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| In Which Sometimes Projects Change... |
I've been working since the first of October on a special project. In it, I planned to have 31 pictures drawn, painted, sketched, etc. In each picture would be an animal, a plant, and a mineral that are native to my home state.
If that sounds overambitious, it's because it was.
Especially without a proper understanding of exactly what plants, animals, and minerals exist here...
So I reduced the number of pictures from 31 to 4. That seemed far more doable. That was last week. It took me until last week to start really painting.
And then I learned something else:
I cannot draw minerals yet.
I'm not going to show you my failures. They hurt to look at. They are in the trash, and I cannot learn by observing them, only through failing, trying, failing again, and trying some more.
That brought me to this week. The last week of October. With nothing to show for it.
How frustrating!
So I started painting.
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| "Sweets'; watercolor & pen on watercolor paper; 2021 |
You may be able to tell from the blurry image there that I'm not too thrilled with this one... It's too simplistic, too wonky, too a lot of things, but I do like those colors, so that's good!
The watercolors I used for all of these, btw, are all either from my Emooqi set or from my Arteza watercolor pencil set. This one is all Emooqi, though the black is just some Pigma fineliner.
Next, I decided to go a little more naturalistic...
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| "Three For One Special"; watercolor and Pigma micron; 2021 |
I love pumpkins, though not as pies, so just painting a trio of lil pumpkin bros chilling on a table was fun! This paper is also Emooqi paper, which is why it has that odd diagonal ripple to it. It holds water weirdly and cannot possibly be a rag paper - it feels like sketchbook paper to be honest, but if that's the worst part of my Emooqi set, I'll take it!
But it's still a little simple, yeah? A little plain and obvious. What about something horror themed? Something... spooky.
Something downright Shakespearean?
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| "Toil & Trouble"; Watercolor and Pigma Micron; 2021 |
I am... so proud of this piece.
Each of the ingredients you see are included in the Witches' brew at the start of Shakespeare's Macbeth - which while not vegan is considerably more vegetative than I thought.
Eye of Newt, for instance, is mustard seed. Wool of Bat relates to holly! Tongue of Dog is just a petal from an herb, same with Adder's Sting, though Fenny Snake and Blindworm are both actual reptiles. I also have the leg of lizard and owlet's wing on there, though the owlet in question is a moth, rather than a baby owl.
Finally, I decided to go for a less chaotic image and tried that Emooqi paper again, this time using only pens and watercolor pencils:
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| "Witchgarden"; watercolor pencil and gel pen; 2021 |
This is the witchgarden - a collection of plants (and one fungus) with witchy names! The branch is a witch hazel, the pink stalk is "Witch's Moneybags" (Sedum telephium), the green stalk is Witchgrass (Panicum capillare), and the yellow feathery plant is "Witch's Hair" (Desmarestia aculeata), and that little yellow blob is "Witch's Butter" (the fungus),which is a jelly fungus that grows usually on trees. Of course, you can also see the glittery black widow spider I added at the end!
I didn't like the bubbles/circles at first, but now they're really growing on me!
So what do you guys think about my October project? Did I meet expectations, or did I fall flat on my face?
I hope you've all kept creative this season!
Next week, I hope to have some other art, too!
That'll do it from me tonight - I'm pretty tired and I have some writing to work on tomorrow.
Go Enjoy Something!
FC
