Eleven Again

A sister of mine deserved a painting, so I made her a tiny one of Matt Smith. All of my sisters like Doctor Who (but none of the brothers are into it, somehow). Matt Smith is Anna-Marie's first doctor. Felicia came in on David Tennant and I was there with Christopher Eccleston. I expect Martina will become hooked on the next one, whomever that may be. Sam Jackson, she hopes.

That City I Love

This one might not necessarily be Minneapolis. Or St. Paul. They've certainly influenced this painting, but even more than with the other city paintings, I was more interested in depicting the impression a place can give.
Next week I'm going to L.A. I love L.A. I've only been there once, and between then and now my brain has painted it into this glorious place that it almost certainly isn't. The great thing about it, though, is that I think part of our existing experience is in our heads. I think we make our places beautiful or terrible.

This painting is for my godfather, who travels the world. I've learned a lot about loving places from him.

watercolor and acrylic on 180 lb cold press paper

Last year's remnants

I finished that white sketchbook on New Year's Eve! Two years in a row, finishing sketchbooks minutes before midnight, and I don't even care for New Year. Big New Year cynic. Maybe this is a pattern for improvement.
Here's some sketches from the last of that sketchbook. The lower half are characters I made up, the upper half is mostly One Piece, plus a Merida (Brave. Drawing her is incredibly fun). Random bits. That mermaid sketch is the precursor to a painting I made for my friend.


So what's on the plate now? I signed up for the Sketchbook Project. I'll post photos of that later. I've got to do some serious documenting for this sketchbook, since I'll be relinquishing to the mercy of a traveling sketchbook library and probably won't see it again.

Snowglobe!

Alyssa prompted this piece. She insisted that making snowglobes was the thing to do. After seeing the really cute one she made, I really wanted to make one, too.
EDIT: Ten Paces has a whole menagerie of snowglobes over there! Check'm out!

Art Show!

My friend Tiffany and I are having an art show!

We've been working hard on these pieces and we're happy to finally share them officially. So come by and say hi for a few minutes, grab some snacks (provided by us!) and a bubble tea (you'll have to get that yourself) and live in the festive Twin Cities love.

ill

I think I'm sick. It makes me want to paint more than ever. My apartment gets really warm, and that combined with being ill kind of helps me focus. You know what I mean? It's that weird state of mind where it's way too hard to think about more than one thing, so I only think about the painting. It even helps focus on a specific part of the painting, so I don't rush as much as I usually do and the decisions I make are more careful (albeit slower).
This sounds like a weird argument for being sick. I don't like all of the side effects–the soreness, the throat thing, the leaking head–but it does force me to stay inside, and I like that.

This is the last piece for the Urban Winter series I've made for a show I'm having with Tiff. We hung it this weekend, so I'll take pictures and post them as soon as I'm able.

Cold Winter Night

I had a hard time with this one. Ultimately, I think it's one of my favorites, but boy oh boy did it put up a fight. I struggled with getting it as deep and vibrant as I had planned, and then when it was deep enough I was frustrated with the lack of subtlety that watercolor usually provides.
This also served to remind me that sometimes sticking with something is the best course of action, even when you want to start all over.