W is for warm, whimsical, and wild

alice’s april art challenge…

On the first of this month, I received a box in the mail with a few art supplies and 20 sheets of 4×7 inch (10.16×17.78 cm) hot press finish watercolor paper in a little block. A block is when the paper is attached on two sides. In a usual tablet, the paper is attached on one side. The art supplies included a brown brush pen, a bottle of blue liquid watercolor, and three Spectrum Noir Tricolour aqua markers. The markers are very vivid and they are great for illustration. A link to a video also came with the art supplies. I watched the video and played with my fun new toys for a while.

How could I not include bears? I have been painting portraits of stuffed bears for some time. In fact, the theme of my bedroom is bears. I have paintings of bears and a ceramic light switch cover that I glazed with (what else?) drawings of bears? I am the Bear Lady so I have a reputation to live up to!

Since the comic strip character (Brim) that I created when I was nine years old, I had never returned to that theme. But, a few years ago, at an event celebrating International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, I made a few luminaria. The event is celebrated annually on or around August 9. Locally, it’s celebrated in and behind the Buffalo History museum. Behind the museum are the Japanese gardens and a beautiful manmade lake called Hoyt Lake. So the luminaria are made and floated in the water after darkness has fallen. I always struggled with a theme when I was trying to design a luminaria. But, that one year, I came up with the idea of “Cartoonie People for a Nuclear Free Future.” My new cartoon characters.

Sometimes, I look for something that stretches me, such as this silhouette and this flower with a butterfly, known as a gulf fritillery.

Well, that’s most of the images! One I can’t post online because it’s a freehand copy of a well-known cartoon character, and the copyright laws are unclear about posting such a picture. Because it’s freehand and it’s practice, it’s perfectly fine to make the drawing. But posting it on a website falls into some sort of gray area and, as I’m not an attorney, I’m not going there. I have one last sheet of this fun paper for another image.

The project has been so much fun. I’m really happy that I gave myself this challenge this month, especially since the combination of wacky weather and COVID-19 have kept me inside and unable to do all of the walks that I was hoping to do. Check out this website next month for my next art challenge, which will feature gouache paint. This is a completely new medium for me. It is an opaque, water-based pigment paint. So I am pretty excited about the upcoming adventure.