I love making homemade watercolor cards. These are going to family in Louisiana who I haven’t seen since February 2020 and probably won’t get to see until Spring or Summer 2021. It’s been tough, I miss them so much but I feel like these little things help us to stay connected in a small way.
Happy Anniversary card for my dad and step-mom. Watercolor and Ink.
Birthday card for my Maw-Maw. Watercolor, Ink and white Gel Pen.
So I got an early Christmas present! A graphics drawing tablet and Rebelle 3. I. AM. SO. EXCITED. I was literally giggling as I tried it out for the first time. If you’d like to see a video of how COOL Rebelle 3 is for digital watercolor, check out this guy, Martin Hanschild:
And here are the first two drawings I did with my new tools. 🙂
QUACK.
Of course one of the first things I’d draw is Doctor Who related.
I’ve been reading a lot of web comics lately and so now my brain is thinking in ‘comics’ so I’d like to try my hand at creating some. Here are some sketches I did to get a feel for different faces and eyes of different characters.
My daughter helped me pick out some of the characters. 😉
I’ve really been enjoying Sarah Andersen’s & Dami Lee’s comics.
My family and I went on a walk and my daughter and I collected lovely fall leaves to do some different projects. She made a fall wreath (well, most of one – she got tired halfway through) and I made these.
So we’ve made the decision to move. Not now, but next Spring after we’ve done some home improvements and (hopefully) there is a vaccine for COVID. Unfortunately, I did a pretty ‘me’ thing to do and put all the pressure of parenting & unschooling during a pandemic, deep cleaning a house and multiple home improvements (including painting all the kitchen cabinets and all the rooms in the house) on my shoulders. Fortunately, I realized the absurdity of this a month and a half in instead of 6 months later.
I was able to talk all this over with my husband and release a lot of the self-imposed pressure but there was still some hangers-on especially when it comes to balancing my creative pursuits and my daughter’s needs. Then I came across this interview with author Austin Kleon (I’ve mentioned him before). What’s funny is that the interview was written in 2019, long before COVID hit, but I found it incredibly applicable to my current situation. For instance, this is what he would tell other parents who are juggling a career:
It’s not you. You’re probably doing the best you can. It’s just that everything is stacked against you. Everything from a lack of affordable child care, underfunded schools, crumbling infrastructure, bad health insurance, to a world that’s just really and truly insane. It’s near impossible and it’s not your fault. Just keep going. Do the best you can.
He was also very honest and wasn’t afraid to talk about the less than perfect moments of parenting such as yelling at his kids and looking forward to their bedtime. I struggle with yelling too but so often parents who share online only show the picture perfect moments or ‘tips & tricks’. It was nice to see that I am not the only parent struggling, even if his words are from a different time, in what feels like a galaxy, far, far away.
Things have been tough over here since the start of the pandemic as they have been for many, many other people across the world.
We are choosing to stay home, just the 3 of us, to celebrate Thanksgiving (minimally as it’s a crap holiday) and Christmas this year but want to still stay connected to our families. This is the first year that I will ever send a Thanksgiving card but I think it’s an important year for me to do so to remind our families how much we love them and miss them.
Watercolor and ink.
I think there is something special about sending a handmade card in the mail. It says, “I took the effort to make this for you.” Reminds me of this poster I made a while back: Ways To Show You Care. This is an updated ‘Socially Distant’ version.
I have a cast iron tea pot that looks very similar to this. I created the ‘texture’ of the teapot by drawing a bunch of tiny ‘X’s before coloring over them. It took forever but it was worth it.
I just really like drawing teapots (and sometimes tea cups too).
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