Thursday Art Walk

In which I Discover I must change my schedule...

 Don't be alarmed - when I say "change my schedule", I'm not talking about how often/what I blog about. No, I am talking about the order of operations I have throughout the day.

Currently, I wake up, have my coffee, get washed & dressed, and then set about the hard work of... trying to figure out what to do next. I always mean to do more than just crochet a bit and doomscroll, but somehow I always end up just doing that. And then I write in the evenings. I have been intending to also do art at night, which is when I usually feel at my most productive.

But I've never been a spectacular multitasker.

In fact, I'm rather terrible at performing multiple trained skills in the same time blocks.

So I will have to add something to my mornings.

I'm going to try, starting tomorrow, to sketch while I drink my coffee.

Usually, I've been playing armchair for the cat, parsing out random story ideas, or grumbling at wildlife during my morning joe, but that clearly needs to change if I want to ever get a consistent art schedule down.

Besides, the light is so much better during the day, and for the next couple days, I won't be going outside at ALL.

No, sir, I'm not interested in experiencing what a Real Feel of -63℉/-52.8℃ day feels like. Not in the least.

The frigid temperatures are, of course, being caused by the same weather that's icing over the southern US right now. My heart breaks for everyone trapped in that mess. Mainers like me will remember the Ice Storm of 1998 - this disaster to our south is that, but in states that have no infrastructure or citizen preparations for such weather! It's nuts!

Up here, we're just getting wind and bitter cold.

I cringe at 14℉/-10℃.

Anywho, I only managed one measly sketch this week. At least it's a fun one!

"Assemblage"; mechanical pencil on sketch book; 2023
[VEGETABLE, MINERAL, ANIMAL]

This little sketch is of some random, gravity-defying twigs, a cherry, a bottle, a beetle, and a small rock. I started sketching it as kind of a mindless image, just letting shapes form. I kind of like it!

I hope to do more art next week (sound familiar? lol) but we'll see if me changing up what time of day I draw works!

As for tonight, I'm sleeeeeepy as heck. Keep staying up way too late reading dumb stuff, doomscrolling, YouTube bingeing. It's silly. I'm silly.

So what I'll do is get cozy, and actually try to sleep tonight.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Show You Progress & Errors!

Alright, I've been following YouTuber Nianiani for a few weeks now and I've learned so much! That picture with the seashells I posted a while back? Based on one of her tutorials. Couldn't have done it without her.

So I decided to try more of her tutorials!

She's got these lovely fruit, flower, tree, and even bunny tutorials but I am very hot. Today reached 87℉ (30.56℃) and it was so humid that it felt over 100℉ (37.78℃). I wanted to go to the freakin beach, but I didn't wanna go outside.

So I decided to try two of her tutorials involving the ocean!

The first attempt was a seascape with trees and a beach and it was lovely! But I literally could not make my paints cooperate, and since she utilizes quite a bit of Buff Titanium (a well-covering off-white tone I do not own yet), alas, I had to abort.

Attempt the Second was simply an aerial view of a wave coming in to shore. A study on the interplay of blue and gold (not Ted Kord & Michael Carter). A... highly complex layering experiment.

That I botched.

Twice.

Now, fortunately, Watercolors are fairly forgiving, regardless of what you've heard. They are forgiving, but they are also hard to substitute, and if your painting calls for pans and you have pencils, you're going to have to become... creative. Especially if you have committed the cardinal sin of painting without swatching your tones first.

Which is what happened to the first two tries I made at this piece.

Which I'm also not finished with yet.

Because I'm not in the AC anymore and my bedroom is a toasty 85℉ (29.44℃) plus an uncomfortable level of humidity. I have no one to blame but myself for being too stubborn to sit downstairs at the couch, battling the cat and wearing headphones. Yes, I'd rather have my inner knees sweat than my ears.

I'm dumb like that lol.

So here they are - my attempts at watercolor!

Try #1 at the Wave; Watercolor; 2021

What went wrong here? Well, you may notice the visible sketch lines in the background, but the other problem is... the blue is too irregular and too small. You'll see why if you watch the vid or see picture #3 lol.

Try #2 at The Wave; Watercolor; 2021

So what's wrong with this? Uh... kinda same problem - blobs too tiny, background gradient not very good.

The Wave; Watercolor; 2021

As you may be able to tell, this is the version I'm going with. Is it perfect? No. But I love that gradient I've got going from the deep water to the shore. I love the soft sand gradient. I am satisfied with the third layer of paint accentuating the ripples of the water. I can work with this.

Bonus: This was actually my first try at the Seascape painting, but I was able to rework it! I'm very, very happy about that.

Now, I'm about 7 minutes into the tutorial, so that should tell you how long this took between all the failures, life stuff (food, coffee, cats), and just waiting forever for paint to dry. Seriously. At one point I had to just... walk away for an hour while one of the layers dried. It wasn't even that wet! It was just that humid.

I hope I can get this finished in the next week or so, so keep an eye out!!!

Also, since I just got an iPad, if you're reading this and know how to do art on one, please let me know the best free app you can think of for painting on iPad!

That'll do it for me, tonight (wow it got late...)

Go Enjoy Something!!!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I have A Rough Sketch To Share!

I'm still learning digital art, so bear with me, but I think I've got a good start going on this drawing I'm doing of a rave cat!

If you're wondering why I'm drawing a digital art piece of a rave cat, uh... it's kind of a dumb inside joke involving the game Beat Saber, a friend, and their cat being very interested in what they're up to. My drawing doesn't look ANYTHING like their cat, though, so just enjoy a silly rough draft of a drawing of a cat at a rave!

"RaveCat 01" digital only!

The shadow you see under the image is my outline/gesture drawing. I just kinda forgot to remove that layer before saving as a jpg to share it on her.

My usual process for digital is something like this: I take my base color and reduce the Alpha to about... 80? Then I start sketching out scribbly shapes, scribbling madly until the shapes begin to look more like actual limbs or heads or whatever. Then I start applying my first layer of color (orange), then more layers of color get added, and eventually I'd get around to lineart (you can see the beginnings around one hand and the rave locs). I'm going to fix her shoes eventually, maybe undo her dress and replace it with uh... a more visible one lol. I might do a few layers on the dress with different colors and different percentages.

I don't have a very good grasp on the language of digital art, so if you're someone who does this, please shoot me suggestions ("get photoshop" isn't the kind of suggestion I'm talking about here - I have a hard enough time with paint.net and I am completely lost so far on Krita, which I downloaded today and 100% botched the first draft of this on). I'm always eager to learn new stuff :D

I might try a version of this with traditional art some time too!

For any teacher out there, btw, who thinks "digital art is easier" somehow, please know that you're wrong. I've been drawing and painting for close to 25 years, and I find a set of watercolors and a nice sheet of rag paper 100000000% easier to control and understand instinctively than digital art. I am having to work a lot harder to figure out how each layer works with the others, and I don't think I'll ever 100% get it. Also, just... remember that art changes over time. If you accept anything other than cave paintings, you understand this.

Alright, that'll about do it for me!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk 324: Digital Color

In Which I Am Learning More!

Today is a momentous occasion! I attempted my first 100% digital bubble art!

Color Study 1; Digital; 2020

I will be experimenting further throughout the day with different colors, layering, backgrounds... I don't know where I'm headed, but I'm really enjoying the journey. Anyone with experience in digital art - what size canvas do you start with, usually? Because that right there is 9"x9" (1152x1152 pixels). I don't know if that's large or small for someone's work?

Anyway, any suggestions you guys might have would be greatly appreciated!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC