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Category Archives: process
Urban Pastel
I still am not fond of pastels, but managed to create a piece I like enough to sell or frame from a photo I took of the old building wall across the street from Shoji, our favorite sushi bar, in … Continue reading
QoR, Golden’s New Line of Watercolors
I finally bought nine of Golden’s QoR Modern Watercolors, and I am sold! Golden has by far the best acrylic paints on the planet, and now they have made a line of watercolors that is making me want to ditch … Continue reading
Making Your Own Watercolor Pads
I can’t take credit for this wonderful money-saving idea. Jorge Royan was discussing sketchbooks versus watercolor pads, and a few of us liked pads better than sketchbooks for many reasons. They are more expensive, but Jorge makes his own! He … Continue reading
Process: Watercolors, Mountains and Laguna Beach
I started with an iconic view of my hometown, Laguna Beach, from the cliffs to the north. I really went for saturation this time, trying to move lots of color onto a piece. Not what I saw in my mind’s … Continue reading
Posted in art, painting, process, sketchbook, watercolor, writing
Tagged california hills, Daniel Smith watercolors, Laguna Beach, ocean, palm, Primatek, sunset
3 Comments
Process: Painting With Artist’s Prompts
Today I played with artists from Community Thrive, painting their way. I didn’t like all that I did, but will show you the “failures” too. The thing about classes is two-fold, assuming you are pretty good at making art: I … Continue reading
Posted in acrylic, art, challenge, class, color, creativity, painting, pencil, process, watercolor
Tagged birds, faces, horses
3 Comments
Process: Mixing Chinese White Paints
“As an acrylic artist I almost never used white except under other colors to pop them. But as a water-colorist I have reached for white a few times, and I am using an old Sakura Chinese white right now until … Continue reading
Posted in color, creativity, painting, process, watercolor
Tagged Chinese white, mixing, palette, play, watercolor
3 Comments
Process: Mixing Quinacridone + Caput Mortem Paints
Building from Process: Mixing Hematite Paints, I moved into mixing two colors into each of my paints: Caput Mortem and Quinacridone Gold. The latter has been a favorite of mine for 20 years. Caput Mortem has also been known as … Continue reading
Posted in color, painting, process, watercolor
Tagged caput mortem, cote de azure, mixing paint, palette, quinacridone gold
1 Comment
Process: Mixing Hematite Paints
New color paints are the yummiest, and my new clean watercolors all moist from a spray call to me. After buying mostly Golden Acrylics for 15 years (and they have watercolors coming out which I am dying to try), I … Continue reading
Posted in color, painting, process, watercolor
Tagged Daniel Smith watercolors, experiment, Genuine Hematite, Golden Acrylic Paints, hematite, mixing, Primatek, watercolor
4 Comments
R is for Repurposing: A-to-A Challenge
I stumbled on this and after starting, thought, why not do it as a mini class? A friend sent me a fridge magnet, and while I was popping it onto our fridge, I realized we had a couple of old … Continue reading
Posted in acrylic, art, class, collage, creativity, handmade paper, painting, process
Tagged craft, fish, Golden Acrylic Paints, horse, magnets, Pitt pens, recycle, repurpose, upcycle
8 Comments
Process: Tea, Milk, Honey — Our Garden Buddha
If you are following me, you know I am struggling to learn watercolors after years of entrenched acrylic painting. I am following a few folks, and definitely studying the Urban Sketchers. Yesterday I discovered Marc Taro Holmes blogs and he … Continue reading
Posted in color, drawing, painting, process, watercolor
Tagged buddha, hoi toi, Marc Taro Holmes, painting, process, tea milk honey, watercolor
5 Comments
P is for Pastels: A-to-Z-Challenge
I’ve never liked pastels, and for some reason, when people used to give me art supplies, they always gave me pastels. Because I was a glitzy Southern Californian beach gurl, they gave me shimmery pastels! I find them clumsy, thick, … Continue reading
N is for Nicolaides: A-to-Z Challenge
Continuing on with the technique I learned from Gwenn Seemel, I am still very uncomfortable and yet excited by it. I get lost in it. It allows me to SEE better –through my fingers attached to a pen — or to … Continue reading
Posted in art, drawing, painting, process, sketchbook
Tagged alala, crow, drawing, Natural Way to Draw, Nicolaides, Pitt pens, sketching, Tombow pens
4 Comments
M is for Mistakes: A-to-Z Challenge
It’s a cautionary tale. I tend to jump right in and not think about chemistry (which I was pretty good at) when it comes to paints and shellac and all kinds of wet colorful things. When I was first painting … Continue reading
Posted in acrylic, color, creativity, painting, process
Tagged Golden Acrylic Paints, mermaids, mistake, mixology, retreat, shimmer
8 Comments
F is for Favorite Artists: A-to-Z Challenge
A friend (and favorite artist) published a blog post the other day relating how her style evolved. It has a lot to do with artists who influenced her. I know several of my favorite artists influenced my tendency to one … Continue reading
Posted in art, creativity, painting, process, series
Tagged David Hockney, Marc Chagall, Marc Rothko, Monet, repetition, repetitve
6 Comments
D is for Drawing Pens: A-to-Z Challenge
My favorite drawing pens are Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pens, shown right as the top three pens with their caps off. I love them because they are wonderfully waterproofed India ink, and work best of all the pens on shellacked … Continue reading
Posted in art, creativity, drawing, journal, painting, process, shellac, sketchbook, watercolor
Tagged Cocoiro pens, drawing pens, painting with pens, Pitt pens, Tombow pens
19 Comments
B is for Brush Pens! A-to-A Challenge
I am just learning to use brush pens, as I move to smaller formats and water colors to work my artistic ways. Brush pens are these super devices where the water is carried in tube which attaches to the watercolor … Continue reading
Posted in art, creativity, journal, painting, process, sketchbook, watercolor
Tagged brush pens, Neocolor II, watercolor pencils
5 Comments
Basilica of the Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo: Sketch to Finished Piece
Carmel Mission (long name is Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, link to Wiki article) is one of my favorite missions. I am taking you through my sketching process from rough pencil sketches (which I wish I had not lost) to … Continue reading
Posted in art, creativity, drawing, painting, process, shellac
6 Comments
Emotional Art: Images as a Dream
A moonth stretches out in front of me, 1994. My former husband is in South America, screwing a woman he met there on the pretense of traveling with a male friend, my friend too. (No longer my friend too.) The … Continue reading
Posted in acrylic, art, journal, painting, process, series, writing
Tagged catholicism, childhood hurts, deadbeat dad, dreams, fear, mother, shadow
3 Comments
