Tiny Painting

Dear Blog,
Life is a bit complicated right now. I'm sorry I haven't made time for you. Believe me when I say, "It's not you... It's me". Work has been taking up all my time right now. I know... I know you need attention, and love, but I did it for us. For you and me. If I didn't work, I will die of hunger, and then where would we be? Please accept my tiny painting with my apologies. I know... I know you can't be bought, and it is insulting that I even try and bribing you out of your feelings of disappointment and neglect, but will you give us one more chance?!

I'll take your silence as a "yes". Horray!

Watercolor Sketchbook - Gracie and Honker at Walnut Creek

LOVE MY DOGS. First nice weekend weather in a long time, HAD to go play at the best dog park in Austin!

Watercolor Sketchbook - View from the Austin Public Library, 3rd floor.

I've recently become enamored with the Austin Public Library. I used to go to the San Marcos Library, and they were great, but I had to pay an annual fee. APL is FREE!!! Woot!! I checked out lots of watercolor technique books, and some oil painting books too. Learning is fun. The APL is my new art teacher.

You know what's hard?? Drawing buildings. And that's all I have to say about that.

Tiffanny

Christmas Day Sketchbook Paintings

 It was really cold yesterday, but I still wanted to go out and paint, so I just went to Austin and did these from inside the comfort of my car (and at home, after taking lots of color notes). Parking downtown is usually excruciating, but since it was Christmas, there was tons of easy parking. I smell a new Christmas tradition for me! I hope you like my little sketchbook paintings.

Until next time!
Merry Christmas!
Tiffanny

Watercolor Sketchbook - One is the loneliest number...

So I painted two of every animal. These are from the Capital of Texas zoo. I did all the paintings on location. Did pencil studies first, then posed them according to my imagination with the animal there as reference, then did the painting. Hope you like them :) They're 6" x 9" in size

The goat is my nemesis. I have a hard time drawing them. I struggled with this pose.

Sketchbook - Capital of Texas Zoo

Living in the country, there are not many places I can go to conveniently. No grocery store closeby, no mall, no restaurants. What IS conveniently close to me though is the Capital of Texas Zoo. Thank heavens I don't have to travel very far to study and draw animals. Because it's close, I don't feel compelled to spend all day there to make the trip worth while. Zoo drawing can be exhausting, with the heat, crowds, and the general humbling experience of drawing animals. These sketches are the result of a modest 3 hour visit to the zoo.

the ring tailed lemurs were too fast. A great exercise in gesture.

There was a kid at the zoo rapping his ABCs at some birds next to the lion's cage. The lion's face looked like he was really annoyed. The kid was hilarious. He was acting like he was the ultimate bad-ass because he can rap his ABCs.

Until next time,
Tiffanny

Watercolor Sketchbook - Plein Air at Bouldin Creek Cafe

Sat outside the cafe and had a blissfully good time painting this while chatting with my BFF husband Stephen and my BFF Jay.

Tiffanny

Watercolor Sketchbook - McKinney Falls State Park

Spent a day painting at McKinney Falls State Park. These are small, around 5" x 8"
The first painting is my friend Brian, painting away:

Fun day. I love making tiny paintings. I'm more impressed with really large paintings, but tiny paintings are more relaxing to make because they don't take long, and on lookers can't really see what you're doing unless they're really close up, so you can feel like you're in your private world.

Bye now, I'm working on the next painting!