#acrylic paint pens on a canvas board

[carnivalwizard]

I absolutely love your profile picture

Thank you!!! :D Here's the full painting I did!

[mcromwell]

"Wherever You Go, There You Are"

8"x10" acrylic, paint pen, colored pencil, and collage on canvas board

I used to think that phrase was a "be here now" grounding sentiment, but also, it means: no matter where you run to, you can't escape yourself. This instinctual piece led me there through making it.

[bean-cookies]

Beholder - 11 x 14 ", acrylic on canvas board.

I recently got myself some new art supplies - a pack of Posca paint pens. 😊I thought to myself, what is a cool monster I can draw to try them out? I settled on a dnd classic. 👁️ However, I quickly realized there are some techniques that I like that those pens are not the best at achieving. So, I ended up also using some acrylic glazes for the more subtle shifts in colour/value, and some simple brushstrokes for a few of the smaller details.

[wanderingsimsfinds]

Decorating a house/lot with clutter is probably one of my favorite parts of building. This list has everything from books, to art supplies, to rugs, to clothing, to more practical clutter. 

WanderingSims Fave CC - Clutter

1 - Lulu265 - Classic 1 Tile Sheer Curtain (TSR)

2 - Lulu265 - Classic 2 Tile Sheer Curtain (TSR)

3 - Lulu265  - Classic 3 Tile Sheer Curtain (TSR)

4 - TheNumbersWoman - Ikea Pac Uggdal Bedroom Sheers (TSR)

5 - you-lust - szabolon Papers Wall Clutter

6 - SketchbookPixels - SIMPLY MXIMS Woli House Board

7 - wondymoon - Terbium Key Holder (TSR)

8, 11 - Kale House - 4t3 MXIMS IKEA Kubbis Wall Hook & Ferm Living Frame Pinboard

9 - Mutske - Hallway Leon Umbrella Stand (TSR)

10 - Simstiful - Backpack

12 - Julietsimscc - 4t3 Leosims Keys Rack Smaller

13, 16 - MOONSims3 - Vans Authentic Pro A MXIMS & Vans SK8 HI B MXIMS

14 - Lies-and-Crooked-Sims - Pixicat Converses 01

15 - Simstiful - Decor Dirty Shoes

17 - Martassimsbook - 4t3 heurrs Nielstrup Dresser

18 - cyclonesue - Air Conditioning Unit (TSR)

19, 33 - Martassimsbook - 4t3 novvvas Desierto Bedroom (Buddha & Books)

20 - ArtVitalex - Yuma Triple Shelf (TSR)

21 - Milla - Acne Pansy Beanie Hat

22 - johziii - Wooden Desk Shelf Empty

23 - SimplyStyling - Jope Living 5 Books

24, 39 - SimplyStyling - Jope Living 4 Side Board & Basket

25 - MarcusSims91 - Kalico Blanket Throw Ladder (TSR)

26 - SimplyStyling - Jope Living 1 Books

27-32 - Taultvec - Slox Hasare Books 1-6 Standing

34 - you-lust - Lisennymphy Buddha

35, 46, 54 - Martassimsbook - 4t3 Syboulette Pride Set (Wall Flag, Hat, Bag)

36-38, 47, 49, 53 - Martassimsbook - 4t3 Simbishy Cute Stationary Set Part 3 (Felt Pen Wall Array, Highlighter Wall Array, Marker Wall Array, Marker Array, Highlighter Array, Drawer Closed)

40-41 - Simstiful - Sketchbook & Notebook

42-45 - Milla - Luna Books 1-4

48, 50 - Martassimsbook - 4t3 Simbishy Cute Stationary Set Part 2 (Felt Pen Array & Highlighter Array)

51, 55 - Martassimsbook - 4t3 pqSim4 Study Space (Organizer & Trolley)

52 - you-lust - BillyJean Brush Holder

56 - Simstiful - Canvas Art

57 - SweetMarie222 - BS Mila Watercolor Milla Version (TSR)

58 - Martassimsbook - 4t3 Soloriya Art Studio Acrylic Paint Tubes

59-62, 66, 68, 70 - you-lust - Imadako Set (Watercolour Box Open, Pencil Cup Water Colour Umesara, Crayon Box Open, Watercolour Brush Stand, Watercolour Pencil Box, Watercolour Palette)

63-65, 71 - Martassimsbook - 4t3 Soloriya Darina Set (Painting A, Painting B, Fabric with Brushes, Paint Tubes & Pencils)

67, 69 - Milla - Cassandre Pencil Cup 2 No Shininess & Stamp Version

72-74 - Pralinesims - Vintage Rugs 1-3 (TSR)

75 - Pralinesims - Soft Flokati (TSR)

76 - pseudodigs - Moroccan Rugs

77-79 - francythatsims - Neutral Rugs (2x3, 4x3, Runners)

80-83 - johziii - Rugs! Set 2x3 & 3x4 (Boho, Earthy, Monochrome, Vanilla)

84 - Martassimsbook - 4t3 Cowbuild Minotti Rug Collection (Swatch A 3x2 & 7x5)

85 - MarcusSims91 - Address Planter

86 - MarcusSims91 - Modern Address Numbers Bellrose

[purplephloxpress]

总有一天 a place to hide (can't find one near) - yiqie

That’s just the thing, isn’t it? Wei Ying feels nothing. He doesn’t feel anything, and this emptiness should scare him. He knows he should be scared. He wants to be scared. He isn’t. Fear itself is never scary; fear is just a response. It means that your body wants you alive. It’s the absence of terror that scares him.

I had SO MUCH FUN with this bind! This one had a lot of firsts for me, and is one that I really poured my heart into due to its particular emotional impact on me (tl;dr - I was a piano major in college, burned out, this fic helped me fall in love with music again). It's an Untamed WangXian Pianists AU (TW for anyone interested that it deals with attempted suicide and life following that) and I tried to tie that into the design details literally everywhere I could think of. Black and white cover paper, music note scene breaks, and my absolute favorite part to create: sheet music title pages. The particular song used for that is a recurring motif in the fic and one that means a lot to me personally, and I knew I wanted to include it somehow. Unfortunately I couldn't find an existing image of the sheet music that was high enough quality to use how I wanted, so I used a sheet music program to input it myself!

This book was my first time doing any sort of edge decoration, and I had fun figuring out how to splatter paint with a toothbrush (Spouse: is that supposed to be blood? Me: no but also... kind of?) and it was also my first time doing endbands! (Shout out to the friends who walked me through it over voice chat one evening, and then rolled their eyes when I announced that I'd torn them out and done them over again. Twice.) I went with red and black for both of those parts to match the main characters canonical color scheme, and also because I liked the dramatic pop of color against the black and white cover.

Spine titling was done once again with a foil quill, and I decided to paint the Chinese title of the fic on the cover. I couldn't find a paintbrush that let me get as fine tipped and detailed as I wanted so I may or may not have used a toothpick to paint it on.

I prevailed over: somehow deleted half of my page numbers and had to reprint the WHOLE THING! Forgot to measure the boards as part of my spine width and had to do surgery with 2mm strips of paper! (Thankfully had allowed plenty of hinge because I didn't realize until I'd finished ALL of the titling and I would have cried if I couldn't salvage it) Truly this is my child and I adore how it turned out. Is it perfect? No. Are there things I would change? Sure. But I learned and I did and I'm so goddamn proud of it!

(See below the cut if you want specific details on the binding)

What pieces went into making it:

Fandom: The Untamed

Pairing: Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji

Pairing: Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji

Bookcloth: black Brillianta

Cover paper: black and silver marbled lokta

Endpapers: red cardstock

Titling: foil quill, acrylic paint, acrylic paint pen

Endbands: leather cording for the core, DMC embroidery thread for the bands

Body font: Adobe Garamond Pro

Title fonts: Long Cang and Canva Holiday

Text message font: Nirmala UI

Scene breaks created in Canva

Title page sheet music created using MuseScore

[calmingpi]

Me: this is nice, is it acrylic?

Customer: no, oils!

Me: oh! Lovely!

Me: i also paint, but ive never been good at canvas board

Customer: really? What mediums?

Me: acrylic and watercolor. I just bought some oils but i havent used them yet. $2.99! Used

Customer: ohhh did you go to [store]

Me: yes 😅 i just moved right next door so i go there a lot now

Customer: very cool! You know if youve never used oils, i know people really like turpentine but its kind of toxic, right? So i use walnut oil and dishsoap. Works great!

Me: ... Hold on. Let me get a pen

Customer: also theres this other solvant, i cant remember how its spelled but its a local company that makes it, here ill write down the phonetics for you

Me: thank you!!

Customer: walnut oil is also fun as a medium because its not quite a solvant so it really thins out the paint. See, i used it here

Me: oh, thats why i thought it was acrylic

Customer: yes! It also dries quicker when thinner. So it has more of an acrylic quality, but its easier to blend still

Me, writing down the uses of walnut oil on oil based paints: i seeeeee

[jlnccc]

do you have a favorite medium, or one you return to most? your works takes on many forms, which is so interesting to me!

As a secretly lazy person, my favorite is a quick drawing on paper with a black ink brush pen - I recommend this one.

Paintings on canvas allegedly deteriorate less over time, which encourages me to work more on the rendering, and the result is more complex and gratifying.

I'll do a base with opaque soft body paints like Flashe or Liquitex (they'll dry flatter) and shade with the more expensive Golden paints in small doses. I use Molotow acrylic paint markers across the board. They work on paper, canvas, wood, plastic, etc...

Thanks for your question!

[justjennvision]

2023 Fall

Art Experiences Class at Vantage Point Independent Senior Living Center- group projects on 12”x12” canvas boards

Zen Sampler- watercolor washed paper with micron pens

One Fish Two Fish-

Styrofoam printing plates and acrylic paint

Color craze-

Coloring pages with pencil, stencil cut out

[ranarh]

Asleep

"Asleep", acrylic on paper mounted to canvas board, 30×40cm. A repaint of an Inktober piece. I have done several of those lately, as I find myself thinking in colour so much that I typically know exactly which colours a black and white image is supposed to have. That can be an issue for monochromes; I love using colour and wanted to paint a few ideas I had during these challenges. I considered drawing them again, especially when there were small mistakes in the drawing, but for now have been perfectly happy simply painting over them. Maybe I'll come across some in the future that I like enough as a drawing to keep them - I did once when I wanted to paint larger than the ink drawing. Anywho, this was originally created for the prompt Sleep and drawn with ink pens and markers, then mounted to board and painted in acrylics, using them in a watercolour fashion, I especially loved the bloom effect of the strong spotlight from above on the guard's armour. You can read a longer walkthrough in my art blog, https://wordpress.com/post/jenniferslange.wordpress.com/765

[mcromwell]

9"x12" acrylic, spray paint, wax pastel, paint pen, and printmaking on canvas board and overhead transparency

[scudmcphuck]

Scud Mc(what the)Phuck 2021(?) Acrylic on Canvas Board, Metallic Paint Marker, Pink and Blue Marker Pens, and Paint Sharpie

[trashbag-baby666]

Way’s He Says I Love You-Webgott

Summary: David writes about Joes love language.

WC: 1,830.

C/W: None?

Link To My Masterlist!

He loves me, I know he does but he won't say I love you the way I'd say it to him.

The way I'd say it to Joe is a simple, "I love you." Or "You look nice today, is that a new shirt?"

But with Joe it was never that simple, hell when I met him I swore he hated me.

When Joe wasn't cutting hair at his mom's salon or driving a cab for his uncle's company he was doing art of some kind.

Since Joe could hold a pencil he was doodling and drawing. As he grew up he became more and more talented.

Art class was his only escape as a child, I'd heard from his parents and friends when he was young he had trouble making friends.

Mrs. Liebgott was quick to stick him in therapy, Joe the first born of five.

In therapy Joe barely talked but spent most of his time drawing. She took his drawings and began to read his emotions that way.

As his childhood went on his art skills advanced colored pencils and markers turned into acrylic paint and watercolor. Stick figures turned into actual people. The sun in the corner turned to shading. Printer paper turned to canvas.

His mother still has his childhood art hung up around her house.

I personally met my bitter half my Junior year of high school. My parents moved us from a penthouse in Manhattan to a far too large house for three in Frisco'.

I transferred high schools and just wanted to push through.

I met Joe in my math class, he was passing notes with a boy across the room conveniently also named Joe.

The math teacher was a hard ass with no will to help a child but to rather get a paycheck.

Mr. Sobel will forever be the bane of my existence; However, one day while the two Joes tossed a crumpled paper ball across the room. It landed on my desk on accident the moment Sobel turned around.

"What was that?" the tall man got defensive, "Whose passing notes? David, what's that in your lap?"

The lengthy man stormed across the room to my desk holding out his hand.

"Sir, it's just a book. I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention." I held up the book I was in fact reading instead of listening to him drone on.

"Put it away. Mr. Toye? Mr. Liebgott would you know anything about a paper ball being thrown across my classroom." Sobel crossed his arms and tapped his foot. I looked between the lengthy skinny boy with a septum and the Pureto Rican boy with the lip ring and a Twilight hoodie.

"Nope," Twilight hoodie popped his P.

"Not a damn thing, Sobel." Septum piercing crossed his arms leaning back in his chair.

"Language Liebgott," Sobel warned, "You hear me, no passing notes. I will know."

The man then turned back to the board writing down and drowning on circular circumferences.

That's when my life changed forever, I unwadded the ball. It had some messy handwriting about how boring Sobel was and a far too realistic quick sketch of Sobel sucking a dick.

I glanced at who I knew was Joe Liebgott. His eyes were narrowed and his eyebrows furrowed as he watched me with the sheet of paper.

"Now," he mouthed with his hand extended for the note. I glanced at the other Joe as he played with his black lip ring with his tongue watching me and nodded to the other Joe. Sobel had his back turned and I shakily stood up and walked to the back of class and handed it to Joe Liebgott. He snatched it from my hand and shoved it in his jean pocket.

"What're you doing out of your seat Webster?" Sobel spoke up now facing the class.

"Joe dropped his pen. I was just giving it back to him. I'm sorry sir," I hurried back to my seat and tried to pay attention to the rest of his class.

At the end of class on my way out Joe Liebgott grabbed my backpack tugging me back, "Hey Web or whatever the fuck your name is. Don't go fuckin' snooping through other peoples shit...Don't ever think about rattin' on us either." Lieb barked

"Lieb, give him a break, he's new, sorry about him." Joe came over to the two standing there.

"I got my eyes on ya Web." Lieb pointed at him as the other Joe pulled him away down the wall.

Somehow two months later we were dating and I couldn't function without his constant attention.

I quickly learned Joe was the most artistic person I'd ever met. Almost everyday Joe wore a leather jacket with an assortment of band patches and other patches on it. Turns out he had painted and sewed all of his patches on.

He'd also draw me doodles on everything, napkins, random paper, he painted me for one of his AP Art assignments. It was displayed in our high school for the rest of the year.

Something you've probably learned now is art and gifts is how he says I love you to me.

Sometimes I'll go back to an old book and pressed flowers would fall out that he had forgotten about. A few times he would draw scenes in pen on the pages.

Joe draws and paints it's how he shows his love. He only spoke those three words to me a handful of times. He would rarely let his emotions out for others to hear or see.

I think I can only recall a handful of times he was emotionally transparent with me.

Throughout high school Joe went to therapy and all kinds of psychologists because of having anger problems and an assortment of mental health problems.

     Joe had, had a bad day. His Bubbe passed away the week prior, god Joe loved her so much.

She was only 6 when the Holocaust and WWII began. Her family avoided getting hauled off to a work camp until it happened.

Once she survived to the end of the war she was orphaned.

Adopted by a Jewish US solider and his wife they brought her back to Frisco' where she was raised sticking to her roots.

Bubbe had a thick Austrian accent and David loved to listen to her talk for the short amount of time he knew her.

There was nothing more that Joe loved than was spending time with his Great grandmother. Every Wednesday Joe would go to her house and have tea together and bitch about life.

But she had passed from old age and Joe was heart broken.

Joe didn't process emotions well, when things were tough he would get self destructive and mean. He would shut everyone out, his art would turn into cooler shades or just black pen or charcoal.

I began noticing how his art and color theory reflected his emotions.

That day I couldn't get ahold of him, he had left school early to go to therapy.

I had called him more than 15 times. I needed to see him because I knew he needed to not be alone.

I drove my car out to where he went when he wanted to be alone or where he'd take me sometimes. It was a Rocky look out over the San Francisco Bay. We liked to listen to the sound of the waves hitting the rocks. I parked my car next to his beat up old Impala and climbed out of my car. Joe sat at the lookout his legs hanging over the edge resting his head on the lower bar. He nursed a cigarette in his hand.

I'd been trying to get Joe to quit but it was his unhealthy coping.

"How'd you know I was here," Joe spoke just above a whisper as he brought the cigarette back to his mouth and took a long in hale leaving it to dangle between his lips.

"Your mom said you'd probably be here," I sighed walking over and sitting next to him.

"Why're you here?" He flicked the cigarette off the edge watching it fall into the water before reaching for another one out of his pack sitting next to him.

I let him have it I wasn't gonna fight him on this tonight. He brought it to his lips and lit it setting his lighter back down.

"You shouldn't be alone. I don't want you to be alone." I spoke quietly staring out into the ocean.

"I wanna be alone," Joe grunted and took another long drag.

"I don't care," I dead panned. Joe had issues with his BPD pretty much his whole life on top of having manic depression.

A period of time went on both of us staring out into the ocean, Joe chain smoking, a broken sob broke their silence.

"Fuck. I cant believe she's gone." Joe sniffed letting his head fall into his hands as he wiped his eyes.

"I'm really sorry liebling," I sighed. Me and Joe only ever called each other pet names in German.

"It's fine, it's fine." Joe sighed rubbing his tears away and trying to hold back sobs, "She just meant everything to me I didn't think she could actually die."

I staid silent I just wanted him to let it all out.

"I don't know who to go to. I just feel like she was the only one who I could talk to besides you but she's always been there for me." Joe sniffed.

"I'm really sorry," I moved next to him and rested my hand on his thigh.

"Here let's get you home it's freezing out here." I stood up helping him up.

The other time Joe showed real genuine human emotion was on our wedding day. But it doesn't happen often but I treasure the moments that it does happen.

       I love the ways Joe says I love you to me. It's almost like our special connection, I won't forget how proud Joe was when he bought a tattoo machine off of Amazonand tattooed 'DW' on his collarbone.

Joe would often show his I love yous through tattoos on himself for me.

He had gotten the title of my favorite poem by Walt Whitman tattooed on his ribs.

     When it comes to the end of the day I couldn't say enough I love you's to Joe to feel how much I really did love him.

I loved every part of him, his fluffy chocolate brown hair, his deep brown eyes, the way he'd kept his septum in since high school, and his soft, pale skin. I loved to just lay and be in his presence.

To just feel him pressed up against me and the soft kisses he'd leave behind my ear.

      We'd be together and love each other in the strange way we showed it till death did us part and we'd meet again in the stars.

[aangussca]

Art Studio 2 Research: Artist's Archive/Inspiration Board on refining the visuals (mainly in the terrestrial segment of the short film)

The artworks below draw from nature in some capacity: aquatic, terrestrial and other environments. I will also include artworks that draw from organic forms in nature.

As such, all of these could provide visual inspiration for refining the animations I used for the projected film in Organic Space.

(NOTE THAT ANY PHRASES HIGHLIGHTED IN PURPLE COULD BE VERY HELPFUL IN MY APPROACH TO EITHER THE ANIMATIONS, THE INSTALLATION OF THE FINAL WORK, THE SOUNDSCAPE OR ALL THREE.)

Firelei Báez's Untitled (Premiere Carte Pour 'Introduction à L'Histoire du Monde) (2022, oil and acrylic paint on archival printed canvas)

Potentially relevant description excerpt: "She sees her art as a conversation with this earlier period [of colonialism], opening up space for questions and alternative histories. Here, she might be imagining the world represented by the Atlas ending in dramatic fires and floods. Or she could be continuing its traditions: her own imagery was inspired by the fantastical pictures of outer space transmitted by the James Webb Space Telescope in 2021 - today's equivalent of the eighteenth-century star map."

David Aspen's Waterscape (2005, synthetic polymer paint on white wove watercolour paper)

Potentially relevant description excerpt: "For Aspen, painting was as much an act/process as well as the creation of an all-encompassing colour environment. His early interests lay in international formalist/ hard edge painting, which gave way to a more nuanced and lyrical abstraction influenced by music, landscape and nature. Above all, his work emphasised colour and expressed his remarkable facility for tone, and interest in balancing interlocking shapes, colours, tones and light."

Pat Steir's The Wave - from the Sea - after Leonardo, Hokusai, and Courbet (1985, drypoint, etching, aquatint, spitbite and soapground)

Potentially relevant description excerpt: "In this tripartite composition, Steir vertically stacks quotations from three artists' images of the sea: Leonardo da Vinci's pen-and-ink drawing of a whirlpool (1507-1509); Hokusai's The Great Wave (ca. 1830-1832); and Courbet's 1869 paintings of waves at Etretat in Normandy. Steir described her ambition to "show people ways of seeing ... [how] artists see through time and place." She was struck by how these three representations of the ocean from different cultures and centuries somehow "carry the same feeling." Working from reproductions, Steir engaged in an act of translation and comparison that allowed her to consider her own relationship to time and art history."

Alex Katz seasonal paintings (oil paint on linen)

Row 1: Spring (2023)

Row 2: Summer 21 (2023), Autumn 5 (2022)

Potentially relevant description excerpt: "In many instances, [Katz] omits the horizon lines that are typical of traditional landscape painting a decision that, when paired with the large scale of his works, produces the illusion of environments with no clear beginning or end. "The sensation of color is what I wanted," says Katz. "It's the sensation of seeing." [These series of seasonal paintings] celebrates the artist's ever-evolving approach to interpreting the natural world. These days, he often begins with photographs shot on his phone or small painted sketches, which he subsequently transforms into large-scale compositions. Working intuitively, he paints at a high speed and frequently completes an entire painting within a single morning. He cheerfully describes this all-or-nothing process as "Hold your breath and hope for the best.""

Jan Erik Waider's Frozen Colours of Winter series (2023-2024, photographic prints)

Potentially relevant description excerpt: "My focus as a landscape photographer is clearly on abstract perspectives, especially concerning water and ice: landscapes that are constantly changing and never look the same on any given day. I spend a lot of time in countries like Iceland and Greenland, but winter can also lead to incredibly exciting compositions in Germany with the necessary frost, especially in the macro field of photography. In contrast to Iceland, there is a lot more vegetation and trees, and therefore a plethora of colors in the ice: frozen leaves from autumn, grasses, or pine cones."

Nicole Hone's Hydrophytes (2018, short film with 3D-printed moving sculptures)

Row 1 sculptures: 'Imp Root', 'Feather Nurse'

Row 2 sculptures: 'Nomadic Cleaner', 'Haven Flower'

Potentially relevant description excerpt: "“I have always been fascinated with nature. It inspires my design ideas and aesthetic. For this project, I became particularly interested in botany and marine life. I was amazed by the way sea creatures and corals moved, and I wanted to reflect similar qualities in my designs. They can respond to external forces such as gravity, water ripples or currents, and interaction with people or other 3D prints in real life,” Hone said. “Their man-made composite materials behave uncannily similar to living organisms.”

She went on to explain that each Hydrophyte has a unique character that is defined by both their style of movement and appearance. The colored lights that illuminate the printed plants were chosen to “complement each personality and amplify the emotive qualities of the film,” and the functions of each plant were inspired by the effects of climate change on marine species. “As the 4D printing experiments developed from abstract shapes into more plant-like models, their appearance and movement helped me think of which function would best suit each character,” she added."

[daytodayonlineshopping]

Shop our extensive range of stationery supplies, catering to diverse needs such as art and crafts, office, and school essentials. Discover an array of stationery items including acrylic paint sets, canvas boards, Arch box files, notebooks, photocopy paper, writing instruments like pens and pencils, adhesive solutions like tapes and glue and much more at affordable prices in Dubai.

[justjennvision]

April 2023

“Quarter Sun”

Gift to Carolyn Smith, Waverly Hall, GA

Acrylic paint and Paint Pens on 4”x4” canvas board

[ranarh]

Cat and Yellow Roses 8

Study, 20×30cm, acrylic and coloured pencils on paper mounted to board. A while ago I used the glass panes of painting frames as palettes or working desk surfaces (sooo easy to clean) but they broke all the time so I found better alternatives. It also means I have the backs of the frame lying around, which I typically cover with paper and use as canvas, as I did here. One has to look out for the holes in the board where the clamps would go to not warp too much. I decided to use my acrylics in a watercolour-like fashion this time. I had to paint around many elements, but in this case I liked the airy feeling it gives the piece. It is also one of the most adorable cats in the series.

And that's it, no more cats for now. I got my test of surfaces down, and learned that patterned animals are harder to paint with traditional media than digitally (duh). Haven't found a great tool to do whiskers with, mostly ink pens, as my size 2 rigger wasn't slim enough.