful person inside and out. The quote I found is meaning for so many reasons. We've been through so much, but we've gotten through them all together. And even today, we still hold hands when we are together. I'm sharing a little bit of our story for my kids to read at some point.

Yesterday, I drew my kids hugging as this was probably the last time they all hugged each other. Lol. And though they fight all the time, I know that they confide in each other. I hope that as they get older, they will support each other and be there for one another. 

Okinawan Hat

I must be feeling nostalgic. When I saw the prompt for today, a hat, I immediately thought of the traditional Okinawan hat called the hanagasa. It represents the hibiscus flower that can be found on the island. The blue sections with the white waves represent the ocean surrounding Okinawa. 

I wrote about Okinawa before in this post. But just comparing the two drawings makes me pause. Here is the drawing from June 19th, 2015.

It's not bad.. But looking at my drawing from today, I really see a change in my technique..

I love seeing the growth..

I'm also working on something special for my sister for her birthday next week. I was thinking back to our lives back in Okinawa. Well, that's for another post. 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! 

The last few days..

Here is today's prompt... My pet. We found Vince at the Humane Society in Houston. We had looked at other dogs in various shelters and in fact, we had picked another dog. But after thinking it over, we decided that the other dog was too small for our family. After looking at Petfinder.com, my oldest daughter wanted to look at this funny looking dog at the Humane society. So the three kids and I went to see him.

This was 8 years ago. There was something about him that connected to us. So we adopted him. He was and still is, a very timid dog. He doesn't play with toys and though he wants his family near, he doesn't like to cuddle. He gets very upset when there's dancing and he especially gets upset when I hug my kids too long.. Lol. 

He is like my fourth child and he truly is my dog. When I'm sick, he stays with me, not even eating if I'm not downstairs. He looks for me when I'm away. And he gets very upset if I spend anymore than a minute in the bathroom! 

Well, I'm must have been in a nostalgic mood because yesterday's prompt was rubber ducky and I immediate thought of my daughter's 2nd birthday party.

I was 8 months pregnant with my third and I was baking and decorating a ducky cake! It took hours!!! And I probably will never do that again.. Jess and her friends played outside where we set up several play pools with duckies while rubber duckie themed children's songs played. 

I used to love planning themed birthday parties that were a bit over-the-top.. Not in expense but in labor.. Mine! They were all time-consuming projects for me, but I don't regret one second of it.. Fun memories for sure!

Favorite Sci-Fi Character

Stanley Kubrik's 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of my favorite science fiction movies. With minimal dialog, ambiguous themes and lack of special effects, this movie differs so much from the current record-setting Star Wars: The Force Awakens. But I love both.

It's been awhile since I've seen the movie so I won't talk about the film, but every time I've seen it, it was with a group of friends and I loved the discussions the movie generated about the relationship between humans and machines, artificial intelligence and the origins of the universe. Pretty nerdy stuff. But what can I say, I'm a nerdy gal and proud of it too. And that quote! Lol...

But I'm here to talk about the art.

The background was done with Inktense block and applied with a baby wipe. I find that the baby wipe is the most effective way to get color to go on smoothly. The lens part was done using Daniel Smith watercolors and I used Pyrrol Scarlet and Phthalo Blue. You're thinking "what?" 

Since the center is orangish red, I wanted  the whole gradation to black to contain that same red. You see the color mixing chart I created comes in handy for something like this. I used varying amounts of Pyrrole Scarlet and Phthalo Blue to achieve the gradation.

If you ever have extra time, I'd encourage you to create your own mixing chart because you may be surprised by the range of colors you can make with just two colors.