Watercolor - Pirate Lady with Parrot

The parrot in this painting is inspired by my talented friend Ted Blackman's long time pet named Gumbo!! Thanks for the inspiration, Ted and Gumbo!

Watercolor - Enchanted Rock, Fredricksburgh, TX Part 2 and a story of our bizarre trip.

For some reason, the forces that be did not want me and my friends painting yesterday. After trying desperately to get out of Austin to paint yesterday, we encountered obstacle after obstacle.

We tried to get out of Austin at approximately 12:00, but the arrival time to the painting site ended up being 5:00!

Our trip was kind of bizarre. Between my painting friends and I, we call this trip "Harold and Kumar III: Escape from Llano, Texas"

The highlights are trying to find coffee in Llano. The first coffee shop we encountered was out of business, and the second one had a box labeled "FREE VEGETABLES" filled with what looked like wilted grass sittin right outside the store. That shoulda been the first sign. Inside, we were met with an empty shop except for two guys rocking on a rocking chair in their bedroom slippers with an old man with a cowboy hat behind the counter. (Cue banjo music from Deliverance)

We asked for coffee. The old man said in a nice heavy Texan accent, "Sorry we aren't serving coffee right now but if you come back in an hour, we're giving away free hamburgers". We walked out puzzled. A coffee shop that doesn't serve coffee, but free hamburgers instead. Bizarre.

We went to a gas station. All the coffee was old. I conclude that there is actually no drinkable coffee in Llano to speak of.

Then, as we approached the park we had to wait for cows to cross the road in single file. It was cute actually. They actually looked both ways before crossing the street. Well trained cows :)

When I started painting, I realized that I forgot to bring a damn pencil. No one else brought one because they're all oil painters. Also, I forgot to bring my #8 brush, the brush with which I normally do 99% of my paintings with.. I only had a small #6. So I had to paint carefully without having pencil guides underneath, with a small brush. It was a challenge. I will never forget my materials again. DOH!!!!!!!!!  Anyway, that was a long and exhausting twilight-zone of a trip.

Tiff

Watercolor - Enchanted Rock, Fredricksburgh, TX

This is Turkey Peak at Enchanted Rock State Park. Enchanted Rock is THE largest pink granite hill in the United States. Yay! and only a 2 hour drive from my house!

The drive there was mostly overcast. The sky had JUST begun to clear up from the previous night's rainy weather. I'm glad the weather cleared up in time for plein air painting!!! Tomorrow I plan on going out painting some more so I hope you come and visit my blog again :)

Tiff

Watercolor - Cave at Pedernales Falls State Park

After working a looong week and loooots of overtime, I relish being able to go outside and paint again!!!!!  I very much enjoyed visiting Pedernales Falls. Unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot of falls because of our drought, but we found a gorgeous spot to paint nonetheless. I hope you like it! :D

gargoyle

It's kind of a rite of passage at the place I freelance for to do a gargoyle drawing, so here is mine.

My friends tease that I cannot draw anything horrible, sad, or disturbing. They could be right, seeing as how it was the perfect opportunity to make something badass-scary, but still I tried to make the prettiest gargoyle on the planet. Why do I do this?!?! I dont know! Nothing wrong with a little pretty, right?! I mean, what would you rather look at, a kitten? or open heart surgery?? I rest my case.

Tiff