This has been a stressful month for everyone, and I'm no exception. It's been rough being stuck at home during this quarantine, and the financial uncertainty so many of us are facing makes it difficult to focus on anything.
I've been trying to keep busy, and art is a great way to do that. It's been interesting to see how my mood shows up in these pieces and how they evolved over the month.
First up is this little demon. It's been a while since I sat down to do a watercolor painting, so I wanted to do a little warmup first. And any time I can't figure out what to draw, I usually draw a woman with horns. So there we go.
I'm working on facial expressions these days (and always, it seems), so here's a little cranky gal. My three-year-old fell and hurt herself (nothing major - just a little tumble) in the middle of doing the background watercolor wash, so I rushed through it and tried to calm her down afterwards, but we were both pretty upset by the end of it.
I feel like all of that comes through in how this piece turned out. I was horribly cranky as I was finishing up her face, and I kind of really dislike this piece, but it did help to clear my feelings a bit.
After the drama of that last piece, I was feeling a bit intimidated to draw people, so I decided to do a bunch of animal studies. I love that this guy is adorable but still completely cranky. It's a mood.
When I posted the bird painting on Instagram, someone requested that I try painting meerkats. I did a quick Pinterest search for them and found this image, which lightened my mood immensely. At the last second, I decided they needed pink cheeks, and it really made the image for me.
I'm also trying to be more loose with my watercolors, so I experimented with leaving off the linework until the end in this piece. I thought it was interesting how much of a difference the linework makes.
The next animal request was for a panda, and, since pandas eating bamboo but looking like they're playing the flute is one of my favorite things ever, this emerged. It's also a nod to the strawberry pandas on Katamari.
I kind of love this one, and looking at it makes me feel calm. I'm thinking it will turn into a birthday card once normal life resumes.
A good friend requested I paint a slow loris, and how could I resist? The markings on their faces look a lot like clown makeup to me, and I kind of want to redo this same image but with clown coloring and a bunch of balloons and really lean into the Pennywise feeling.
And finally, an unintentional nod to Douglas Adams. My husband was upset that I forgot to add the pot of petunias. Not again...