Wonder or Wander

  A small fun project. I tried to paint a baby elephant, keeping in mind tonal values, but couldn't help working over and over back and forth.  (Inspired by Coco bee art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izswngv8df4)

 The fifth day in my 20-day challenge of painting a bird in watercolor every day. Today I decided to paint a rooster on my own, as opposed to following a video demo. This allowed me to spend more time in each step and examine a subject more carefully. A camera helps me see my painting from a distance. I already see more things I might be able to do. Overall, however, I am happier with this than the previous ones, which I created by following tutorials.  

 Having been following YouTube tutorials, I gave a shot. The overall tone seems too light. Yet, it's watercolor after all. 

I am getting more comfortable with watercolor paintings. Artists use the medium in many different ways, from simple illustration to photo-realistic representation. Diane Antone touches her paintings with dark watercolor pencils. It gives a little more definition to a painted object, yet does not fail to lose painterly quality. Since I don't have such pencils, I used color pencils and sticks. I am happy with the result.     

  "There is no need to tell the review everything." - Hazel Soan (quoted by Tom Shephard). I watched Fabio Cembranelli' watercolor painting demo. I love his bold brush strokes and impressionist feelings. When I tried the same, though, things came out just muddy.  

As I wanted to create holiday cards with watercolor paints, I searched some good examples on YouTube. There are a slew of tutorials. I focused on birds. Each artist took different approaches. I tried to follow some of them. Some turned out to be OK, but I wasn't satisfied with most of them. But this artist, Tom Shepherd. I like his style, bold stokes with saturated colors. I am happy with this result.   

 New paper made by Shizen. It is 5x7 in size with a very rough surface made of 100% recycled consumer waste. Well, it is better than Canson watercolor sketchbook. It holds a lot of water and indeed blends colors. 

 Tom Shepherd is inspirational. His bold brush strokes and limited, but saturated colors. I am happy with the strokes I tried in this painting. It looks like a watercolor painting and it is. 

 Pencil drawing, added light colors with color sticks. 

  The first watercolor painting of a bird that I painted on my own. 

  I purchased a good-looking drawing set that includes lots of pencils, compressed sticks, and others. I just wanted to try out them all. The sticks are quite hard. Without blending, they leave unorderly marks. I wish to leave marks, but beautiful ones.  

That's what it takes.  Eye ball: Yellow as the glowing basis. Add burnt sienna and dark brown on top of it. Increase intensity as it goes and blend them.  Around the eye: watery color as the basis and watery brush strokes for fur. Then add darkest colors. Finally add brunt sienna around the eye.  Tutorial by Rebecca Rhodes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CekQ8brBQkM  

At his Himalaya tracking. Charcoal pencils, brush, and eraser.  

 Jiffy is doing well. He did not lose his strong appetite. I opened a photo taken a while ago and started watercolor-painting. I have no idea of what I am doing here, but he looks lovely. I used brushes first and used watercolor markers in some details. My first watercolor painting of Jiffy!  

  I took Jiffy to a hospital to have a little thing on his eyelid removed and to have the other eye examined. Good news that those things on his eyes seem benign, but required attention... I hardly remember anything on the way home after dropping him off at the hospital. The house seems empty and too quiet. I feel even colder than usual. 

 I got a knife to sharpen the charcoal pencils. The sharpener that came with the same package didn't work. Charcoal was so delicate as to demand care. But it was worth taking that time. 

 Carefully drawn lines are more attractive to me than charcoal-filled object space. No swift chain of action is necessary for boldness.

  He passed two days ago. He was a samurai sword. He was publicly humiliated. Instead of finger-pointing, however, he embraced his failure and chose to reconstruct his legacy. For that, I admire him. 

  Charcoal pencils were delivered. They are fancy and delicate. They glide on a piece of paper and make drawing painterly. My first time to use the medium. I am attracted, but there is a lot to learn.  

Squid Game , directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk distributed through Netflix, is an international sensation. Everyone is in despair and has nothing more to lose than their own lives. The leading actor Lee Jung-jae caught my attention. He has maintained fame and popularity among the public, but his acting itself was not so impressive as to warrant a special recognition. He, however, did not seem to cease to define his role as an actor and delivered a terrific action as a hopeless desperate character.