holy mackerel, it's MAY 1st!!!

which means that fox and hazel's "30 days of watercolour" is officially over; though of course you can still *DO* the prompts, and for that matter, she's doing a 31-day version for may! i'm forcing myself NOT TO JOIN IN, even though i had a blast in april. i need to do something besides watercolor at some point. (...also... ICAD2016 starts june 1st, lol!!!) :) :) :) here's the last few prompts and then, starting tomorrow, non-watercolory posts will predominate again, honest. well, mostly. probably. ♥

day 23: layers

i know, it's hard to SEE the layers here, but this is one of the slowest things i've ever painted b/c i actually waited for each layer of color to dry in between. UNHEARD OF PATIENCE in the laurniverse!!!

  day 24: motto

i chose a favorite quote from the 14th dalai lama, which i try to keep in the front of my mind; kindness *IS* always possible. it's sometimes easy/tempting to forget that... especially when driving in heavy traffic... 

day 25: ombre

i'ts an ombre hombre!!!!!!!!!!! geddit??!???!??!

(ok, yeah, sorry... i crack myself up, though, on a daily basis)

day 26: branches

the fastest dogwood blooms in the history of paint. i'm not in love with these, but seeing as they LOOK LIKE dogwood and were accomplished in about 10 minutes laaaaaaaaaaaate in the evening, i'm callin' it a win!

day 27: salt

i've yet to use the "salt-on-wet-watercolor" technique to my satisfaction, and i still haven't done it with this one, but it was fun!

day 28: indigo

at the end of this particular day, the only thing i wanted to do is paint something big and loose and smooshy where i didn't wait for the colors to dry... so i did... :)

day 29: drip

another common watercolor "thang" i've never really made work... until NOW! go, me!!!

day 30: galaxy

it turns out there's an actual technique and tutorials for painting galaxies... who knew??! as usual, i mostly winged it, but having read thru this article, i did nab the idea of adding INK to my wet watercolor to intensify the black areas. i used hickory smoke distress ink b/c it's what i had, and i needed to "encourage" it with my brush to have it blend in with the paint, but it worked really well i think. i added a big glittery "THANKS" to @foxandhazel for hostessing, to my fellow IG participants for their fun feedback and to you guys for following along and not rolling your eyes at me when i showed post after post of these things all month long!

thank you, darlings!!!

♥♥♥

H2-OH-my-gosh... there's MORE??!

sorry if you're getting thoroughly tired and fed up with watercolor, but the month's* almost over, so bear with me, k? ♥

day 17: squares

may have gotten a teeeeeeeny bit carried away with the doodles... 

(this actually fills a sketchbook page, lol)

day 18: song lyrics

i sing along with the radio or a playlist ALL DAY LONG, 

but if someone says, "write down some song lyrics" i go 

***...utterly blank...*** 

day 19: yellow

hey lauren, didn't you notice that the next day was going to be 'yellow' when you did a bright yellow sun for song lyrics?

(...NO...)

day 20: alcohol

many thanks to @foxandhazel for showing a little demo of a technique of dropping rubbing alcohol onto wet watercolor... and hello, new obsession! 

day 21: purple

eerily enough, this was the totally coincidental, pre-set-far-in-advance prompt on the day that prince died. 

day22: tulip

i was going for a bit of a "realistic" shading effect which realllllllllly didn't turn out AT ALL... so i downshifted into funky illustration mode, lol.

*i've been playing along with @foxandhazel's "30 days of watercolour" via instagram; everyone is welcome to join in --for as many or as few days as they'd like-- and those days COULD take place in may or june instead of april, for that matter!!! i'm finding this to be a great way to stretch my skills and try new things, but it's flexible enough for beginners or even kids who want to try out their paints in a fun way! check out fox and hazel's blog or instagram account for details!

watercolor update

yep, i'm still doing @foxandhazel's "30 days of watercolour" via instagram; which is somewhat idiotic b/c i really DO NOT have any "spare" time at the moment... but it's just soooooo much fun i can't seem to resist. ah well, let's just go with it, kthx. :0

day 11: flower

yes, i've totally put these out of order, just so my favorite one can be on top! 

(je ne regrette rien, mes amies!)

day 9: triangles

started out argyle-ish... ended up alligator-y; it happens...

day 10: mother

yes, i have a lovely mother, but i went in an earth day direction b/c i thought it'd be easier to draw a planet than a person. 

(and i was right!)

day 12: blue

wet-into-wet is my favorite way to play with watercolors. just sayin...

day 13: leaves

most of the time, when i can't decide what to draw or paint, i go with a mandala. sometimes the results are better than others, but this one's not a bad mash-up...

day 14: dots

honestly, i thought this'd be a "gimme" and it turned out to be the hardest one so far... it's more difficult than you think to make NEAT/ROUND dots with a paint brush. who knew??!

day 15: masking

the experiment with the vinyl letters and my name (from the last group) went so well, i wondered if i could make a design out of them. yep. it was fun, too! (there's a flipagram here of the steps, it's kinda cool if you like that sorta thing; depending on how you're viewing this, it may start automatically when you click the link or you might have to press the arrow/play button.)

day 16: black

wondering about the quality of your watercolor paint? try using black. water it down... let it dry... take a good look... for better or for worse, all will be revealed!!! 

♥EVERYONE♥ 

is welcome to join in "30 days of watercolour" for as many or as few days as they'd like; you don't need to catch up, you don't need to do every day, and it's a really great format for beginners who want to try out their paints in a fun way! check out fox and hazel's blog or instagram account for details!

♥♥♥

well, YES, i am a crazy person...

...if that thought's only just occurring, you must be new here: WELCOME! :)

so what's the latest crazy thing i've embarked on, you ask? i've been using all my "extra" (HAHAHA!) time to play along in a really fabulous instagram challenge called "30 days of watercolour" hosted by torrie of fox and hazel. i seriously doubt i'll make it thru the entire month, but at the moment, i'm knocking these out in a few minutes at the end of the evening, and i'm having a blast! as long as both of those remain the case, i'm gonna continue!

day 1: lines

because if you don't specify a color, i will use ALL OF THEM! :)

day 2: red

hmmmmm... how many red things can i draw a wonky version of? 

(...quite a few, actually...)

day 3: your name

coincidentally, someone had just given me a cache of those old-school, vinyl letters from the hardware store and i wondered if they'd work as masks for watercolor?

(YES!!!)

day 4: pink

hardest thing about this was NOT outlining it!

day 5: wash

the same cerulean blue done as wet-into-wet and wet-onto-dry... with a little blendy green between them so it'd be a little more interesting...

day 6: green

...un-be-LEAF-able... :) :) :)

day 7: circles

note to self: don't decide to fill most of a sketchbook page with circles; but if you do, don't make most of them TINY; but if you do... for pete's sake don't flippin' outline them all!!! 

(it looks coooooool tho... she said immodestly)

day 8: orange

i called this the "tequila sunrise mandala" because of the colors and the fact that i let some of them bleed into each other; partly b/c it looks cool and partly b/c at 11pm i have even less patience than i do the rest of the day! :0

just in case you're looking for a little bit of fun whilst sharpening up your watercolor skills, come along and join in the fun! the prompts are interesting enough to engage us, but still simple enough to be do-able in a short time at the end of a long day. ♥