Hey guys! Did ya miss me???
I probably should have written a hiatus post, but basically if you were wondering, I was on holiday break for a couple weeks, spending quality time with fam and friends in good ol' North Carolina.
(That's an exaggeration. NC is kinda lame. The only thing we have going for us is the fact that at least we aren't South Carolina)
But now I'm back in warm LA where the temperature never drops below 50 and I have my own room again.
While I didn't do anything on Steemit on break, I did do some art! I recently bought some new watercolor paints, and thought it would be a great time to try them out. (apologies in advance for the yellow lighting)
Here's a birthday card I painted for my youngest sister. She loves hippos and cute things, so the obvious choice was a cute hippo. The photo quality isn't that great for color, but I had a fun time painting him!
My dad also has a late December birthday. I had the foresight to take a couple progress pics for his card.
My dad has a couple skinks he's been keeping as pets in the garage. My brother suggested using them on the card, and I went with it. The first lizard is me figuring out how I wanted to paint them. I knew I wanted to use the actual brush stroke to make up the body and tail--rather than detailing in exact anatomy--and I knew I wanted to blend two different colors to get that nice ombre transition. I put in the details using the pen, and I ended up really liking how it turned out.
I didn't like the party blower, but hey, that's what tests are for, right?
The yellow lizard right below is my mom's attempt at it. I think it turned out pretty cute :3
Here's the base watercolor I used for the actual card. I think the transition from yellow to blue actually turned out better in my test, but overall I was happy with it. You can see I don't have any lines or details. Just brush strokes and shapes.
And the final card! Amazing how a couple details changes a painting, right? I'm not super stoked with how the "birthday" text turned out, but overall I thought the card turned out cute. I did my best to use the line detail on the lizards to help show the form of the tail, but that's something I still need to work on.
My sister ended up just wanting money for Xmas, but my dad requested a painting detailing our Oregon trip together over the summer. He gave me a list of things he wanted me to include (which was a LOT). I borrowed his fancy camera to film the entire process, which I will eventually edit and post here (ETA=shrug emoji)
In the meantime, here's the final product!
Yay gross lighting! There's a couple things I would change regarding the splash backgrounds, and maybe the osprey in the top left corner, but overall I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. It did teach me to really consider paper quality though, as the paint wasn't as vibrant on this mixed-media paper as it was for the watercolor-specific paper I used for the cards. I'm going to keep playing around with it, but I may need to invest in some better quality (and thicker!) paper.
Speaking to the thicker, I forgot to tape down my paper when I started. Baaad idea, since I wanted to wet the paper first and then apply paint...the paper immediately started to buckle. I taped it down afterwards which brought the cockling (that's the actual term!) down, and when I was completely done I flattened it with some heavy books for a couple days which really did the job.
But yeah. If you're new to watercolor, ALWAYS TAPE YOUR PAPER! (unless it's like...legit watercolor paper...but even then!)
So that was me having a ball with watercolor. I'm excited to play around with it more, this time with my brand new brushes :D Also bought some new acrylic and gouache paints to mess with as well.
Right before I left, my fam stopped at a Barnes and Noble, and I picked up this sucker:
It's basically a 365 day art journal, with a dedicated space for each day to doodle in. I was inspired by my mom's travel journal of her trip to Korea this past summer with the rest of my siblings. My dad had given her a red version of this notebook, and she filled it with polaroids and descriptions of what she did each day. I wish I had taken pictures, because it was really cute and prime #aesthetic. I've been bugging her to share her photos and drawings on Instagram, but she hasn't quite taken the leap yet.
Anyways, I had brought up that I might want to do something similar but didn't have a polaroid camera, and my mom simultaneously admonished and encouraged me by saying I should definitely do it, but I didn't need a camera, I could just draw everything! So now here we are.
I decided to use it for its original intention, rather than a travel-specific journal. Below are the first 3 entries, which you can also find on my insta (same @ as my steemit)
I'm going to push myself to complete it every day, which will simultaneously accomplish my constantly failed goal of drawing every single day.
Which leads to my last topic: New Year's Resolutions!
I'm proud to say that I managed to accomplish 11.5 of my 17 resolutions from 2017. That's the best I've ever done! This year I've trimmed down my resolutions to 12, and I want to get all of them done!
My number one resolution/goal is to start making a decent amount of money off my art, so that I can transition from my 9-5 to completely self-employed in 2019. It's super ambitious, and really difficult, and I can tell I'm going to have a hard and busy time of it, but y'all (yes, I said y'all). I am so determined.
To top it off, my hwatu/hanafuda cards said I have good luck every single month of 2018. If that isn't a good sign, I don't know what is!
See? Look at that. Perfect. The stars are in position. The planets are aligned. I'm not superstitious, but I'm also not gonna ignore positive vibes when I get em either lol.
To be honest, I can already feel myself get intimidated by what I want to accomplish, and what I have to do to get it. I can feel my brain fighting to stay in its comfort zone. But I also know that's instant death to my goals and dreams. Last year I learned a lot about myself, my fears, my habits good and bad, as well as what kind of life I want for myself. So much introspection happened, and so much recording. I was able to look back through my bullet journal and see which months I felt good, which I didn't (most of them tbh lol) and why I struggled.
This year it's time for me to execute. "Stay Focused" is my theme of the year. Not getting distracted, forcing my butt into the chair, and doing the thing. I'm also anticipating the discomfort. I know I'm not going to want to do it every day. But I'm gonna fight hard as hell to make sure I do.
I know if you're reading this on this website you've got goals too. I've only been here for barely over a month (I think??) but just about everyone I've interacted with on here is so driven and talented and ambitious. We're all here trying to make a change for ourselves, whether that's financial or philanthropic or personal or creative or whatever. I wish everyone reading this, and everyone not reading this, the best of luck with their 2018 endeavors. Let me know in the comments what your goals are, and the strategies you're gonna take to accomplish them!
Thank you so much for reading! And I hope you're excited for more art, because that's what I'll be pumping out this year!
Welcome back dear friend
thank you!
Nice to meet you! I haven't had a chance to miss u yet...so umm.. see u in 2 weeks I guess?
🤣
hahaha nice to meet you too!
Good to see you come back =D
good to be back :DD
Hi @corinneiskorean glad to see you again with a new spirit ..btw nice watercolor
thanks @aurah!