ARCHIDISIAC

Getting some stuff together for the gallery.

Painted this in an hour.  Didn't really care and it turned out alright.  I should just not think about anything I do from now on.

I never know how to price my work.

Not so happy with this one.  :(

In my head these ruffles really looked like ruffles.

It's been a long time since I've watercolored.  This is my second attempt.  You don't even want to see the first.  So difficult to get the shadow values right.  So difficult to get good at anything these days.

I really should have warmed up first then done the girl.  Instead I did the opposite.  Pooh.

Good ole Wyo.

Li River in Guang Xi from episode one of documentary Wild China.

Sorry my tree sucks.

Well these kind of suck a little...I was working with black watercolor so it was a little harder...I seemed to have misplaced the ink that I got from China which is richer and takes water a little better. But still, I gotta say, brushstroke painting is seriously the hardest. I know that I've said drawing fish is hard. And drawing hands are harder. And that drawing roses are even harder. But I think this takes the cake. Especially if you do it on rice paper with the right ink with the mat underneath. Lots and lots of practice to get it believable. As always, practice makes perfect.

You can find these at my Etsy Shop. Each on is a postcard.

Eff snow.

Well we got roughly 17 inches of snow so this weekend was pretty slow. I got about half my car dug out before I couldn't feel my toes anymore and gave up. I watched Anchorman earlier today and forgot how funny that movie was. There's a part where Ron Bergundy and company end up in the bear pit and basically have to fight a group of grizzly bears.

Well I got through 19 drawings out of 31 days in January. Really not too shabby considering I probably would have done considerably less without this blog. Anyways, deadlines met and done for now. Back to the drawing board.

Does anyone else find fish extremely difficult to draw? This is a FAIL. I put them up there with hands...something about their weird proportions. At some point in my childhood aesthetic development my Jesus fish grew fins and eyes and kind of never progressed past that.

When I was younger I really didn't appreciate the story of Alice and Wonderland and her travels beyond the looking glass. I like the story a lot now but mainly because I recognize how messed up and freaky it is. Anyways, I can't wait for the Tim Burton film to come out. The Cheshire Cat was always my favorite character. Something so right and wrong about a smiling cat. So sneaky. You never know what's behind that grin of his.

What I like about watercolor is that you only get one chance. It makes me slow down and really think about my strokes and what they will look like before I put the tip of my brush down. The key to good watercolor is no hesitation which I think I often still lack. Another thing to remember is white and highlights. Without it watercolor looks pretty bland and two dimensional. Once the white gets covered up you've ruined the painting. These are a series of drawings adapted from David Downton. If you don't already know about him, he is probably my favorite fashion illustrator. His strokes are minimal and full of deliberation. Some of the most b-e-a-utiful blending and simplicity I've seen. Check him out at http://www.daviddownton.com

Also you can find the wallpaper for this (1440x900) here.

Today's wikipedia article of the day was something about raptors. Sent to my friend Brooke.

Bongos are cool animals. This is kind of unsuccessful because I messed up the shading.

Ok sorry...I've been slacking. I had to work late all last week and then I went to DC to visit friends over the weekend. I know, not really good excuses. Anyways, I'll try to catch up or just do a really good drawing to make up for it this weekend. Anyways, this one I'm sending to my friend Adam as a postcard.