Fresh Salad Toss
Fresh Salad Toss is inspired by @theydrawandcook’s drawing challenge for January 2023 on Instagram. This is the second prompt in the series. See fresh juice for the first piece.
Here I did the ingredients for a Greek salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, olives, and feta cheese. Confession: I don’t eat that many salads (though I want to eat more!) and the Greek salad is what came to mind. Especially because D does his own lil version of it that’s mostly tomato and cucumber. I am partial to the avocado & quinoa superfood ensalada at Mendocino Farms. It’s a lil spicy and zesty with a nice crunch from the quinoa.
What’s your favorite salad? Let me know in the comments below!
02 fresh salad toss
Fresh Juice
01 Fresh Juice is inspired by @theydrawandcook’s drawing challenge for January 2023 on Instagram. I did this prompt because I thought it’d be fun and I was in need of some ideas of what to draw. It actually started out as lemonade and then I didn’t like any of the yellow colors I was testing for what turned out to be a lil lime instead of a lemon. BUT OH WELL.
What’s your favorite juice? Mine is probably watermelon. Though I do not drink that much juice because of the sugar content.
01 fresh juice
Still Here Still Life # 98
I decided to do another piece from Still here still life’s (@stillherestilllife) drawing challenge. This is prompt #98.
The painting is created in Procreate using gouache brushes and the included color palette from KJP Designs via DesignCuts.
I started off with a sketch in my sketchbook. I’ve been moving more of this beginning part of my process to analog - so pencil and paper. I find it’s a bit easier to explore and make mistakes on paper than it is on my iPad. Sometimes I feel with the digital tools, I get a tendency to make everything pixel perfect (haha, designer pixel pushing here). And I’ll end up undoing and re-drawing a line over and over on iPad because I’m on the computer and my brain is like “it must be perfectly straight!” On paper, sometimes I’ll erase, sometimes I’ll draw over a mistake. It’s more chill.
Preliminary sketch
After the paper sketch, I’ll take a picture of it, then import that picture into Procreate. Next I’ll polish the sketch, typically using a color for the lines that I know I won’t have in my final palette. This is to help reduce confusion between what marks are there to help me out versus what’s going to end up in the final.
Taking a look at the Procreate sketch, I feel like my lines have gotten less wobbly as I’ve been going through Drawabox exercises to improve my fundamentals. I’m currently on Lesson 1 and working through exercises to learn more drawing from the shoulder vs drawing from the wrist.
Basically:
Shoulder = smooth, fluid line work; emphasis of trajectory
Wrist = tight, stiff control; good for details and writing
The earlier photo of my sketchbook is from “before” I started Drawabox, and the photo below on iPad is “after” I started Drawabox.
Sketch is polished and transferred to iPad
Next, I’ll do some planning for what colors will go on which object. Then commence with painting while I listen to an audiobook. Today’s audiobook was The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson. I’ve read a number of his books, including all the previous ones of the Mistborn series and the Stormlight series. I highly recommend if you are in to fantasy novels.
Final painting for still here still life #98 drawing challenge
And here is the final painting! I’m really diggin’ the pink and green lamps. Probably because of the color variations - they feel harmonious within each lamp. What do you think? And, do you have any audiobook recommendations? Let me know in the comments below!
Molotow Acrylic Paint Marker Set Review: Pastel Colors
I bought some acrylic markers recently and wanted to share my experience with them. It is the first time I’ve purchased markers like these.
Molotow ONE4ALL Acrylic Paint Marker Set, 10 Pastel Colors, 2mm
What I like:
easy to use
not much clean-up
not much prep, just give the markers a shake and they’re good to go
I got the pastel set because I love pastels yet they’re more muted in real life than I expected. They have a muted feel to them and I would’ve preferred a clean and bright look. I bought these mostly to just have fun with and for use in my sketchbook, so it doesn’t bother me that much. I do wish the image on Amazon was more faithful to the colors though.
Close up in my sketchbook of the different color swatches
The markers all come in a 2mm tip. I saw another version with both a thick and thin tip, double sided. If I were to purchase these markers again, I would go with the double sided version instead as I found myself wanting more flexibility and variation when I was using these. The markers also make a kind of scratchy sound when using them. My paper may have contributed to this too though.
Color swatches plus the markers. The marker order corresponds to the order of the swatches.
I started out by sketching some ideas in my sketchbook. Then numbering each section of the sketch, as I wanted at least one shape per color to show. I ended up choosing the sketch on the bottom right to transfer to the paper I taped down to my desk.
Sketches
I did some light planning for which color would go into which shape in the sketchbook. I’ve been adding more planning and more drafts to my process. I’ve found this helps reduce mistakes and frustration later down the line. It allows working on the final painting to feel more chill and I can concentrate on painting better versus if I’m trying to think and plan and paint all at the same time.
The colors in the taped down painting here are the closest to what I’d say the colors look like in real life.
I have this issue commonly come up for me when I use paint… the paint bleeds under the tape. Does anyone else have this problem or know why it happens? Or how to fix it?
A quick search and this blog post recommends painting a seal after putting on the tape. I’ll try this next time and report back.
Detail shot with the paint bleed on one shape but the other turned out fine
The final painting
Overall, I felt that these markers were fun to experiment with. If I were to purchase again, I would opt for the double sided version and try some different colors. What do y’all think? Have you tried acrylic markers before? Which ones are your favorite? Let me know in the comments below!
Still Life 3
Another painting using the same color palette as last week’s post. Also with similar subjects. The orange on blue color combo is really intriguing to me. The contrast makes each color pop. I tried something a little different with the water pitcher this time by adding a slightly darker yellow outline to help define the pitcher. I really like it. What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below!
Still Life 3