forever thinking about the light in the desert before, after, and during storms. #watercolor #traditionalart #landscapepainting

I often work small so don’t usually sketch or thumbnail. But I watched a video today on thumbnailing landscapes as a practice of its own and was inspired to make some in 1 or 2 layers. I like the idea of having a store of thumbnails to choose from when I do have time/energy for a bigger piece.

Dulac was one of the first illustrators to make an impression on me as a child. Love the dreaminess of his work, it’s perfect for fairytales

Here’s the full set! they’re on to their new life. Happily the recipient liked them (not a guarantee with this person !). #watercolor

the last two cards I did for the small gift set. The hydrangea was the only one I used pencil on, and that just guidelines. This year I ditched pencils and erasing for ink sketching and I’m happy with how confident I’ve gotten with ink… even if it means my mistakes last forever! #watercolor

Here’s a tutorial painting following a video by Bianca Rayala. I really liked the color combination of pv29 perylene violet and pbr7 monte amiato sienna in the sky! #watercolor

Anton Seder’s The Animal in Decorative Art (1896) — an Art Nouveau reference book full of elaborate ornamentation: winged dragons, chiseled hieroglyphs, warring sea creatures, and more... https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/das-thier-in-der-decorativen-kunst/

I’m so glad I took a picture of this and shared it because yesterday I spilled one of my water containers on this sketchbook 😢 I’m just grateful it wasn’t one of my bigger books where my more time-intensive paintings go.

I’m working on a small set of cards to gift to a family member who’s a big gardener. These went smoothly and I’m feeling confident I’ll finish the project in time!

I have a small sketchbook that I use mostly for little sky studies. If I don’t do skies regularly I forget how! In this one I wanted to capture the feeling of noticing a pretty sky in a mundane setting. most of my favorite sunsets and rises have been witnessed in parking lots. #watercolor

Getting back into painting after a sickness break with a couple common motifs. These are both predominantly two color pieces with the third for accents. Limited palettes are my comfort zone! #watercolor #lineandwash

From Good Housekeeping's Summertime Cook Book, 1958. Illus. by the mysterious Lou Peters, whom I found out years later (after inquiring about them on my blog in 2007) that "Lou" was actually Luciana Peters. She passed away in 2021 at the bright young age of 102. #wardsmorguefile #moreartlessdoom

Here’s my latest diptych! #watercolor #traditionalart #landscapepainting

I just finished this audiobook! I listen to them while I paint and this book accompanied my last piece. It felt good In These Times to read a book where so much of the arc was about learning to trust in and embrace community.

A golden field! Reference image from a class on skillshare that I decided not to do. #watercolor #traditionalart #watercolorpainting

I made this for a monthly challenge on pmp-art around the theme of gates. I was delighted working on this and I hope that comes through. #watercolor #watercolorpainting

I forgot to even take a picture of this one until a discussion on discord of how hard rocks are to paint reminded me! I was unhappy with the sand when I finished so I put it in my no-share pile, but on second glance, I really do like my green cliff and birds! #watercolor

My friend @willhudsoncomics.bsky.social is in this, so I’m sure it will be great!

I almost gave up on this after the first layer, which was uglier than usual. But today I decided to pick it up again for practice and I ended up feeling happier with it. This limited palette of only blues and browns was fun! #watercolor #traditionalart #painting

Today I finished this class. I did my own versions of a couple pictures that I didn’t like so much. I feel like I learned a lot!

Waves Pounding Against the Rocks, by Kawase Hasui, 1931 #Japanese #Art #JapanseArt #Ukiyo-e

Albert Weisgerber (1878-1915)

I like to do tutorials and workshops when I’m struggling with my creativity and time for art. Classes two mountains followed tutorials by Shanan Subhan on skillshare. I always learn a lot from her classes!

Between heartsickness and physical sickness, I haven’t been well enough to paint much this spring. But I finally was able to this weekend.

enchanting artwork! FaTT and associated projects always have amazing cover art but this by @formyths.bsky.social may be my favorite yet.

On my art discord, we did a square challenge around the theme of inspiration. I tried on some more complex inspirations before embracing exploration & experimentation as my inspiration and just diving in with things I had—typically, forgetting to check if I had glue first!

Disneyland Fantasyland posters, 1950s-60s. #wardsmorguefile #moreartlessdoom

a piece from my calligraphy professor Carl Kurtz. September 1, 1939 "We Must Love One Another or Die"

✨💌USEFUL LINKS FOR ARTISTS🎨🍊: A 200+ link spreadsheet of some of the best references and websites out there, for free on google sheets! This blew up on twitter ages ago, and I just went through and tested all the links and added more. send to ya buds <3 docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Yesterday I was inspired to color an ink sketch I made during january’s birbfest challenge. I love birds and especially owls! This is gouache, not watercolor, since this mixed media paper isn’t very sturdy.

I spent my afternoon relaxing with a skillshare tutorial (by Shanan Subhan, whose loose watercolor classes really click with me). I’ve been struggling to find relaxation in art lately amidst the chaos of life and tutorials can feel safe and comforting.

Four small paintings using three colors. from my friend Sandra’s color triad challenge on my art discord. Pb29, pv19, and py150. These were hard for me—my creativity and time are suffering in these chaotic weeks. I initially planned 4 seasons but needed to be simpler so just did whatever.

Whoa. Just got granted access to the beta version of @flashes.blue and it works exactly like Insta, but, it’s also… your Bluesky account. This displays the value proposition of @atproto.com better than anything else I’ve seen. This is the way.

With the temperature reaching -43c with windchill today, this male Downy Woodpecker engaged borb mode! #Birds #photography #wildlife 🪶

a friend in my art discord is running a limited palette challenge. week one is exploration of the triad, and abstract lines is one my favorite ways to do that! I don’t really enjoy making pie slice color wheels so I’m leaning into alternate ways to swatch and test. #watercolor

GenAI has polluted image search results, especially for animal pics. It’s now basically impossible to find accurate art references. Enter this: a repository of open-access, AI-free images of wild & exotic taxa. Artists creating *without AI* have blanket permission for derivative/transformative use.

okay it's rad seeing deepseek casually cut the entire AI industry off at its knees, for sure, but um, are they also doing this at HUGE environmental expense and with mountains of stolen data? that's kindof the entire point

Yesterday I finally started painting in the cheap joe’s Kilimanjaro sketchbook I’ve had for a few weeks. I made some New Year’s art goals but my only REAL one is to use better paper—even for practice! #watercolor

Here are some more of the birds I’ve done for the birbfest challenge on instagram.

As shit clamps down I would like to see things like personal websites and rss and forums return, we need to stop relying on the same 3 damn sites to be our Internet These things were the norm for ages, maybe we can reforge it

Btw artists if you want to help combat AI slop sneaking into your research I am begging you to STOP relying on Pinterest for reference gathering. Familiarise yourself with the free online collections of museums of which there are several and how to search them effectively

I made these for birbfest2025 on instagram—a month long set of bird prompts. Check it out at birb.challenge! Several folks on my discord are participating which is always fun! My art discord is always open to new members!

I had surgery a couple weeks ago—this time I planned ahead and bought a small watercolor sketchbook to make quick and simple little paintings. They take around 15-20 minutes so still get to make art without pushing myself too hard! It’s also a nice way to practice #watercolor fundamentals.

This is one of my absolute favorite tool for face lighting! You drag the head to the angle you want and then press play or drag the bottom slide til the light is where you want it. williamnguyen.artstation.com/projects/6a0...

In 1759, Josiah Wedgwood founded a ceramics company that achieved global recognition and continues production today. Thousands of his glazed samples paved the way for 18th-century ingenuity and are part of the V&A Wedgwood Collection. www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/12/josi...

How about some Mary Blair Christmas cards? Let's start with Five Santa Band - all cards from 1950s-60s. #wardsmorguefile

Here’s my third & final entry for magrish@instagram’s sky challenge! This is the least like the b&w reference photo, which is fine! Going into the challenge, I gave myself permission not to worry about exact matches and instead focused on my color choices! #watercolor #traditionalart

I like to share contemporary Japanese artists on this feed from time to time. Midori Yamada (b.1974) is a watercolorist and illustrator known for her cats.

I think adults who decide to learn art are very brave! Especially if they didn’t grow up in households that value art and nurture creativity.

Here’s my version of the second week of Maria Smirnova’s sky challenge on instagram (@ magrish on insta). This type of sky is not easy for me so even though I have constructive criticism for myself, I’m pretty pleased with this!