I would love to hear your recent celebrations Whether it’s art related or not. Lets keep the support for one another going! I’ll go first. In June I was selected for a public art grant. After two months of waiting for the legal documents to get filed and insurance paperwork to get finalized. The city is finally cutting the check so I can get started. If you are in the Castle Rock area, soon there will be a new piece installed in downtown. I’ll keep you posted if you would like to come hang out or stop by as I will be working on it over the next month

Something I tend to struggle with a lot is second guessing myself, especially when it comes to commission works. When I make things for myself, I tend to have more of a “eh, let’s see what happens” attitude and go from there, but with commission works or even something small for family and friends, I really start to question everything I do and doubt the process. For example, this pet portrait I am doing for a commission I started doubting right as soon as I started working on the purple and yellow splashes. I started freaking out thinking that I used the wrong combo of yellow and purple and too much of it…. However, I told myself to keep going and at least finish one of the dogs. Needless to say, I am happy with how it looks for far! Trusting the process can really be hard sometimes, even with watercolor. That ugly phase of painting really be testing me sometimes😅 What’s something y’all really struggle to overcome?

Drop one artist that has influenced you, and write one art instinct that you know you have. What we do instinctively and what we are influenced by can often intersect, and this is a good place to start building your artist voice. Being inspired by another artist doesn’t mean that you copy them, it could be the way they handle texture, color, materials, light, or subject. I’ll go first this is a plein air painter Rob Pointon, I like the way he distorts perspective and maintains proportions simultaneously. What instinct I have naturally is being able to work with paint. Wether it’s realistic or impressionistic I can work the paint to now I want it to be

While I’m hard at work on my next full-size comic, I’ve also been tackling something completely different—a mini comic. Working at such a small size comes with its own set of challenges. I’ve done trading card-sized artwork before, but fitting a full story into these tiny panels is a whole new experience. Every inch counts, and it really makes you think differently about panel layouts, storytelling, and composition. It’s definitely pushing me outside my comfort zone, but that’s part of the fun. Experimenting with new formats is helping me grow as an artist, and I’m excited to see how these lessons carry over into my larger comic projects.

I have learned when trying to find style, a lot of things don’t work out or they don’t work as you had originally planned. However, that doesn’t mean it was a waste of time. It just means you’ve learned something you don’t want to incorporate or it still needs more adjustment. In other words, every piece is a learning experience! In my recent art, I’ve enjoyed adding black and white line work to my watercolor flowers, birds, landscapes, etc. I think it often gives a lot of magic, energy, and movement, like you are right there in the flower. So, I thought I would try and push the line work and utilize it more in areas of higher shadows. The first two paintings below are the result of pushing those lines. Overall, I think it’s a neat look and attempt at something new but I feel that I lost all the energy and magic from my previous art. These two feel stiff and almost like a “study” instead of a free flowing, energetic subject. Plus, I feel I overdid the line work on the yellow warbler bird more than anything else. Maybe there is still room to play with this more? I’m not sure, but what I do know is that I love what I have going on in my other pieces, which I have attached for y’all to compare and look at. Those are from my nature journal (please ignore spelling errors if you intend on reading it haha😅).