Short Pose Session, AVAA, Reina

 Reina was booked as model again today at the AVAA. Once upon a time, someone commented that I only draw pretty young thin models and that I ought to expand. I soooo agree! I wish I did have a choice in the matter, but I'm not the one booking models! The recession has absolutely, without a doubt, hit us hard financially, but I'm optimistic that next year, I may be able to hire my own models. Need to practice males too. Not that Reina isn't awesome to draw, of course. And kudos to her for being in great shape.
25 minute pose...

 15 minute pose...

5 minute pose...

And that is that!
Hope you keep on visiting me and please comment if you find some bad habits. I'm aware of the thunder-thigh tendency. I continue to fight that... :)

Have a great day!!
Tiffanny

When I Was A Stupid Kid - Tiffanny, Private First Class

 When I Was A Stupid Kid, I liked to pretend that I was a soldier.

 I would dash from foxhole to foxhole...

 I would subordinate my enemies with my machine gun...

 I would crawl bravely though dangerous mine fields...

 I would... What the hell is that smell???

And that's how I got myself completely covered in dog crap When I Was A Stupid Kid.
What's the worst thing you got all over yourself when you were a Stupid Kid? How did it get there?

note: I decided not to paint all the frames, mainly because watercolor paper is verrrry expensive :( I would love to paint everything though! But I should really save some paper for plein air painting or still life or something. I would blow through it way too fast if I painted all of my Stupid Kid stories.

Economizing,
Tiffanny

When I Was A Stupid Kid - Two Birds With One Stone

When I Was A Stupid Kid, I had a closet door that had a lip and a crossbar on the inside.

Like any red-blooded-Chinese-Filipino-kid would do, I exploited this unique furnitural property for my entertainment.

Whilst latched on to my closet door as if it were my personal in-house sideways see-saw, I pushed  off the side of the closet....

...and swung gleefully until the hinge hit its limit, whens-forth it would send me flying back to the beginning, where I would again, push off the side and continue swinging. It was utterly fabulous.

I never doubted the supreme invention called screws and hinges. Those metal things would never fail me.


That is, until the day the hinge screws finally came off the wood and sent the closet door, with me on it, flying across the room and crushing my bed.

And that is how I destroyed two large pieces of furniture in one foul swoop, When I Was A Stupid Kid.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my childhood adventures. I think this incident might be tied to the fact that my hips always pops, as far as I can recall.

Now tell me, were you a good kid or a destructive kid? What did you destroy and how did you do it?

notes about the illustrations:
*The Illustration of me falling on the bed is misleading in the fact that I drew it falling with the flat side on the bed. It was more like a side-chop. Also, My mother believed that thick mattresses were bad for you, and so my mattress was quite thin, an inch thick at most, so it did nothing to break the fall.

Come visit me again!
Tiffanny

When I Was A Stupid Kid - Orange Popsicle

When I Was a Stupid Kid living in the Philippines, I loved getting orange popsicles. The kind where there are two sticks, so me and my sister can share. It was like getting two for the price of one!

I loved these orange popsicles, but I never had money to buy them. I devised a plan. I was going to make orange-popsicle-flavored-drink. GENIUS! All I needed was milk, oranges, and sugar, right? This is me happily making my popsicle drink.

This milk carton is misleading. First of all, we didn't have fresh milk in the Philippines, heck no, we had Birch Tree brand Milk Powder!! Which did not actually dissolve in cold water. So, I had hot water, mixed with Birch Tree brand Milk Powder , a ton of sugar, and orange juice. Orange juice doesn't naturally mix with milk, by the way. How they get orange juice molecules to stick to milk is modern science.

This is my face after I drank my Warm Orange Popsicle Flavored Drink. I think I turned blue.

And that's what I did, When I Was a Stupid Kid.

THE END

What sort of foods did you make when you were a stupid kid?

PS.
The outfit I'm wearing is based on the Grace Christian Kindergarten uniform I wore for school. The red balls in my hair, I distinctly remember because my yaya pulled my hair back so tightly with those damn balls. My forehead remains just as large today.

Time Lapse Watercolor Painting, Alicia and Sparky / See the painting IRL @ The Knitting Nest

Please click here to go to the video!

This the the last of the Knitters and their Cats series. This one is based on a dear friend who inspired me to take up knitting. When I lost my dog Cosmo, she knitted me my first ever hand-knit scarf to cheer me up. I was in awe. I regarded that hand made scarf as The Best Thing Ever. She made it with her own two hands, just for me. It was better than anything you could ever buy at a store. I took up knitting soon after I received that scarf. Like her, I generously knitted for others. One year, I knitted 11 pairs of socks for my family. 22 socks total. That was before I learned how to watercolor, so I had time back then :) Now my knitting obsession has been replaced by painting. I guess I have an addictive personality. Its why I stayed away from coffee for a long time. Now I'm addicted to that too. DOH. 

Knitting to me now is the treat at the end of the day. If I have felt like I've done enough art, If I have completed at least 30 minutes of exercise, if I have spent enough time with the dogs and exercised them, I will allow myself to knit. Surprisingly, even with these stipulations, I've completed a sweater and 4 pairs of socks this year :)

You can see the 4 Knitters and their Cats paintings in person at The Knitting Nest. The owner of the yarn shop is so sweet. She's an animal lover just like me. She lets her dogs hang out at the store. That's what I love about Austin. People generally love dogs here. There's almost always outdoor seating at restaurants so you can eat with your dog. There are even parks you can go swimming with your dog at! Anyway, I do go on. You're probably here to read about art and painting, and here I am rambling about knitting and dogs. DOH.

Hope you visit me again, traveler of the internets!

Tiffanny

Watercolor - Zilker Botanical Gardens Lantern in Pond

Unfortunately, my camera wasn't up to the task of taking 2 hours of video for this painting I did today. I really wanted to do a time lapse for you, but it just wasn't going to happen. I need to figure out how to hook up my camera to a battery source and laptop at the same time so I can record video. On batteries it can only records 2 minutes of video, which would have made me have to stop and go every two minutes. That's a bad way to paint.

Well here is my process. I started with the darkest part of the water, but wiped off where I was going to put the fish while it was still wet. Then I dropped in some orange fish, again while it was still wet. I wanted the greens to bleed into the oranges to make the fish look like they are in the water. This was a special challenge for me. I've never painted the water surface, reflections, and what's underneath it at the same time before. Hopefully it worked out. You tell me. The rest of the painting follows my usual technique. I think I can generalize a few things regarding painting water though. Reflections are hard edged. Everything underneath is soft edged.

And that's all for today. Two posts in one day though :) I hope I am keeping you, my reader, entertained. Anyway, earlier today I said how busy I was. I'm not kidding. I'm applying for two grants, and they both require me to show all kinds of work (10 or more illustrations). I'm busy working on one of my grant-paintings starting tomorrow. If I win it, maybe some publishers will take notice!

I hope you visit me again!
Tiffanny

Time Lapse Watercolor Painting, Eunice and Mewsic

 

It's crazy how busy I have been lately. There is really not enough time in the day. I might have mentioned here before that I'm aspiring to paint for a living (or at least as a moonlighting job on top of my day job). I thought the easiest route for me would be to be a children's book illustrator, but trying to get jobs is frustrating. After sending out 80 postcards to various publishers, there have been no responses. I ordered 250 more cards and I'm so busy typing up addresses. It's so mundane but it's gotta be done. I often wonder why many publishers don't accept e-mailed art. That would make my life so much easier. (And cheaper. postcards are expensive to print. Plus the postage!)

I've been busy getting enough paintings together for The Knitting Nest. The woman there, Stacey, has agreed to hang my artwork there for a Ravelry event next weekend. I think it's the perfect venue for my "Knitters and their Cats" series. I would like to extend my gratitude to Eunice for helping me out with my project. She's a super sweet lady with a heart of gold. Regarding her cat's name she says "My cat's name is Mewsic. Music is my favorite thing and when I got her, she meant so much to me, I had to name her after my favorite thing in the world." How sweet, right? 

So here is the Time Lapse Painting on YouTube!

I'm hoping that I could get my readers a special surprise. I'm on my way to Zilker to do some plein air painting. I'm bringing a camera and tripod along. Hopefully, I can get a time lapse of me painting on the spot. Because of the logistics of my camera memory, battery life, etc, it may just be a 1 frame/second deal.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Tiffanny

Time Lapse Watercolor Painting, Chinese Girl and Cat

I made a Time Lapse video of this cute painting available on Youtube. Click Here.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Short Pose Session, AVAA, Reina

 I was late to the session thanks to having to run to the store to get more Cad Red Light. (Just in case I felt like painting at 2 am later.) Anyway, I was late so I had to be in the way way back standing, and I CANNOT draw standing. My deltoids are too weak and feeble. I felt like I didn't have good control over my pencil. That's my excuse anyway :) Only two drawings I can post today that wont make you gag.

Time Lapse Watercolor Painting of Jen and Tennyson

The video is here