Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Have Another Art!

This week's piece is not what I hoped it would be. I wanted to have a fun bubble art piece with a lot of different points and a slow fade, but... I kept losing count of the pixels, kept slipping up and drawing over rounds, kept getting distracted, kept forgetting which direction the color-shifts were heading.

So instead I made a fun gradient out of squares:

"Square A"; digital; 2023
[GEOMETRIC]

I quite like the colors I chose for this, and while it's not the smoothest gradient I could have done, part of that is because I scaled it up about 500% from its original size (which was roughly 1" square). The other part of the reason is that I increased (or decreased) each RGB value by 5 (less on smoother rounds). I had a set of 6 colors that I wanted to hit and went from each to the next, adjusting with every round.

I hope to have another piece out eventually which has more colors (though very similar ones) and using bubbles instead of concentric boxes, but for now, we have Square A, and Square A is very nice, in my opinion.

What do you guys think? Do you have any suggestions for me, for how to make the process easier (without buying/downloading any Adobe products)? I'm currently using Krita & Paint.net.

I find Paint.net much easier for making pixel pieces like this, but Krita is great for painterly pursuits.

Anyway, that'll be my short little art blog today. For a piece that took 30 hours to complete, (due to the 15 or so previous iterations that failed miserably), I don't have too much to say on it lol.

For now, I think I'll focus on getting cozy for the night and working on a very poorly-thought-out crochet project that may or may not work.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Did A Digital Thing LOL

Since I've been addicted to Stardew Valley the last few days, you might be able to guess that I haven't been painting much.

You'd be right.

In fact, I decided to do a random colorplay study with Paint.Net!

"Devolution_Pink"; Digital Art; 2023
[GEOMETRIC]

As you can see, the project was... interesting.

That arrow in there is not a mistake - I used the different shapes in Paint.Net and then built a gradient off of that. the fuzziness of the image is actually intentional - I outlined each shape with a gradient from one color to the next and sort of played around with making my own gradients. I could make a much looser gradient if I wanted to, but I kind of like the slightly blurry look.

To be perfectly honest with y'all, I really love making bizarre little images like this. I like just going bonkers with colors and shapes. I'm trying to train my instincts so that I use better combos of colors, tighten my palette (my first instinct is to Use Everything Everywhere All At Once). I'd prefer to have a tight palette or a specific gradient to play with.

As for the rest of tonight, I'm going to be fiddling around with some more art, playing with my yarn, and maybe I'll throw in an hour or two of Stardew (I'm in Year 3 and Grandpa was Pleased!). I feel pretty cozy, and tomorrow is supposed to mostly be good weather and bright sun, so we'll see about that, too.

For now, though,

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which There is Some Art!

I've had a busy week, and most of my attempts to paint came to naught. I've wasted several sheets of paper, sadly.

That being said, I did have a couple of good GEOMETRIC pieces!

"BLOQZ" digital; 2023 [GEOMETRIC]

"Ellipse"; digital; 2023 [GEOMETRIC]

Now, clearly, "Ellipse" is a much more successful piece. I kind of lost control of the "Bloqz" pallette, but I stuck to 6 colors for "Ellipse". It's actually quite pleasant to look at!

I might throw that one up on the Threadless store...

Anywho, I'm happy with how this turned out. If you have any requests for next week's art (I'll be away from home, but I'll still be able to do a little art!), send me a coffee on Ko-Fi with a message telling me which category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word) and I'll get a picture done for next Thursday!

For now, I'm going to go watch some videos and go to bed lol.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Did Art :)

So last week I randomly generated a number between 1-7 to determine which category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric) I would draw from this week, and I got Geometric. 

Then one of my lovely readers, Z, bought me a coffee over on Ko-Fi and chose another category for me to draw from - Animal.

That means that I have two finished artworks for you!!!

"Bunnyboi"; digital; 2023 [ANIMAL] [Coffee]

I am.... so happy with how this little sketch came out! It's so cute and soft and sweet and I'm so impressed with the way I finally got some control over color and line. It's taking some time, but I feel like I'm really figuring Krita out.

Actually, the next image was created with me finally figuring out one of the things that bothered me so much about Krita and its color-picker. See, the default on Krita is the Advanced Color Picker, which is basically the square, circle, or triangle gradient that you click on to make your colors. I... don't like that, to be honest. It feels unnatural to me.

Turns out there actually is a way to manually input Hex codes into Krita, it just took a little digging on both Google and Krita to find. With the ability to take random colors on Coolors.co and plug them into Krita, I was able to make this week's Geometric piece:

"Lace Panes" digital; 2023 [GEOMETRIC]

I rolled some random colors, picked some random brushes, and scrawled out this fun piece for a Geometric fill, and to be honest, I'm not upset with the way it came out. Knowing now what I've learned from this piece, I think Geometric pieces will be a lot easier now. Turns out if you zoom in on the area you're going to fill and then carefully outline it with a freehand select tool, you can absolutely go to town on every single cell of a piece without overwriting the outlines! I look forward to making some fun stained-glass-like pieces now!

As for next week's Guaranteed Category, we've got... Location! So next week I'll 100% have a Location image finished.

If you want a say like Z had this week, you can send me a coffee over on Ko-Fi (it's not super expensive, I'm pretty sure it's just three bucks US) and leave a message with your donation telling me which category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word), and I'll make a piece based off of that category for next Thursday!

How are all of you guys' art projects coming along?

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Did A Geometric Art!

I'll be honest, I haven't thought much about art this week. I started working on my promised Geometric piece.... yesterday.

Should I be drawing every day? Yes. That was my goal. I have not even met it by 10%. That's okay. I just haven't had the focus. Maybe I will soon?

Regardless, I'm pretty happy with how yesterday's art came out!

"MiterSquare"; digital; 2023 [GEOMETRIC]

Today's piece was made in Paint.net using a sequence of colors in 20x20 pixel squares, each spaced one pixel apart around. I'm quite pleased with the variety of colors and tones I got!

I wish I had more to report on, art-wise. I just haven't felt particularly inspired. I think it's this yoyo weather. I woke up to snow again. We've been having warm days lately, but no, yesterday and today were in the 30s. Boo.

And I'm still sleeping poorly. New pillow hasn't helped. New sheets have not helped.

In fact, I still overheated last night until about 7AM, when I woke up cold.

Did I get up to go draw or write? No.

I kicked the sheet and light blanket off and pulled my red fluffy blanket over me so I could sleep for two more hours.

Because I'm a horrid little goblin who hoards sleep, I guess lol.

Anyway, I think I should go drink some water, since my lips are dry and my eyes are itchy, and then I might try to sketch something for next week. I'll be out and about tomorrow, so I probably won't get much art or writing done then.

Next week's Guaranteed Category is MINERAL! Oh boy, let's try not to have any... inappropriate designs, I guess lol!

If you'd like a say in what I draw next week, feel free to send me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with a message telling me which category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word) and I'll draw or paint something in that category. If you pick the same category as me, that means I have to do two pictures in that category (two minerals, for instance). If you pick something different, you can tell me whether or not I'm allowed to roll it into my Guaranteed Category (if, say, you want an animal, but you're okay seeing what I come up with for animal + mineral, tell me!).

Anywho, that'll do it for me tonight. I'm already pooped, and I need that water.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

This Week Has Been Weird

So I normally complain about how tired I am and how I can't sleep and wah wah wah, but man, this week has been * ~ * w E i R d * ~ *

I slept almost all day yesterday. Seriously. Got up at noon. Went to bed at like midnight the night before. Did the same last night and slept til nearly 10AM. It's snowing, so it's all quiet out there like I like.

Don't know what it is about taking care of a couple of very old, shockingly chill (though occasionally naughty/ridiculous) Jack Russels, but I've been helping out on Mondays & Tuesdays, and it has meant totally-zonked Wednesdays and barely-functional Thursdays every time.

Frankly, I'm okay with it. I have rarely slept so well.

Kind of annoying to miss out on a whole day of progress, but that's just life.

Speaking of progress, uh... not much has been made on that shawl. I've worked on it for a total of... less than 20 minutes.

I cannot be sorry about that when I've actually finished three separate pieces of art for you guys today!

"Side Eye"; graphite on sketchbook; 2023 [DEDBERT, ANIMAL]

This first image is a fun little sketch of our boy Dedbert giving a Look to a confused little squirrel. This was composed and sketched during coffee while the snow fell softly, right before the snow stopped, in fact lol! I love drawing little scenarios where Dedbert, who is actually only about the size of my head, is much bigger than other animals. I have a Beanie Baby nearly his size, after all...

"Independence"; Digital; 2023 [WORD] [GEOMETRIC]

Did I use the ol Red White & Blue to signify Independence? Yes. Did I also use the letters of "independence" to plot out the shape here? Yes. It's been a hot minute since I did any bubble art. This one was made in Krita with a few different brushes. Sadly, my 2-in-1 tablet computer croaked, so I did this using my XP-Pen and my normal laptop, which... doesn't always work out great for me. See, when I use Krita on the 2-in-1, it lets me draw around things without buffering. On my laptop, it buffers and that's why the lines are more jagged. It's very frustrating.

You know what isn't frustrating? This last piece:

"Mountaineer"; digital; 2023 [LOCATION]

Oh boy am I satisfied with the way this sky turned out! This is another blender/brush combo experiment and I'm thrilled with how it came out. Especially the way the colors are blended on the mountains. That's the blending stump on Krita used against several other brushes in multiple colors. The sky is all pens with the first wet blender in Krita. The water was made the same way. The trees are several brushes and pencils in shades of green blended down with the cotton bud blender, and the ground is one of the watercolor brushes with a pallet knife blender run around it.

I will keep experimenting with ways to blend colors and build depth, I think, because it's really fun to experiment.

All of these images this week were requested via Ko-Fi, so if you'd like a say in what I paint or draw next week, feel free to drop me a coffee over on Ko-Fi along with a message telling me what category you'd like (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Location, Dedbert, Word, Geometric) and I'll make it happen, no matter what life tries throwing at me. Come dogs or blizzards or insomnia, I will make the art!

Speaking of making art, I have been working on that manuscript, still. Today's word count was a whopping 365! That means that since last Thursday I've gotten 1077 words done. Not as good as some weeks (I missed a few days like yesterday, wrote less than 100 on others) but that's still more than my goal of 700 words a week!

And how about you guys? How have your creative projects been going? Have you guys been getting anything done? Are you looking forward to working on something artistic? I hope so!

As for me, I'm going to go back to bed - yes, I'm still sleepy and cozy and dopey. I'm okay with that. I got three pretty okay pieces of art and over 1000 words done this week. I did good.

And so did you.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

In Which This Week Was Rocky, Art-Wise

 I didn't manage to draw or write every day this week, and that makes me sad. I'm not angry at myself - the days I didn't write or draw were days when I was either exhausted or uncomfortable. I needed rest. I rested. That's all there is to it.

I'm not sad because I "failed" in my resolution. I'm sad that I didn't get to draw on those days because I love making art.

I did make some art, though, and I've done a lot more writing this week than I thought (feared) I might! Over 450 words since Sunday, in fact! (And yes, I am aware that 452 words/4 days is over 100 words per day, but half of those days were actually between 40-60 words...)

"Fox"; pencil sketch; 1/6/2023 [ANIMAL]

"Doodlebug"; digital art; 1/11/2023 [GEOMETRIC]

"Dream Sea"; digital; 1/11/2023 [LOCATION]

The fox was scrawled while I was 2/3 of the way asleep that evening, and it was haphazard at best. I think I might try to make an abstracted version of it eventually, like last week's abstract nude. Maybe shades of brown or orange?

"Doodlebug" was a lot of fun to paint in Krita. I took one of the larger pens and a black tone, drew random shapes with my eyes shut and the image zoomed out, and then painstakingly filled each section with blues chosen at random, using a different brush for each color. I really enjoyed making that one, and I'd love to experiment with other line-weights, colors, and patterns.

"Dream Sea" is very much an experiment. You can tell just by looking at it that I was running out of steam at the top, but I'm incredibly happy with the way the water looks! That effect is not something I could easily replicate with watercolor. I took several tones and weights of magenta/lavender/purple and scrawled them across the piece haphazardly in different directions. After that, I used every single blender in my basic version of Krita and went over the whole piece repeatedly. I'd love to try it again some time and maybe make a cityscape or something!

Regardless, art was not easy this week, so I'm hoping that after today, it'll get easier. You may notice I haven't got any art from today proper. That is because I don't think I can make any art today. My knuckles ache and my eyelids feel grainy, so it's another sore and tired evening for me, I guess. That's not the end of the world. I'll make more art starting tomorrow, I'm sure!

I have some ideas regarding pixel art to experiment with, after all!

That'll do it for me, today. If you want to have a say in my art in the coming week, send me a coffee with a message telling me the category you'd like (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word) on my Ko-Fi, and I'll prioritize your category so it 100% gets made next week!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Did All The Art This Week!!!

I'm shocked at how much art I was able to crank out this week! I promised myself I'd try to at least sketch every single day, and I did! I have 5 pictures from the 1st to today, and I'm incredibly proud of myself! I'm posting these below with a format of Date (month/day/year); "Title"; medium [tag]. The tag is what category I would consider the artwork in.

1/1/2023; "Possum"; pencil sketch [ANIMAL]

On the first, I sketched this awkward little possum hanging from a branch. It was a quick sketch that used one of my mechanical pencils and a few reference photos, though I invented the pose.

1/2/2023; "Silence"; pencil sketch; [ANIMAL]

Along with my daily drawings, I'm also trying to write at least 100 words in one of the stories I'm writing. The story I'm working on now involves snow, a very unhappy person, and themes of brokenness and repair.

1/3/2023; "Abstract Nude 01"; pen and pencil drawing [GEOMETRIC]

I don't do a lot of nudes, but I liked the idea of trying to use positive and negative space, texture, and shape to suggest an image. I like how the neck turned out, but after that, I kind of forgot to add the negative space and things got hectic. I still like the image, though.

1/4/2023; "Banana"; digital painting [VEGETABLE]

In my ongoing quest to master Krita, I painted this scribbly banana. I'm actually super pleased with how vague and slightly unsettling the soft background is compared to the jagged scribbliness of the banana itself. Also, I know a banana isn't a vegetable, I just use the VEGETABLE tag to denote any plant or fungus or lichen. Bananas are berries. Look it up if you don't believe me lol.

And for today's art, I present to you...

1/5/2023; "Abstract Nude 02"; digital painting [ANIMAL/GEOMETRIC]

This painting was a lot of fun, if a bit difficult, and I think I'm going to be exploring more of this style in various colors. In fact, I think I'll get a bit of help from that Coolors website that generates palettes. I consider it both GEOMETRIC and ANIMAL, since it's a human (animal) and also abstract (which counts as geometric for tagging purposes).

Since I don't have a lot of experience with bodies, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to convey a Large Person, but I think I did pretty well, even if I had to adjust the left breast a few times to make it stand out less. I'm really loving experimenting with Krita, too! I'll be continuing the art next week, gathering all the art until Thursday and then posting it all at once. Sometimes, I'm sure, I'll either miss a day or draw something incredibly dumb or oversimplified. I'll almost certainly have some really ugly art, too, but I think it's important to accept that not every piece is going to succeed. It's good to know when to stop and try something new.

If you'd like to have a say in the stuff I draw during the week, feel free to head on over to my Ko-Fi and send me a coffee with a message telling me what category (ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MINERAL, DEDBERT, LOCATION, GEOMETRIC, WORD) to work from, and I'll put it up with a little thank you. If you prefer anonymity, let me know that, and I will simply call you a Kind Patron.

That'll do it for me this week, guys!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Tested Out An Artistro Palette!

Christmas brought me some great gifts, as I hope it did for anyone reading this who celebrates. One of these gifts was given by some awesome friends of mine, and it was a great little Artistro palette, which I'll be reviewing today!

The Artistro Premium Quality Watercolor Paint Set came with some fun goodies!

The palette itself came in a lovely pastel mint turquoise cardboard box, which also contained a small sheaf of Watercolor paper, a little card about Artistro itself, and what I think is a sticker, though I can't figure out if it really is or not. 

The Palette itself!

The palette itself is a nice tin box in the same pastel turquoise color as the cardboard box, and while the metal isn't nearly as thick as my black palette, it's still quite convenient to have everything in a lockable case! The latch gives it a leg up on most of my palettes, to be honest, and it has a few other things going for it, too - it has a flat bottom so I can actually set it down places, it only has 2 parts when opened, so it can just sit open, it's fairly tall so I don't have to move brushes as far, and it's a nice soothing color.

Inside is quite nice, too!

Opening this palette reveals that it comes with a few goodies besides the paints! Firstly, it has a big, hefty water brush that feels like I could sit on it accidentally and not break it, plus a fineliner brush! The black pen is actually an acrylic paint pen - the first one I've ever used! And it has three mixing wells and a very large sponge, which are great for when you're changing or mixing colors. As for the lower half, there's a sturdy plastic sheet with a little cutout for your finger so you can pull it away from the paints and... guys...

It's one of the first palettes I've ever had that NAMES ALL THE COLORS outside of the swatch card!

And they're fairly popular color names, too, allowing me to try mixes I've seen elsewhere!

The palette does, of course, come with a swatch card, and it's printed on the exact same watercolor paper that came with the kit, and it's good paper, too, which really surprised me. I'm used to swatch cards that are cardstock or cheap paper, and this was great.

It helps matters, too, that the paints, while small, are very smooth.

These are, no joke, butter-smooth watercolors. Swatching the palette out, I only noticed a few tones out of the 48 that were harder to get consistent - the lightest blue, the lightest green, the fluorescents, and the metallics. Even those would probably have been easier to swatch if I'd spritzed the palette first instead of just stroking a damp brush over the pans 10 times each.

And I'm really pleased with the granulations I see because I love granulations in my tones.

Now, the Artistro palette is not the only art supply I received for Christmas. My mother made sure to buy me a nice Strathmore pad and some new brushes, since the ones I've been using are... well... they're water hogs that don't lay color well, frankly. I've been entirely relying on my waterbrushes and one or two fineliners because the rest just don't paint well.

These Phoenix brushes, however, paint very nicely.

And I will eventually have to start working on bigger paintings
Because these large sheets are tempting.

But I'm still pretty braindead from the holidays, so instead of testing my supplies out on some massive art piece that relies on vast quantities of water, patience, and time, I instead tested things out with a fun little Geometric piece.

"Bubbletime"; watercolor and acrylic; 2022

I used a 7 Round for all of the bubbles and outlined them all with the paint pen. I was very nervous that I'd spill the paint all over my bed, but I activated the pen very slowly and gently (shakeshakeshakeshake, press, pause, press, pause, press, pause, see that the tip is black, draw a small doodle on a scrap page, then get to work).

It went far better than I'd hoped, and I think I'll be adding this paint pen to my passel of liners for future projects! It layers perfectly over watercolors. Speaking of the watercolors, they went on very smooth, though if you don't use wet-into-wet as your technique, it can be a bit hard to even tones out. The paints also dried fairly fast, though that could have been because I had my ceiling fan on and the air was fairly dry.

All in all, if you've been thinking about trying out the Artistro 48 color watercolor palette, I'd say go for it. It's perfect for someone who is trying to make art, especially on a budget. The paper is good quality, the paints are fun, and if you're not planning on preserving the original pieces (I can't speak to the colorfastness of the paints, since I haven't had them long enough to test), then this is a great kit for you. Especially if you've been meaning to see if an acrylic paint pen is right for you with your watercolor art.

If you'd like to have a say in what I paint or draw next week, feel free to hit me up on Ko-Fi with a donation and a message telling me what category you'd like to see (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Geometric, Dedbert, Location, Word), and I'll pop it up here with a little thank you note!

And thank you to all my readers who kept me posting throughout 2022!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Played With Pixels & Blending

So today, I have a couple of small (250px square) images. They're both digital art.

They're also the same image.

So in the first image, I drew in Paint.net. It's all squares, believe it or not!

"Blockage" digital art; 2022

As you can see it's a bit fuzzy because the scaling got messed up again. I switched to a new computer, one I'll be using strictly for art, and it's a learning process.

After making this piece, I copied the canvas and strolled over to Krita, where I tried out the blenders.

What I wanted was to blend each square into the next.

What I got was an out-of-focus misty background.

"Blendage" digital art; 2022

Now, obviously, I have a lot to learn about how Krita and Paint.net work, especially now that I'm using a 2-in-1 tablet/laptop with a dynamic pen!

As for that pen... it doesn't seem to respond accurately to Krita. If anyone knows what they're doing in Krita and can point me towards a way to make a Latitude 7390 with dynamic pen work with Krita, please let me know.

It'd be really fun to play with line weights in a more naturalistic way.

I did end up scribbling a few different sketches in both Krita and Paint.net, but I forgot to save those as sharable images, so you'll just have to trust me when I say I think I can make these programs work.

As for the rest of tonight, I have a virtual date with a certified cutie and we're gonna watch some YouTube together.

This is not a euphemism. I am, in fact, that boring.

Until next week,

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Experimented Again

Today's art is... odd.

And also I restarted it way more times than you'd expect from looking at it. This was as good as I could make this piece look before it drove me totally insane.

I wanted to experiment with ways to make a piece look like digital waves, and I think I kind of did that? But it also kind of just looks like television static.

Next time I work on something like this, I should try and make a background in neutral grayscale tones that looks like the static fuzz!

"Wave_01"; digital art; 2022

What's fun about this randomly-colored piece is that, as a png, it can be put over various backgrounds, which can reveal new colors that you might not be able to see on a solid white or black background!

I also used a much smaller canvas than I'm used to (a 500x500 pixel canvas, to be specific).

The more I look at it on the white space, the more I like it.

I'm actually much more satisfied with this little experiment now than when I went to write this!

I can think of about a dozen other experiments I can play around with based on this concept, too, so that's also really fun.

How about all of y'all? How are your guys' art pieces coming? Did you write this week? Did you put down some lineart or sketches? Did you doodle a little potato man in the margins of your notes?

I hope today was kind to you!

And I hope you go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

Today I Made Something GEOMETRIC

This week's abstract geometric creation was brought to you by too much coffee and hyperfixation!

I plonked myself down in front of my computer at around 11AM with every intention of just... doing some lineart over a pre-scanned sketch or something. I wasn't feeling too creative.

And then I started making lines, and...

"CHAOS"; digital art; 2022

Now, at first blush, this doesn't look too odd. It's some colors, fractured around each other like broken glass. If you zoom in, however.... it's a madhouse in there!

Yes, it has taken me until now to experiment with the different fill settings on Paint.net, why do you ask?

The only other thing that really happened today was that a squirrel took a breather on my kitchen steps today. She scurried up the railing and leaned against the top post, keeping an eye on things. I think me standing in the kitchen in my fuzzy Darth Vader pants and Power Rangers tee, sipping coffee, made her nervous, because she never once looked away from me. Unfortunately, I have a screen door and my phone only wanted to take pics of the screen, so no squirrel for you :(

I really enjoyed falling down the creative rabbit hole playing with this one, and I think I could do some more with a similar concept (not identical, though). I'll keep playing tonight, I think.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Did A Lot of Art

This week, rather than wait til 10pm on Wednesday night to find out what I'd be posting on Thursday, I decided to start working on some digital art pieces starting on Friday last week!

And I finished... several. With more in-progress.

These artworks would probably best be described as "Geometric" in terms of my list of possible labels, so here are a series of abstract geometric digital artworks!

"Linegraphic #1"; digital; 2022

"Linegraphic #2", digital, 2022

"Scoop #1", digital, 2022

As you can see, I'm experimenting with different colors, line-weights, and curves, and I'm having a lot of fun while doing it! Each piece is 500px square, and I really enjoyed playing around with them. I might try the shape function next week.

As for today, I'm just enjoying myself and taking it easy. I've listened to a lot of jazz, I've worked on more art, I've crocheted, I've advanced the plot of one of my stories (and some day, hopefully you'll get to read those...), and I've drank... nowhere near as much coffee as I'd like. I should really get another mug!

If you'd like to have a say in what I make for next week (in addition to the things I'm already doing) please feel free to send me a Ko-Fi donation with your request (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Geometric, Location, Word, or Dedbert), and I'll get on it!

Also, these designs are available on my Redbubble shop!

I hope you're all doing well, and I hope you can all...

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

Art is... hard.

Geometry ended up being this week's theme and I thought to myself "Z got me a really cool reflective bag for my birthday with all these awesome triangles on it, so I should make triangles!!!"

Ladies and gentlemen...

It would appear that at 32 years of age, with a full 30 years of art experience under my belt, several straight-edges, and even a freaking stencil...

I can't draw triangles.

Like... at all.

Seriously, look at that mess.

Yeah. I let out an audible "oh yikes, no" when I saw how bad it looked after backing away.

And that, my friends, was finished at NINE FREAKING THIRTY PM!

Yikes indeed.

"But Casual," you may calmly and reasonably point out, "couldn't you have started earlier today?"

To which I would say you're usually right but the last couple days have been cat-filled and assistive on my part. Which just means I've been serving largely as cat furniture and helping my mom with plants.

Not the most "oh I couldn't possibly work on this!" kind of situation.

But it is what it is.

I pulled out two of my palettes (the Peter Pauper travel palette and a nice black steel 48-color-set from Emooqi) around dinner time, poured a cup of paint water, filled an oral syringe with water to activate the metallics, and set to work.

And failed.

And tried again, and failed again, and then finally got the triangles above finished and realized while inking them that they looked...

Awful.

Well, that's no good, so I got up and stalked around my room for a bit, steaming and stewing, before I finally said "well, if triangles are gonna be this hard, I'll just do diamonds"

"Diamond Panes"; watercolor on hot press paper; 2022

And so I did!

I'm so happy with how this turned out! I like how the colors worked together (a real concern when you're using paint from two separate palettes) and how the diamonds interlock. I'd almost like to try it again with a thinner straight edge so that I could get more diamonds on one sheet, but I'm still very happy!

The Art Station, complete with Failure

Let me tell you, it can be hard to paint and draw on a bed, so I could not be more thrilled with the really sturdy bed tray Z got me for Christmas. Honestly, he's been a godsend for my art!

If you'd like to have a say in my art next week, feel free to toss me a coffee over on Ko-Fi and leave a message saying "Animal" "Vegetable" "Mineral" "Geometric" or "Location"! Your suggestion will determine the art I make!

That'll do it from me for tonight. I'm exhausted and it's nearly midnight lol.

Go Enjoy Something!!!

FC