#So. It was a bit painful but also fun I love gouaches you have no idea

[perelka-l]

ever ever ever ever ever. Bc I can't write lol.

Overseer Talloran and Omega-1 Draven :)

Alas, it shines very badly after hairspray treatment so it was really hard to take a photo. The pain! The pain!!!

[qwertyfingers]

Ask Game: 1, 5, 16, and 33

1) what are 3 things you’d say shaped you into who you are?

i have a lot of really depressing answers for this question but i don't want to focus on those so. 1) growing up with three siblings, some of whom are also queer. I really appreciate the friendships I have with them and the fact that i've never felt alone in my experiences within my family. 2) doing drama/theatre as a kid massively helped me with my social difficulties and helped me learn how to Interact With Human Beings in a way just being a child did not. 3) having a really debilitating illness that i have Mostly Recovered from has given me an ability to appreciate each and every Moment of my life in a way that did not come naturally to me before. for all that having this condition fucking sucks, there is nothing quite like going from being in agonising pain All Of The Time to only being in moderately bad pain a bit of the time to make you realise there is beauty and love and happiness in the world and give you the motivation to cling to that shit for dear life.

5) what made you start your blog?

i made my very first tumblr account in 2008 to connect more easily with some people i'd met on a different website and i've been an active user ever since. this blog i made specifically because i felt like i was a really different person than i had been before :)

16) if you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

the boring answer is i'd love to not have whatever is wrong with my neurons that means Having A Migraine is my brain's defualt state of being because it means my lifestyle has to involve a constant battle of trying to trick my body into not doing that. a more fun one is i would love to have cat ears. i don't want any other cat features i just like the ears.

33) any hobbies?

I paint, mainly in watercolour but a little bit in gouache, and my most common subject matter is cats. i will reblog this post with some pictures from my sketchbook (they're all on my phone). I also make ladder-style bracelets with waxed cord which i find really soothing and is a good way to keep my hands distracted when i'm listening to a book or watching a video :)

[k00294140]

Photoshop?

I had unfortunately missed the introduction to photoshoo due to my CCS and Tutorial so I was quite clueless. I had a bit of previous experience but nothing meaningful. U really just wanted to mess around and try to understand what this program is and what I could do. I discovered you can draw and actually doing quite a little excited I wasn't expecting. I really like the drawing and colouring capabilities of photoshop and wanted to use that mainly for this piece.

I an using my previous thumbnails that I had created on Tuesday in the workshop. We created a other mind map to expand and pin point exactly on how we are exploring our ideas through.. I chose "Flow" (as in creative flow and movement), stuck and unpredictable. I had loads of of fun creating different thumbnail ideas for this project. I made a lot so here they are.....

Mind map.

Thumbnail sketches...

In the end we made the people around us vote for which we should do and then we had to expand on this and make it bigger! Here's my bigger version / final version of what I wanted it to look like :)))

While in photoshop I didn't actually draw the cat as I was already struggling just drawing with a mouse so I decided to use the picture that had originally given me the inspiration to draw this!

I used rough and scratch lines in places to make it appear as if it was drawn. The process of cutting out the background was nightmarish. I tried using the automatic way the program does for you but it cut it out so terribly so I ended up doing it myself. I zoomed in a lot and cut it out bit by bit. Some places were still a big choppy so I used a blur tool to smoothen it out so it looked a lot better. I was really satisfied with how easy it was so draw on photoshop. The mouse using part wasn't but it had everything you would need and a great varaity if colour. I enjoyed myself throughout. I ended up using my previous colour pallets which I have posted before hand :))

There was a lot a lot if different styles of brushes I could use which added to the fun!. The stars and swirlys came from my inspiration of the Baebadoobee posters I have posted earlier. I love how cute yet chaotic thy look and wanted to embody that.

Here it is! I ended up not doing the tail but I kind of regret it do I might add it tomorrow when I get the chance

I started to try work on my original idea if making a rock star poster but I ran into a lot of difficulties. The pictures I have are too small and poorly taken so when I move them to photoshop they pixilate very badly and you can barely see what they even are. I attempted to fix this by looking up solutions but I myself couldn't fix it. I also struggled on how to move one picture to another picture instead of creating their different documents... It was really confusing...

But today u was wandering in EASONS when I came across the magazine section. I remembered how I enjoyed creating those magazine art and sonic began searching through them. I ended up finding this great one filled to the brim of fashion models strutting and posing to very interesting backgrounds. I thought it would be really funny to instead of making a rock star poster to creating a poster for a cats fashion show/ Runway (A meoway)

I thought I could use some of these pictures (I will post separately) to create the runway advertisement and to use the singular models to be the "headliners" at the runway. I'm thinking about using gouache and paining the to be cats instead of humans and changing their names into cat puns etc. Im debating on using Ms paint to digitally add stars and other sparkles because I like how weird and cubic the Ms paint brush is.

[ya-boi-joule]

Ay man, I absolutely love your works!

Do you have any tips about how to make gouache work? I'm trying my best, but it just isn't arting the way i want it

But yeah I LOVE YOUR WORKS

aaAAA THANK YOU!! Thank you so much it means a lot :'>

I honestly don't know what I'm doing, figuring out gouache has been a lot of "fucking around and finding out". So I absolutely cannot speak about how one should use gouache, but what I can tell you is how I personally do things.

THE STUFF I USE

-I use the kind of gouache that you get from a tube. Apparently there are gouache that are sold in pans, but I don't know anything about those.

-Good watercolour paper is something I recommend getting, it makes painting a less of a pain.

-Because I work on a relatively small scale, I use these tiny brushes. I also have larger ones, but I like using these when painting details in faces or lineart for example.

-Paper towels for cleaning brushes but also for absorbing water/paint in case you fuck up.

SO, GOUACHE

Gouache is opaque, and the opacity depends on how much water you add. Using more water makes gouache act like watercolours, and using less water they're closer to acrylics (not sure if that if the best thing to compare it to - the point is that it is opaque, covers stuff up very well and dries fast).

With gouache you can work from dark to light, so you can add a shadow to a generally shady area and the lighten areas within it later.

HOW I PAINT STUFF SOMETIMES (this is not a tutorial lmao)

I don't always make a sketch, but when I do, I paint over it with a wash of a base colour(s), using more water. The layer(s) are trasparent enough for one to still see the pencil lines coming through. (Käärijä on the left is a better example of this). This usually helps me with mixing colours and sticking to the colour palette. Also the lines are great so I can tell what's going on.

I then add stuff until it looks about right: colours, highlights, shadows, lines, stuff, eventually the pencil lines get covered up. I use less water during these stages, and may even use colours straight from the tube. GENERALLY SPEAKING, I use slightly more water for larger areas, and less water while painting details, but that isn't really a rule or anything.

THERE WILL VERY LIKELY BE AN UGLY PHASE - that is totally normal, push through it, have a bit of faith, you'll get there.

I don't always paint like this. Sometimes I don't make a sketch, and I just layer colours until it looks right. This way has a higher risk rate for me (=nothing looks good no matter what I do and I give up), but it is fun sometimes and has yielded nice results.

SOME THOUGHTS

-Try a bunch of different stuff! See how the amound of water affects the opacity, look up tutorials from various different artists (Scott Christian Sava is a sweet man who makes short form videos on IG and YT), try painting without a sketch, etc., find out what works for you.

-A darker looking paint may dry to look light, and the other way around. So. Beware of that.

-You might dissolve layers underneath with

-Sometimes while mixing colours I add white to make it more opaque, if that makes sense? If I want to make sure that an area I'm trying to cover up doesn't peek through, I might add just a bit of white paint to the new colour.

TL;DR I GUESS

-Generally speaking I use more water in the beginning and less water later on

-There will be an ugly phase, that is normal, push through it

-Use good paper (or don't, I'm not your mom)

-Practise and experiment and try different stuff!

I hope this has been at least somewhat helpful? Again, I don't really know what I'm doing. I wish you strength, have fun with gouache and with making art in general, "hakkaa päälle" as we like to say in Finland :D

And also thank you once again for thy kind words <3

[mysticsparklewings]

2019 Art Summary!

It's that time again when we all look back on the year we've had and reflect, and then look forward to what's to come in the New Year. This only my second year doing a yearly Art Summary piece (I didn't miss February like I did last year!) but I'm grateful for the tradition now. Looking back, 2019 had a lot going on for me and my art; I started out not that different from how I've been handling my art and myself online for the past couple of years, but as the year went on, I feel like I've done a lot of growing, finding myself, and even though I didn't start off in a terrible place, I think I'm in a much better one now. This really was a year of tremendous personal growth for me, both in art and just in life, and I can only hope that continues through the New Year and beyond. (As sappy as that is to say, I really mean it.) That said, let's look back on 2019 in a little more detail, shall we? January: Birthday Wishes I actually didn't have a ton of options to choose from for this month, as I think I was a little burnt out from the last couple of months in 2018 and giving myself some breathing room.  Still, this Shopkin colored to match my actual birthday cake actually remains one of my favorite mixed media pieces I've done. I don't know why, there's just something I really enjoy about how it turned out, for as simple as it is.  And for the record, I think I will be doing another custom Shopkin drawing for my birthday again this year, but I haven't decided anything beyond that yet. February: Floating Away (+ Time Lapse!) So as I mentioned earlier, on last year's Art Summary I discovered I didn't have any submissions dated in February and I hadn't yet gotten in the habit of documenting completion dates for my artwork, and so I didn't have an artwork to put there that I could definitively say was done in February. This year, however, February was actually one of my busiest months and I had a pretty wide variety to choose from. I ended up going with my little hot air balloon, as while it's a bit different from my normal work, I still think it's really cute and it also represents one of my attempts to start making videos of my artwork...Which I've been too lazy to do since the few attempts I did during this month... But who knows? I have a better camera and slightly larger workspace at my disposal, so perhaps I'll try again and be a little less lazy about that in 2020. March: Once a Killjoy, Always a Killjoy Oh boy, if past-me had only known what was to come later this year! March saw a lot of pieces from me practicing with watercolor and new supplies, but I think my favorite to come out of the month was my annual artwork to honor March 22nd, the anniversary of when My Chemical Romance, my favorite band, broke up. Only this time instead of doing pure fanart, I made myself into a Killjoy for the occasion.  (The design of which needs to be revamped a little because my hair is purple now, but that just means I already have one option for the anniversary this coming year!) And once again, this is a mixed media piece that I look back on very fondly. The concept is fun and the end result looks pretty cool. April: Doodle Moon I leaned pretty heavily into honing my watercolor craft in April, and among those efforts, this one is definitely my favorite. (Even if it doesn't fit on this template very nicely ) This one was a bit of an experiment in branching my traditional and digital art together in a different way, and I still really love how it turned out. Although unfortunately, I've yet to return to this technique, simply because I feel weird a lot of the time about "half finishing" a traditional piece and then making a lot of modifications to it digitally. It feels like cheating or being fake in a way to me. But I think I get that hangover from the concept of editing photos online and then passing them off as real & unedited...in which case it's a personal problem that I just need to deal with on my own. May: Butterfly Babe I didn't have a ton of artwork in May, but what I did have were usually bigger/more involved pieces, and this one is no different. I think 2019 is the year when I really came into owning my love for mixed media (which comes in large part from "I'm not good at x thing with y supply, but I can do x effect with z supply really well!") and this piece is a really great example of that. Once again, still one of my favorites and the scan really doesn't do it just with all the sparkle/metallic accents I incorporated. And I think I want to do more involved almost crafty projects like this more often, but that usually comes down to having the right inspiration to make it happen. June: Bug Girl Funnily enough, June 2019 is now my busiest month of all-time (in the almost 9 years I've been here on dA), and yet I only had one "real" piece of art for the Summary.  This was the month when I really got heavy into making my own Swatch Charts/Swatching Resources, and while some did carry over into July, the bulk of it was posted in June. I have to say, I don't think a ton of other people are using the charts, but I've certainly been getting good use out of them! And if I'm being honest I mostly wanted them for my own personal use anyway.  But for the artwork that you see here, this is another mixed media piece, this time commemorating one of my favorite books I've read this year, How to Make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow. The artwork itself had some annoying problems in development, but the result is really beautiful to me, and so I think it was worth it in the end. July: Homemade Mini Sketchbooks! This month is more of a craft project than artwork, but I couldn't help myself as these little sketchbooks I made myself are probably one of my most favorite projects I did in 2019, and these first two spawned many more afterward.  It's funny to me because I've always wanted a way to combine my loves of books and art beyond just illustrating my writing (which isn't always something I feel like doing) and this, while maybe not a perfect solution, is definitely a unique way to do that. Plus, while making each book does take a little while, it is usually a pretty fun process now that I've gotten the better hang of it. These first two books aren't perfect, but they kicked off something I think I'll be sporadically doing for a good while to come. August: Mon Cher It feels like a lot happening this month, despite not having quite as much art as other months this past year. The month started off with the end of our family vacation, and I posted a journal when I got back where you can see that part of the reason this month felt so busy is that this is probably when I had the most new art supplies available to me to test out/play with during the year, including some items that I got at the tail end of July.  Out of the options I had though, this artwork seemed like the best choice to represent this month, as just like in April I leaned pretty heavily into using and practicing with watercolors and painting in general (as I dipped my toes into seriously painting with Acrylics this month too) and this is one of my more ambitious watercolor pieces. As I said when I first posted it, it has its mistakes and growing pains, but I still think it's really lovely. September: Fly By the Moon I was actually surprised, looking back, at how busy September was. My second acrylic painting (this one more in-depth than the first), an array of cute kitty drawings which have sort of become a series now, some personal pieces, and two contest entries. (One of which actually won!) I went with the acrylic painting since I'm still very proud of how it turned out, given that I don't use acrylics terribly often and hardly ever I go for realism (even semi-realism like this painting) either. Plus, this one is a nice memory of the two real luna moths that visited us, and I had to admit that it is just really nice to have a full painting on a canvas to hang up too.  I haven't done much more with acrylic painting yet, but I definitely want to. My main issue is that for me it's hard deciding on a good subject for the way I like to paint that I don't feel like would look equally as good if not better with a different medium. But hopefully, I'll find more excuses to break out the acrylics in 2020. October: Ink Dance Oh boy, what a month this was!  Inktober, new mini-magnets, trying gouache for the first time, and on the very last day the news of the decade (at least for me) that My Chemical Romance is back!  I followed my same principle as the art summary last year where it just doesn't feel fair to pick a favorite Inktober or use the wrap-up picture, so that left me with my gouache pieces or this one that looks more like a normal person's Inktober artwork, and out of my options, this is the one I like best. The gouache paintings aren't bad, I just need more practice and this one has more charm to me. And it's also funny to me that I was so concerned about ending up hating this one for the stippling and yet it turned out to be one of my favorites from this year. November: I will be with You The artwork for this month was pretty much a no-contest. I made this piece as a love letter to My Chemical Romance after the news of their Return, and likewise, I poured my heart and soul into it. It just might be one of my most favorite artworks to date; perhaps even worthy of being a "portfolio piece" on my website. Even more so after the fact now that I've seen the Return concert (albeit over a Livestream and not in person because California is like 2-3,000 miles away from me ). I was pretty busy throughout the month trying to keep up with a prompt challenge from Art Philosophy, but even so, I pushed myself to get this piece done and I'm so glad I did. December: Daises on Strawberry Hill Ah, and here we are at the very last. It's funny, the first half of this month seemed to drag by pretty slowly, but then after the second week things picked up pretty quickly (what with the Return concert and all) and I have to agree with my mom that Christmas went by so fast we almost missed that it happened at all. I don't have as much to show for this month, but that's in large part because I've been taking time off for my mental health and to spend time with and enjoy my family. I'm pretty happy with everything I produced this month, but my Looking for Alaska inspired art is definitely my favorite of the bunch. It's very graphic-design-ish and despite at the time having been done rather quickly and not super precisely, looking at it now it reads very cleanly. It's a little outside my normal art realm, but if anything I think that makes it stronger on its own.  I'm still chipping away at my longer review of the Hulu series I originally made it to talk about (like I said when I posted it, I have a lot of thoughts I want to talk about and not rush through), so I am indeed still planning on finishing and posting those...I just don't know when that'll be, considering I've already got a bit of a content schedule for myself going into the New Year, but eventually! Eventually, it'll be done! Overall, I'm honestly very happy with what I've managed to accomplish this year. Just like last year, I did a lot of experimenting with new supplies and new mediums--this time some I thought I'd never touch--and I hit even more milestones, including my first Daily Deviation in November. I feel like I've grown significantly more as an artist and a person this year though than I did last year. And in many ways, I feel like this year has renewed my confidence in my own skills and work. I'm not much of a "New Years' Resolution" type person, as I think the concept as tied to that particular phrase has been...I'll be generous and say overinflated and mistreated...but some of my Art Goals for 2020 are: Post more consistently/regularly (which I worked on a lot in 2019 too) Be more active & engaged on social media (I've already started working on this a little, but for some reason, this is honestly kind of hard for me as I always debate what's worth sharing online and what isn't ) Promote me and my work/art outlets more (Also something I find hard to do) Keep experimenting (Not really a goal so much as my artistic state of existence but whatever ) This past year has been one heck of a wild ready, but I'm more than ready to see what 2020 has in store for me. Cheers for the New Year ahead! ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings Art Summary Template: 2019 Summary of Art Template (Blank) ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

[visualskills2]

Exercise 1. 2: Good working Habits

1.       What do you need to be creative?

My notebook (No the sketchbook but the notebook I use for writing). I did this for the first-time last assignment, and it did work well. I not only got an idea for the assignment but also a couple of other that are quite interesting

My own space and music.

Sketchbook

Magazines

Cheap paper or a table (not often)

 Art materials. Lot and lots of them (It is funny because I always use the same, but I feel safe is I have gouache or acrylic even though I do not use them. This is like Charly Brown and the blanket).

Pinterest and box of reference

2.       Are these certain factors that are important for you to develop your work?

I prefer to work from home. I want to join drawing and painting classes, but I feel ashamed of my work.  I think feeling safe is important.

3.1 When, where and how do you work?

I cannot work in two different things at the same time. If I have a personal project or even a sketch book and university work, I get overwhelm. Although I ma not sure if this is just before I have the new space because before was exceedingly difficult to have to projects at the same time.

I am a late person, so I do normally work better at night. I think I like the quiet time.

3.2 How might you develop this approach further?

Improving sketching is paramount because I always can have ideas, but I always feels that my ideas are too complicated to illustrate. This will change is I sketch every day. First, I need to see the kind of things I can do (type of registration). Last year I did a sketchbook of madness where I used every technique, subject and mix and much with styles. I had a couple of drawings that I love so I took one of those (ink with brush and nibs) and I started a sketchbook that follow that illustration.

This idea worked well. First allowed me to know the medium better but also, I explore subject matters and ideas that were similar. I will love to finish the ink sketchbook and start a new sketchbook and start this process again.

I also want to add a new step. There is a couple of pages that I did not like and I want to go back and add pastel or oil pastel. I think this will enrich my imagination and can complement the journal I keep.

4.       How do I best document my work?

Photos and videos. I need to learn how to take better pictures and videos for this purpose.

5.       What kind of questions do you use to reflect on your work?

Did I achieve what I was looking forward? Did I put effort? Do I like? Was it as interesting as I thought was going to be? Do I like? Do I hate it?

I think time is also important when you are looking into something that you did. Allowed you to be objective.

6.       How important is the reflection in your process?

It is important but I do it mostly at the beginning and at the end. I think I am a bit rigid in the middle of it.

7.       Can you develop new questions and prompts?

Yes. I can. I have been writing since I was 16 so I do normally extrapolate this process to my illustration process. When I write, I have a couple of places to go for a new idea. Fee writing, what if, something that I am reading at that moment. Something that bothers me (normally politics) and I had used this process when I am looking for ideas to illustrate. The problems with these are the complexity of my ideas. When you write the sky is the limit, but I am not sure I have the skill to translate my ideas to drawings (sad)

8.       How does this reflection help feedback into your making?

It depends on the reflection. It is easy to improve on a technique or research on a particular type of perspective but sometimes the reflection is ambiguous, and it is difficult to translate in a appropriate behaviour.

9.       How would you describe your creative process?

A bit messy. I do not have a consistent creative process.

10.   What sort of stages do you go through initiate and develop your ideas and work?

First: I have the exercise prompt and come with a draft of an idea. Follow by a lot of thoughts, adding and changing the original idea.

Secondly: I start working of the project, doing the first sketches, changing the general idea

Third: At this stage I do normally have an idea of the style and colours I want for the piece. I might do research on a technique that I want to use.

Fourth: I think this is the problematic part. Even when I know something is off, I move on. I do not change the idea or perspective. I always running against time.

11.   How important are restrictions to your process?

I always work with a restricted palette of colour, but I do it naturally. I have never tried other type of restrictions to see. Perhaps size. I did that when I work in the tomato project and that was fun and worked well. In summary, I do not think I have done it enough times to be more than anecdotal.

12.   Do you start with an idea or proposal, start making and see where it takes you or work in a different way?

It seems that I am rigid. At the beginning I can adapt, to change from one idea to the next but after I invest a bit into an idea, even when I do not like it, I do not seem to be able to change. That has happened a couple of time. The first time, I could not start again. The second time, I continue, and it was nice, but I think it would have been nicer the other idea or perhaps to test it.

13.   Do you have any strategies to deal with creative blocks or obstacles?

I have never experience creative blocks. I guess it is because I always thinking about staff, reading, or looking to other people’s work and these things are inspiring. I also free write that also trigger ideas. No all of them are usable but many are.

I do suffer other type of obstacles and this is more related with self-doubt. I criticise everything that I do too much too soon. I have notice that paralyze me and I am not able to solve problems that I will normally be able to.

14.   What does experimentation look like to you?

Buy need art supplies and mix it up with other things. I also tried other people techniques to see how I can interpret them. I have made brushes or modelling. I am not afraid to get dirty.

Unfortunately, I am not sure how this fun time (I really enjoy this) can be translated to a piece. I watched a couple of days ago an illustrator using an air brush for watercolour painting and I have experiment with it but I have not been able to use it.

So, I can come back to a fear of failure. I think this is the main issue.

15.   Where do you work, what kind of physical spaces do you need?

I need a big table. No all the time but I do. I think that help me to work bigger and to see all the things that I am doing at the same time and compare. I also need good lighting (I have eye pain so working in poor light conditions are bad for my condition. I still looking for a better lighting option within my budget)

16.   When do you work, how best can you structure your time?

This is also a problem. Back to the light. I prefer night-time to work, I can work all night long or for longer period without interruptions, but the lack of natural light is a problem and the shadows with artificial light is also a problem ☹

17.   How do you draw on inspiration to feed your creativity?

The muse. I do not have a muse. If I do not know what to do I read or watch a film, read my diary, or write. I do not have an inspiration moment. I have a zone moment (I am in the zone) where I can write for hours and hours or draw and draw but it always happens when I am already working.

I think the zone is more like a concentration period rather than a muse, but other people might disagree. I have seen this “zone” phenomenon in my writing group a lot. People who can write 1000 words in 15m without a problem. I asked people and they think to believe it is inspiration.

[doodlewash]

The Backstory

Throughout my life, there have always been two interests that stand out among the rest: animals and art. I’m pretty sure I’ve loved animals every single day of my life, and I’ve been drawing for as long as I could hold a pencil. As I grew, my preference in media changed from sketching to photography to sculpting to painting.

During summer before my senior year, I found myself short of the minimum community service hours required for graduation, and as fate would have it, my mother found an ad in the newspaper for teen volunteers for our local zoo’s summer program. And it was that volunteer experience that would end up shaping the rest of my life.

During that summer and the year to follow, I would end up logging nearly 500 hours at the zoo before leaving for college. During college, I studied both zoology and psychology and got my first paid position at another zoo as a camp counselor. Unfortunately, my college days would come to an end earlier than I anticipated when my health started to decline.

Upon returning to my hometown with two associates degrees in hand and no idea what I was going to do with my life, I began working as an assistant at a photography studio while also returning to my local zoo as an intern with the hopes of joining the staff someday. A couple years later, my dream came true. I got a job as a full time zoo educator at the zoo I had been visiting since my second birthday.

I adored every second of being a zoo educator, even the ones where I was at my wits ends with the kids or covered in animal feces. I eventually rose to the position of managing the department, but unfortunately, I learned the hard way that my INFP personality was not well-equipped with traits that would allow me to enjoy managing people instead of actually educating. With my health once again deteriorating rapidly, I made the impossible decision to leave my zoo after well over a decade of commitment to them. 

Discovering Watercolors

As luck would have it, I found watercolors through the zoo as well. In those last few months I was working there, I was planning a craft for a new program when I came across these little watercolor animal silhouettes and very suddenly, it was like a flip switched in me. I was immediately drawn to the way that watercolors flow and the range of color, texture, and emotion they are able to evoke. I had to learn more about this medium.

So, one thing you might want to know about me is that I have a bit of an obsessive personality. When I latch on to something that I am passionate about, there’s really no turing back. I’m not great with anything technical and my chronic pain makes it difficult for me to remember important dates or what I ate for breakfast yesterday… but it’s been fourteen years since I first learned to handle an opossum and nearly three years since the last time I taught with one, but I could still talk your ear off about all their fascinating adaptions. The same thing happened to me when I found watercolors.

I had painted with oils and acrylics before, but I’m rather embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know professional watercolors were even a thing. For whatever reason, they weren’t a part of either of the only two art classes I was able to take in school and I hadn’t even seen a set of Crayolas for years.

But after that first spark of curiosity, I spent months researching the ins and outs of watercolor, what colors to chose for a palette, how different pigments reacted with each other… I read blogs and watched videos for hours on end, all to learn as much as I could and teach myself.

And to be entirely honest, after two and half years, I haven’t stopped.

Inspiration from Africa

It shouldn’t come to anyone’s surprise that I find my inspiration in wildlife. I have the utmost respect for our planet, and I feel it is our responsibility as a whole to take action and stand up against all the wrong humans have done and are currently doing to the millions of other species we share it with. As cliché as it might sound, I am inspired by a greater desire to help speak up for those who do not have voices, and I hope that my artwork serves as an extension of that passion in some small way.

My ultimate lifelong dream was to visit Africa and after years of saving, I finally took myself on that trip to Botswana and South Africa in 2013. Due to my work schedule, I had to travel during the off season which led to an incredibly interesting adventure in more ways than one. I was traveling by myself to another continent, and the company I booked with changed guides on me at the last minute to someone I had never spoken to and with whom I’d be alone with for the next week and a half. There was plenty of panic, anxiety, mishaps, and rain that trip, but I was standing in Africa and despite all the bad, nothing could compare to the comfort I felt from Africa herself. There aren’t words to express the absolute bliss I felt standing on African soil.

The experiences I shared there are enough to inspire me for a lifetime. I got to watch a small pride of young lions trying to stay cool under a tree in the hot Kalahari sun. One of which was playing gently with a butterfly like a house cat might. We came quite close, a little too close for comfort, to a herd of bull elephants along the road outside the Makgadikgadi Pans and watched them under a moody grey sky. I was privileged to have an incredibly rare opportunity to watch a couple of adolescent hyenas babysit two cubs while we heard the rest of the pack in the distance, presumably in a hunting party. And among many other experiences, I got to fall asleep to the roar of a rare subtropical storm filled with the beautiful chorus of frogs, insects, and birds as it poured down in Maun. It’s been over four years, but the memories are so vivid still that it brings tears to my eyes thinking about what a breathtaking experience the trip was.

Artistic Process

There’s no secret here. Regardless of medium, be it photography, painting, or sculpting, my love for animals inspires nearly every piece I create. Having been a photographer who loves to paint the same subjects that I photograph, I’m well-stocked (pun intended?) as far as references go. Whenever I’m stumped for a subject, I need only to open up my storage files and take a look for something that calls to me on that given day.

In connection with my desire to help spread conservational messages, I love featuring flagship species (beloved animals that help people to focus on a broader conservation effort) and some of the lesser known beauties in my artwork to help spread awareness. I have a very strong preference for painting animal portraits, and one of the comments I get most consistently in regards to my artwork, whether photography or painting, is that people feel very connected through the eyes of the animals I paint. This is perhaps the greatest compliment anyone could give me, and am still humbled each time I hear it.

Tools of the Trade

My first and greatest love in watercolor paints is Daniel Smith. When I first began researching color selections, I came across the wonderful Jane Blundell’s website and, paired with many other resources, began building my palette of Daniel Smith colors, which I used almost exclusively inside an 18-well Mijello Fusion palette for my first year of painting.

I will never be able to say for sure if those paints and that palette are only my favorites because they were my first real watercolor supplies or if they would have ended up there regardless, but I do adore them. My other favorite brands include M. Graham for their vivid pigmentation and eco-friendly business practices and Schmincke for their silky smooth texture and soft coloration.

As far as brushes go, I have several in my arsenal I happily use including a Princeton Elite Size 12, a Silver Black Velvet Size 10, an Escoda Versatil Size 8, the Princeton Neptune Size 4 Quill, and the very convenient Pentel Aquash Water Brushes. Arches 140lb Cold Pressed is my go-to watercolor paper, though also have been using some Strathmore 500 Series lately. I also recently took on the challenge of compiling and testing over 25 types of watercolor paper from different brands and there are some I’m quite eager to add to my collection as well.

Recently I’ve started enjoying other water-based mediums such as gouache and inks, but I owe them a lot more time before reporting any findings.

The Working Artist

A little over a year ago, I decided I wanted to put all of this silly, obsessively-compiled information to good use and started an educational YouTube channel. I primarily focus on product reviews, tutorials, and other geeky mini series like my Color Spotlight series where we focused on a different pigment each week for eight weeks. Last month I also had a ton of fun producing daily time lapse videos for World Watercolor Month!

My chronic pain unfortunately pushed my out of a career I never expected to have to leave. Coming to terms with that has been very difficult, but I have found a renewed joy in sharing both my passion for watercolors and my love for animals with my community. I am diligently working to spread my passion for both watercolors and animals while also making my artistry and educational materials responsible for my livelihood. Thanks to my amazing Patrons and those who support me through my online shops, I get a little closer to that goal every day.

I am very active within my YouTube and Patreon communities and love forging connections with other aspiring artists. I’d be thrilled to see you all around if you’d like to join us! 

Thank you so much to Charlie for sharing my story and my artwork with all of you lovelies on Doodlewash. Happy Painting!

Denise Soden Website Etsy YouTube Patreon Instagram Facebook Doodlewash Gallery

#WorldWatercolorGroup GUEST ARTIST: "In Liquid Color" by Denise Soden - #doodlewash #animals The Backstory Throughout my life, there have always been two interests that stand out among the rest: animals and art.