New art soon, promise.
Maybe.
For now.. Katie looking at Katie looking at Katie looking at Katie looking at a Nomu.

So… why do I bother with a desk light again?

Nomu approved.
I guess my middle cat likes this one…
Or she’s upset there’s another cat in her spot on my lap while I work. 

Tea Staining Tutorial

1.  Boil water.  I’m boiling a lot because… I have probably 20 pieces of paper to stain over the week.  Boil a little (use only a few tea bags).  I ripped them up and dumped them all in… maybe 15 bags?

2. Leave pot on stove… go to work for 4 hours.  (A half hour is fine too, I just did the batch before going to work;) )

3. Have cat help.

4. Bin being used is from home depot, you can find it here.  It’s large, mostly because I need to at least stain 22x30in paper. In the bin is an uneven layer of newspapers and other junk mail, stuff you don’t really care if it gets ruined.  You want a plastic liner that can also be found at the hardware store.  Cheap is fine, since you’ll be throwing it out once you’re finished.  Or you can use better and wash it between uses before you get a LOVELY aroma of old tea (trust me, you don’t want this).

5. Press paper into tea, decide that there’s not enough and go make another 22 quarts.  Usually one round is fine with me, but I stain smaller sizes in one go and they take up less space.

6. Wrap up for a couple of days.

7. Go do something else.

8. After that, start poking at it, flipping the paper around, pulling it if you like it, etc.  Leave some sheets in to get darker, toss a few others in there.  Leave liner OPEN now to let it evaporate a bit.  Sometimes it’s nice to you and leaves ‘burnt’ looking darkness at the edges.

9. Dry paper, dump excess tea, toss liner (…seriously, trust me that you want to get rid of it.)

10. Wash paper in shower if large, or under a sink to kind of clean off any residue.  I tend to wash off any extra stuff, like tea leaves, stick bits, etc.

11. Tada! 

Because if I’m pretending to finally draw something… my attention is obviously required upon their magnificent feet.  How dare I look elsewhere!?

…sigh 

1. Sloshed some paint on the pieces.  Lots of water, a little color.

2. A little more paint… still a lot of water.

3. See?  LOTS of water.  I let it go all the way to the edge so it soaks in a bit and the ripped parts are painted too and not white at the end.

4. Trusty side kick. 


Been a while and there’s been some new people :)  So once in a while I’ll pretend to post some work in progress shots to get an idea how I do watercolor/acrylic paintings.  It’s mostly a “puddle paint, walk off for an hour” technique until nearer the end with details.

I don’t leave white spaces.  I tend to go back in with white acrylic for the highlights - no other reason then this is how I taught myself how to use watercolors and I like the look!

If you ever have questions - feel free to fire me a note! 

A day in the life of…

Back when I first got fatso… 6-7months old?  Then when she got fat.  Yellow one is Nomu.  Nomu tends to just try to EAT my paintings, not sleep on them.