I make stuff.
For years I have watched people mulling paint online in visually appealing and almost hypnotic videos with glittery paints that swirl and metallics that color shift. This isn’t going to be one of those posts, I don’t have it in me to do video or the energy to make everything Pinterest perfect.
Many people have taken to upcycling their old expired eye shadow palettes into watercolors and I happen to come across a few palettes recently and I’d thought I’d finally give paint making a try.
It Have you tried Urban Sketching? I never did, although I’ve always been interested in it. Every time I browse art books, I often gravitate to the books showcasing urban sketches. I like that they are generally quick sketches filled in with washes of color. They are imperfect and loosely drawn. Or at least most of what I’ve seen is.
Living in Seattle, I’m close to many iconic locations. From the waterfront to the space needle, it is pretty easy to find something to sketch. Many of my friends and past co-workers work at Starbucks and I am no stranger to stopping at the Starbucks Reserve at HQ on the weekends. It’s only a few minutes down the road and it’s a few blocks from several of the art stores I patronize.
Continue reading “Urban Sketching with Water Soluble Supplies”
I have one million watercolor sets at home. I don’t know why since I never really ever painted with watercolor. But I keep thinking I want to try it and I keep buying sets that someone says is awesome. I finally plucked a set of Dr. Ph. Martin’s watercolors off the shelf and decided to play around with them. I figured the best way to start was to create a watercolor mixing chart to see what the colors looked like and how they mix between them.
The other day I was poking around on my phone and decided to play with the stylus my Note 9 comes with. I rarely touch it. When I do use it, I use it for a long period of time and the Note 9’s stylus only holds a charge for 20-30 minutes. This can be aggravating when you’re using it to draw since you have to keep taking breaks to let it charge for a few minutes. Nevertheless, I was thinking about Fall, so I doodled out a pumpkin.
Now, I had a doodle on my phone, a ton of watercolor palettes sitting within eyesight of the couch I was sitting on and a new Cricut upstairs. After letting those 3 facts bounce around in my head for a minute, I came up with a plan and uploaded my sketch to Cricut. After shoving some watercolor paper into the machine, it drew out my pumpkin for me.
Last week, I had my wisdom teeth removed. I had put it off long enough that they were starting to cause problems so I finally got it done. It went surprisingly well. I just took a little nap and woke up with fewer teeth. And much to my friend’s dismay, I didn’t even wake up groggy. He couldn’t even take any embarrassing videos of me!
I had a long weekend at home (on painkillers) to wrap up some projects.
First, I got my latest painting out the door and delivered to the customer. Have you ever tried to wrap something the size of a dining room table? It’s not so easy! Hopefully, after Christmas, I can post some pictures of it in their house.
Then, I played with some Metal Earth sculptures. You’ve probably seen them around. This one was a train from Harry Potter.
I did a couple of them and I think I got those out of my system. They’re a bit too delicate and flimsy for me, but I had fun.
Then, I got out some of my watercolor sets and doodled out some stuff on my watercolor pads.
Turns out, I’m not a watercolor-er. I’ll keep trying and see if I get better at it.
After a few more doodles I think I’ll break away and start putting together more miniatures. I have a few kits laying around that still haven’t been put together. The first one I pulled out is a sewing room:
