palm fronds and donuts...

...are two of the great pleasures of life AND, coincidentally, the subjects of quick color burst watercolors in my sketchbook this week. both were prompts from anika starmer's #patternjanuary event on instagram. if you're wondering why i always seem to be participating in some sort of challenge or prompt list when it comes to my sketchbook, the answer is that by the time my "free drawing" opportunity arrives (usually about 10pm) i will still have the energy to create something, but not enough to think up what! the latter, for some reason, is usually harder for me. i'm not sure why, but there ya go! :)

combination of the prompts "palm" and "bright"

i think you'll agree it does both of those pretty straightforwardly

"baked goods"

i think technically, donuts are fried? they are also surprisingly fun to paint!

(to achieve the PERFECT color for dark chocolate icing, mix a teeeeeeny bit of alizarin crimson into your burnt umber!!!)

"cut and paste"

collaged bits of gelli print for this one

"fan"

also gelli-based. i've been having a real craving to get my gelli plate out and do some printing!

 

"greenery"

more colorburst. every shade of green, as a matter of fact.

"number"

or in this case, numerals. all of them. done with tombow dualbrush pens. 

(unless, of course, you count ZERO... which one of my wise guy IG friends pointed out was also a number. i didn't quite have time this week to travel all the way to norway and smack him, but i thought about it, lol!) 

"tile"

mine look a bit more like bricks, though i think that's mostly my choice of alizarin crimson, cadmium scarlet and fuchsia colorburst

one final thing i made last week was a pair of swatch books-- one for myself and one to hang next to the color burst display at paper anthology. they have each color painted as well-mixed watercolor on one side, and using the "spritz and sprinkle" method on the other. i highly recommend swatching of paint and pen colors --even if it's just on one of the back pages of a sketchbook-- not only is it ♥FUN♥ to use every single color, it makes it easy to choose exactly the right shade for any project!

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i do hope this weekend finds you well and planning something fun and creative... after all your chores are done, of course!