Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which Another Dream is Made

This week's theme was "Animal", so a huge shoutout and thank you to Z, who caffeinated today's painting into existence!

Last week, I painted some pretty diamonds that had some neat color mixing, so I decided I'd try something similar this week! Except I did that thing I do where I do Too Much all at once...

I have 7 different watercolor palettes now - my original tube paints that I de-tubed, my Emooqi palette in the black tin, my Peter Pauper Press plastic palette, my pink-tinned metallics (another gift from Z, who is too fantastic for words), my Japanese metallic/pearlescents, my brush pens, and my watercolor pencils.

So I made a list of said palettes, and I added an 8th Category - "Mix", where I'd mix colors from 2 or more palettes together.

And for each palette, there was the number of colors plus the "Mix" category for within said category.

Yeah... for someone who supposedly hates math I sure do a lot of it for art...

Anyway, I used a random number generator and picked my palettes and colors based off of that!

For an entire image.

Last time, I just had numbers 1-96 and picked from either the Peter Pauper Press (1-48) palette or the Emooqi one (49-96).

This time, I got a number between 1-8 and then from there, I determined what the combinations were.

It was... a lot of numbers. I filled a sheet of notebook paper with two columns of colors!

Speaking of Paper, I used a sheet of my larger watercolor paper cut down by 50% across the middle. I don't use this paper often because it's 1) big, 2) unwieldy, and 3) expensive, but I'm so glad I used it today - none of my other paper would've looked as nice, and frankly, even the nice Hot Pressed block I used last week would've been too small.

"Deep Jelly Dreams"; Watercolor on paper; 2022

Top Detail

Middle Detail

Bottom Detail

This is another Dream image, and I hope some day to make a collection of Dreamscapes like this. I just really like the colors and the flow.

And yes, that's a small pink hammerhead shark sneaking out of the darkness in the bottom right corner.

I hope this piece made you smile, today. I have to say, working on it was super fun - each color, every wash and layer, was a surprise and a joy! If you've got a bunch of art supplies and you're getting stagnant on them, then I strongly recommend making a randomization table and creating based off of that!

For now though, I'll be heading off to bed. It's been a long day! If you're interested in choosing next week's theme, head over to my Ko-Fi account and send me a coffee with a message saying "Animal" "Vegetable" "Mineral" "Geometric" or "Location", depending on which category you'd like to see next!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

I Have A Sketch!

Today has been a major art block day. I have a pile of crappy papers next to the bed covered in junk scribbles, but I finally have something to show for it.

"Creature 01"; mechanical pencil on legal pad; 2021

That lil critter up there is a fusion of a South Indian Marble Tree and a lion. Why? I... couldn't think of anything to draw, tbh. I'd love to pop that lil sucker into my digital art program and color it! The branches should be a deep reddish pink darkening to red at the tops of the bell-shaped flowers, the fluffy bits inside the flowers should be white, the body of the lion should, of course, be a golden brown, and the mane should be dark green with rosy veins! I really hope I can do this boy some justice, tbh.

Now... why the South Indian Marble Tree?

Because I wanted to do something based off of a living thing, and that was the first living thing with a photograph that popped up when I hit "Random Article" on Wikispecies lol.

And why the lion?

Because that was the first non-human, non-building being that showed up on Google when I typed in "South Indian".

Inspiration isn't always pretty, but it is useful!

Anyway, I think I'll try a few of these kind of picture, and I hope I can actually figure out how to color them up all pretty-like lol!

Anyone have any video tutorial suggestions for Paint.net or Krita? I still can't get Krita to do anything that makes sense, tbh...

Whatever is going on, I hope you

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday - Procrastination Station

 

In Which I'm Working...
Just not on what I'm supposed to be working on...

I have been the busiest little bee when it comes to crochet this week!

Just... not the projects I was supposed to be working on (Lady Sibyl shrug I've been working on since 2018 says W H A T?!).

See, I get distracted easily, and when I fight that distraction too hard, I develop project block, which means that now I can't work on literally anything until I find a way around the block. It happens with writing, drawing, crochet... even reading! Yeah. Try and figure out that one :|

Regardless, I got very, very distracted this month, and now I've got about a dozen UFOs (Unfinished Fiber Objects) in my room. I'm working on categorizing those, but mostly, I've been distracted by a Very Old Problem and a Very New Toy.

New Toy First!

I BOUGHT A DROP SPINDLE!

That's right, folks. I'm one step closer to fiber self-direction! Now in order to make my own yarns all I need are materials which.... uh... I ain't buying sheep or alpacas. Maybe I'll learn how to sow, grow, rhett, spin, and dye linen? Maybe? idk.

Regardless, that is a cheapy drop spindle from Amazon and a package of silk mawata I'm looking forward to experimenting with. What's annoying is the silk was cheaper and easier to get than the spindle, but I can live with that :P

That's a project for another day (and believe you me, you'll be hearing alllllll about my botches with this new thing lol).

Instead, I present to you The Old Problem:

Meet Gordon.

Gordon, short for "Gordian Knot", is a pound of blue sport-weight yarn I bought ages ago. Probably 2012 or so. Wow. Wow I totally lost track of how long it's been. I guess I'm not exactly a beginner, am I?

Anywho, Gordon has been an incomprehensible tangle of blueness for ages and I'm more than ready to have him in working order.

Which he is graciously allowing.

Apologies for the blurriness of that photo - I was on tip-toes trying to get it all in frame.

That's not a tablet, guys. That's a laptop in the middle of Gordon's loop.

Hand for scale

Yes, that's how much yarn I've wound up from Gordon. His messiness means that I cannot use the fantastic ball winder I now own for him. I'd have no way of taking the unfinished ball off of the winder, passing him around the mass or through it and then reattaching the ball back onto the winder. It's just not a possibility. I have, however, learned one of Gordon's deepest, darkest secrets.

He's not truly tangled at all.

He's just awkwardly and unbelievably twisted on himself.

So I have him rounded out on my bed, where I put on a playlist of really fun vaporwave/mallcore ambience playing in the background, and I wrap yarn while slowly wrestling with Gordon.

Eventually, I may even get him put to rights and be able to use him, because that's been the goal for 2021 - USE THE YARN I'VE GOT.

Which is hard when 75% of it looks like Gordon. Or worse.

But if I can prove to myself that poor Gordon is not an overwhelming foe I cannot defeat without a knife, then I can untangle every single skein I have. Eventually.

For now, though, since Gordon is literally the only sport-weight yarn I own, I'm going to look for some nice patterns. Maybe a vest. It's a truly shocking cobalt blue, but I think it'd look quite nice as a fancy vest.

I just like vests, to be honest.

Well, that's what I've got going on. Apologies for the lateness of the blog - I've been running all over creation trying to put my bike in the shed, lower the treadmill (I... desperately need to up my stamina, hence the treadmill), burn some of the brushpile, look up videos on how to spin from a mawata (it sounds simple enough...), etc. Basically I'm pooped lol!

It's beautiful outside, though, despite the 21mph (33.8kph) winds. It's a sunny 56℉ (13.3℃), and it's finally drying off. I could do without the barking dogs, but it's spring and that's what dogs do.

Regardless, I've got some quality time to spend with Gordon now, so I must bid you adieu!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC