Watercolor Cards

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.

Two personified red and white mushrooms, leaning close to one other with smiles on their faces. A red heart is above them.
Happy Anniversary card for my dad and step-mom. Watercolor and Ink.
3 pink jellyfish float in the blue ocean. Purple watercolor letters say "may your birthday be filled with wonder"
Birthday card for my Maw-Maw. Watercolor, Ink and white Gel Pen.

New Digital Art Tools

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.
A watercolor and ink drawing of the TARDIS from the Doctor Who show.
Of course one of the first things I’d draw is Doctor Who related.

Sketchbook Snapshot: Cartoons & Comics

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.
Love Art by Moga and Safely Endangered.

Leaf Sketches

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.

A large leaf glued to a piece of paper. Drawings surround it. It is made to look as if the leaf is the head of a person who is saying "What the hell did you do to my hair, Jeannine? I'm not paying $130 for this."
Fucking Jeannine.
Four comic panels each with a leaf and a face drawn on the leaf. Top left: a leaf saying "Hello sailor" to a tree. Top right: a leaf finding a penny on the ground and saying "Oh look! A penny! My lucky day!". Bottom left: an oak leaf under a disco ball saying "The party man has arrived!" Bottom right: a leaf saying "I'm alive" as a doctor looks on in horror.
Are leaves attracted to trees? I don’t know.
Two red leaves in front of a tree house. One red leaf is saying "Only RED leaves are allowed here!" to a small yellow and orange leaf who looks sad.
RUDE.
3 comic panels. Top left: A leaf relaxing on a lounger by the pool thinking "This is the LIFE." Top Right: a leaf on a bus who is thinking "I is sad." and has a sad face. Bottom panel: Three leaves stand in front of a backdrop in order of height (tallest to shortest). The one in the middle says 'Just stand still and SMILE!" as a camera snaps a family photo.
I is sad today too.
3 leaves are leaving a Whole Foods. Two are a couple and are standing close together. The woman of the couple says "Hey Mark! Hey! It's Grace & Phil from the potluck." "Hi" says Mark. "We just got back from a lovely couples' vacation in Italy. You should go!" Grace coos. "By the way, how's the divorce going?" she asks innocently. "Not great Grace!" mark yells back.
Mind your own business, Grace!

Parenting in the time of COVID

Pencil on white paper in a sketchbook. It is a drawing with many letters drawn as if they are magazine cutouts of individual letters. The messages says: I woke up beating myself up.
My morning sketch.

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.

Some messy splatter paint art with my daughter.

Staying Connected during COVID

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.

Sharpie marker.

Sketchbook Snapshot: Avatar Lena

So I’ve mentioned we’ve been watching a lot of DuckTales AND Legend of Korra. Well, the new season of DuckTales just started and…

SPOILER INCOMING!

when Lena turns into a full-fledged sorceress and her eyes glow white-blue, I couldn’t help but conjure up this image.

DuckTales and Legend of Korra mash-up. Ink and Colored Pencils.

Sketchbook Snapshot: Legend of Korra

We’ve started re-watching this after finishing Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s such a good show. 🙂

Sketchbook Snapshot: Teapots

I think this teapot just looks really happy.
Black felt tip marker and colored pencils.
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).