Illustration Friday - Faded

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "faded."

My first thought when I thought of faded was ombré (cause I like it so much) and because today's my birthday I decided to paint myself an ombré cake. Here are some instructions in case you'd like to actually bake one.

I'm off to enjoy the day, have a good one!

Fresh Air Painting - St. Patricks Church

I brought my new journal to the park yesterday and did a plein air watercolor painting of St. Patricks Church in San Francisco. It was a great day for it, and there were lots of people laying in the grass enjoying the sunshine. 

I've always wanted to do more public sketches or paintings, but felt self conscious about it. A couple of blog posts* I've read lately encouraged me to give it a try. 

At first I felt weird and tried to hide my drawing when people walked by, but when I started painting I couldn't do that and I started to feel more comfortable. 

I just have to remember that people are curious and are most likely not critiquing my painting when they look over :0) 

* Art by Wiley,  Muddle on Through, and Everyday Treats have great posts about drawing/painting in public. The Everday Treats one is particularly inspiring because her son was so amazed with a women painting in the park that he came home wanting to be an artist. 

I hope your week is going well! 

Monsieur Notebook Review

I wrote about submitting an illustration to Monsieur Notebook awhile back, and am excited to tell you I received my notebook! 

It's my first mail from outside the US! This picture is closer to the color the journal actually is. 

Cute logo stamped in the backside. 

Inside page "Nom, etc" page (Name, etc). 

I sketched out some strawberries I was eating to test the paper. I was pleasantly surprised that the paper can take a light watercolor wash. It's a beautiful, slightly textured paper so I thought it might wrinkle with the watercolor but it held up nicely (although I don't think it could handle a lot of water). 


I was using my Faber Castell pens and you could see some of the lines on the other side of the paper, but not enough to be very bothersome. 


The leather cover is very nice, the engraving is beautiful and it seems like the journal will hold up for forever (which is good cause my purse destroys things haha). The cover is so soft that I can't keep from touching it when it's nearby. 


Final consensus: I really love this sketch book and will probably buy another one when I am done with this one. Thanks Monsieur Notebook!* 




*Monsieur Notebook sent me a free notebook for submitting my design, but did not ask me to write a review. I just wanted to share my honest thoughts about how great the product is. 

Weekly Snaps

Some snaps from this week. 

I hope your long weekend plans are exciting! I don't have any big plans yet, but I'm sure there will be fun to be had. 

Illustration Friday - Sight

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Sight." After thinking of many different things I somehow ended up on a bit of a tangent with this magnifying glass. 

It helps Louise's eye sight when she reads old love letters. This one is from Carl, confessing his love for her. I had fun coming up with a story and writing the letter. I started out knowing that I wanted the "I love you" to be in the magnified area. 

I'm posting a bit late in the day because I got lost in the painting, forgot to eat lunch till 2pm (normally I barely make it to noon), and spent way way too much time on the stamp part of the painting. 

I typically spend too much time on minute details that aren't very important to the picture over all and I need to work on that. 

But the beauty of digital work is that I can zoom in and give you a close up look at the stamp: 

What do you think? Do you spend too much time on the details like me? 

Worth the Dough - Birthday Wish List

My birthday is next week, so I thought I'd put together a quick wish list. 

Links:

iPhone lenses

Arches watercolor paper 

Drawing book

Bracelet 

Instax camera

Washi tape

Shoes (the neon ones are cute too!)

Earrings 

What's on your wish list right now? 

Merry Monday - Odds

I found this quote on Pinterest, which is a great source for quotes by the way. It speaks to me and I thought it would be a fun one to illustrate. And another chance to practice my wet on wet technique! 

I hope that your Monday is going well! 

Instagram Gallery

Exciting News! I opened an Instacav.as gallery where you can buy prints of my Instagrams on canvas. Click here to check it out! 


Oh and if you are in SF you have to try the salad pictured above, it's the best salad in the world :0) It's the Berkeley Bowl from The Grove. 


Have a great weekend! 

Illustration Friday - Kernel

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "kernel." This topic was super hard for me. Apparently a peach pit has a kernel inside it, so that's what I went with. 


This was one of those paintings where nothing seemed to go how I wanted it to from the sketch to the final. But I'm happy that I was able to paint a little bit looser, so I'm sharing it even though I'm not super pleased with it. 


Anyone else have trouble with kernel? Here's hoping next week's topic inspires me more :0) 

Rose Ceremony

The season premiere of the newest Bachelorette was on tv last night, and I drew this on the Paper app while watching. If you don't watch the show, at the end of each episode they hand out roses to their choices, hence the rose drawing. 

I'm still experimenting with coloring with Paper. The color palette is very limited and the ability to layer paint is different with each tool. I colored the pencil sketch with the marker and then used watercolor and pencil on top of that in case you are using the app and wanted to know. 

The Bachelor and Bachelorette are the only reality tv shows that I still watch and really love.  I'm always hopeful that they will find true love, but I think most people enjoy the show for the awkwardness and drama haha. 

My favorite picks for Emily so far are Ryan (who does something with sports and children) and Charlie (who was in an accident prior to the show). Did you watch last night?

Merry Monday - The Best

"Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best." - Henry Van Dyke

This was a pretty quick painting, but I really like how it came out! 

I love this quote, because sometimes I feel like if I'm not the "best" at doing something, it's not worth doing. That's a horrible way to think about things because there will always be people who are better than you at something, but that doesn't mean that your "voice" doesn't deserve to be heard. 

I encourage you to share your passion or craft with other people even if it's not what you think of as "the best" because they will probably love it :0) 

Have a great Monday! 

Photos of the Week

Here are some pics I took in Santa Barbara, and the Giant's game we went to before we left. 


I hope you have a good Mother's Day weekend! 

On Paper

While I was away I started playing with a new iPad app Paper. It's very simplistic, and only has a couple of tools and colors to play with. There are no "layers" and you cannot zoom while drawing. 


All of that is refreshing when you are sketching on the go because it keeps things simple. My favorite tool is the watercolor brush (obviously). 


It's definitely fun to play with, and easy to bring along/use while traveling. This is probably not the last "Paper" sketch you'll see from me :0)


I'm off to work on my Mother's Day card! 

Cinemagram

Hey there! I'm in Santa Barbara until Wednesday and won't be able to get back into blogging normally until Thursday. But here's a quick hello, and a Cinemagram (new iPhone app!) of a fountain at the hotel.

Recent Instas

Here are some recent Instagrams I took.


It's a lovely Friday here in SF, and I'm looking forward to a Giants game tomorrow! I hope your weekend is great also! 

Illustration Friday - Jump

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "jump." After thinking about it for awhile this image came to mind. I think Goldie wants a nice summer beverage :0)  


I hope you like it! 

May 2012 Calendar Background

Download here:

1680 x 1050

1600 x 1200

1280 x 800

iPhone

iPad

Sorry I didn't get this posted yesterday! I had a hard time getting back into the swing of things after my weekend away. 

I'm so excited for May! It's my birthday month :0) Also Mother's Day is the 13th, I drew a square around it so you wouldn't forget. 

A bunch of talented people also make monthly calendar backgrounds. 

Here are a couple of links: 

Oana Befort

Geninne

Oh Hello Friend

I hope you find one you like!