Costa Rica Art + Travel

Oh my goodness, just as I’m taking off for another season in Hawai’i I finally have my splendoriffic Costa Rica travel vlog finished! It’s all I can do to keep up with adventures XD

My partner Alan and I spent 2 weeks traveling Costa Rica, mainly in the tiny town of Bahia Drake, where we saw soooo much wildlife we were literally blown away! When you read that Costa Rica has 5% of the world’s species, it’s an astounding figure considering just how small the country is. But when you are there that number is so tangible and awe-inspiring to be in the presence of wildlife constantly!

Here are the four tiny gouaches I created in my homemade zigzag sketchbook from some of our most favorite spots in Drake Bay. Our trip down the Sierpe River truly was an epic way to experience such a lovely, friendly, eco-minded nation!

The first painting at the top is from an amazing coastline hike we did a few times.. that view is not even an exaggeration - the jungle hike was RIGHT next to the tropical beach - I’ve never seen anything like it!

This second painting is of a bright toucan that visited the tree branch super close to the bungalow we stayed in at Bahia Drake. We saw another one on our fist hike as well, but that one was much more elusive.

This is the waterfall we hiked to on our first day. Alan’s first jungle hike was an absolute blast!

Ans finally, our fave happy hour spot with a treetop view and a pair of macaws flying by. We learned they mate for life so felt quite an affinity for them whenever we would hear or see them ;)

And this last gouache I made for Alan’s birthday of one of the beloved Scarlett Macaw couples we saw fly overhead so many times.

4.23.2023

Mushroom Paintings in Gouache

Do you ever have a project idea just marinating on the back burner for months and then finally have the chance/supplies/time to finally do it and it feels sooooo satisfying!?!

That’s totally me with these new supa dupa mushrooms!

…which will soon turn into big bright colorful stickers!

I want the stickers to be as colorful and eye-catching as possible as good little impulse buys when hosting my art booth (yay, I am so excited to get back into craft fair vending!), and since everyone loves mushrooms I figured these would be a great subject to appeal to the crowds.

I’ll also have these stickers available on my website in two weeks when my next video comes out showing how I made them (and how you can make stickers of your own art too!)

The supplies I use today:

Gouache (not an affiliate link) https://www.amazon.com/HIMI-Gouache-Supplies-Professionals-Student/dp/B09QRKQJZB?th=1

Any purchases through my special Blick link helps to support this channel at no extra cost to you. Thank you!

Princeton Size 1 Round Brush: https://bit.ly/3gFb7cT

Princeton Size 0 Round Brush: https://bit.ly/3bb05v9

Da Vinci Size 2 Round Brush: https://bit.ly/3diLEEK

Watercolor Sketchbook: 10 X 7in https://bit.ly/3miKrXY

Make sure to tune into my next video too to see these transform into fabulous brilliant big stickers!

Which one is your favorite? Would you rock any of these as a sticker?

3.5.2023

The Ebb + Flow of Artmaking

Does it ever seem like every other artist around you has such consistent and impeccable output, both in their studio and their social medias, while you struggle to make art on a regular basis and sometimes let your social medias go quiet for weeks or even months on end??

Don't worry.. you are not alone.

Resources:

https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/ebb+and+flow

https://www.irisbarzen.com/cycles-of-productivity/

https://evernote.com/blog/the-most-and-least-productive-hours-in-a-day/

Sara Tepes vid: https://youtu.be/erK8FhVOZ-U

My lovely iceberg landscapes were painted using Himi brand gouache on thick watercolor paper.

Reference Images:

https://pixabay.com/

2.5.2023

Audience Choice Winners :: Autumn Paintings in Gouache

Yayy I’m so excited to be sharing the Audience Choice Autumn Paintings winners with you today! Sooo many folks chimed in to vote here, through my newsletter, and on Instagram and YouTube - I was truly floored!

I have been really feeing the cozy, colorful fall vibes hard this year and I think you all chose two photos that exemplify that superbly!

So without further adieu, the winners are…

If you’re not already, subscribe to my YouTube channel while you’re up there and/or make sure you are following along on my Instagram because I will certainly be doing ‘audience choice’ artwork again since I got such a huge response from this one!

Here are the winning photos:

And here are the final paintings! Yay!

They are actually bigger here than in my sketchbook, kind of fun to see all that detail up close!

Thanks again everyone who contributed! Y’all gave a great response and I can’t wait til the next go round! Happy Autumn!

11.23.2022

Sneak Peek at the Autumn Painting Winners...

Ugh it’s so hard not to share progress shots of this first tiny autumn landscape! 😬😆🥹😋 So I decided just to tease this extreme closeup of one corner of it finished.. but maybe it’s not super obvious which one it is?? 🫣🤫🍂🍂

A big thank you to all who voted!! I’m literally having so much fun trying to paint these the best I can so y’all will be psyched to help choose my art in the future too!

I think this one has turned out great! You like the little multicolored trees on the muddy shore? It’s a lot of tiny specifically directional brushstrokes that help the textures look so different 🙌🤎🧡💛💚💙

Now if you just simply cannot wait until next week to see the finished paintings on my YouTube channel, then make sure to subscribe to my newsletter (and check your inbox this afternoon if you already are!) because I’m showing this piece to those folks today as a special treat, just ‘cause I like to share art there first with my biggest supporters

Merida Art + Travel Vlog

I’m so thrilled to finally bring you the full travel + art vlog from one of the most magical places I have ever been in my life! The colors, the culture, the history, the hospitality - all were top notch in Merida and the surrounding Yucatan area. I was so inspired I did one gouache painting there of our spectacular hotel, El Palacito Secreto (The Little Secret Palace), and then four more from our various adventures once I got home (like this one of the front of our hotel and another cute street scene!).

This painting was from the day we visited the Maya ruins at Chichen Izta - the largest ones in all of Yucatan! I shared a bunch more photos from this day in on my last blog post. Just seeing stone structures that were half a millennia years old and still preserved so well was truly awe-inspiring. My respect for ancient architects grows each time I’m able to travel to such exquisite places.

The day we boated through the mangroves to see the thousands of wild flamingoes was a day I won’t soon forget! They were so loud and animated and watching them run on water to take off was hilariously surprising! This is my lil gouache rendering, and you can see the actual photos from that day on this blog post.

And lastly, though probably my favorite, the small saffron yellow town of Izamal was every artist’s dream and jsut about the quaintest place I have ever been in my life! You definitely need to see more pics here.

Cheers!

4.17.2022

Hand Painted Holiday Postcard Gifts

Happy Holiday 2021! Woo hoo, another year under the belt:)

I recently impulse-bought a pack of blank watercolor paper postcards and got so inspired to gift a few simple nature originals to my family in Canada, who is so far away and I miss so much!

They turned out to be a really great way to spend not too much time obsessing over a ‘perfect’ painting, and rather just a delightful way to get creative by gathering some nature inspo to share with some of the folks I love the most.

I bought this pack at my local art store, but certainly you could just make your own postcards out of any watercolor paper that is thick enough to withstand the mail (or by putting them in an envelope like me to protect them instead!). Just make sure to keep the postcard to regulatory size, which is around 4x6 inches if you plan on using a postcard stamp or 5x7 inches if you don’t mind using a forever stamp. And of course make sure to print the address on the right side of the back with your special message on the left, just like any postcard you would buy from a gift shop.

Here are all the materials I use in the video. Any purchases through my special links help to support this channel at no cost to you, so thanks!

Titanium White: https://bit.ly/344AceH

Azo Yellow: https://bit.ly/3ApQTPe

Gamborge Yellow: https://bit.ly/39husjc

Napthol Red: https://bit.ly/311Z0lP

Cerulean Blue: https://bit.ly/2PXJtNx

Permanent Green Light: https://bit.ly/2XG47ZR

Payne’s Grey: https://bit.ly/3g59q8t

Princeton Size 1 Round Brush: https://bit.ly/3gFb7cT

Da Vinci Size 0/2 Round Brush: https://bit.ly/2CqUxiK

Da Vinci Size 2 Filbert Brush: https://bit.ly/2NdkwMv

And I don't have the link for the exact brand of postcards I found at my local art store, but these are both close:

Watercolor Postcards (rounded corner): https://bit.ly/32l3PcM

Mixed Media Postcards (square corner): https://bit.ly/3snRG1Q

12.22.2021

Dealing with Trolls and Online Negativity as an Artist

Yikes! Dealing with trolls, haters, and just plain negative people online can be totally stressful and disheartening! Hopefully you haven't experienced much of it so far, but it never hurts to be prepared for the future.

The more we put ourselves out there the more susceptible we are to online bullying or harassment. Today I've got 7 emotional and actionable ways you can deal with any negativity that gets thrown at your artwork or content. And remember above all else, don't let anyone online get you down - they don't even know how awesome you are in real life!

Tips for Dealing with Online Negativity

1. See if the negativity is just a poorly delivered helpful critique. Believe it or not sometimes negativity does come from a place of frustration that gets aimed in the wrong direction. If there is a real and specific complaint, perhaps try to see what point the critic is making removed from the anger. You may even be able to address the comment in such a way that makes the critic feel heard, understood and treated with respect and then they will do the same back.

2. Have a few positive responses on hand to consult or reuse as necessary. Even if you may be able to win this person over, never allow yourself to negativity - it’s just not worth it because…

3. Realize you can't please everyone and that is OK!! You can never please everyone so don’t even try - it won’t work and you’ll just get frustrated. Realize that no one famous or otherwise has ever been able to please everyone. I’m sure you could even find critics of Mother Theresa so do not stress yourself out over it. Remember, you cannot control how others perceive you, only how you can carry yourself so just be and do things that you can be proud of and you’ll naturally stop caring about those who treat you as if you should be some other way.

4. If someone really wants to troll and hassle you, there are three emotional ways to handle negativity....

   4.1. Laugh it off. Literally give off a laugh and a shrug because this person took the actual time to get their whole panties in a bunch over some free content you posted online - what a loser!!

   4.2. Cry it off. Ugh every once in awhile someone either by chance or by seriously sick and specific proclivities knows just what to say to right under your skin to really make you feel bad/inept/stupid/unskilled so if that happens, allow yourself to feel your feelings for a few.

   4.3. Pity them! And feel relieved that you are not them and neither is your significant other. They may give you and unpleasant 15 minutes but realize that that person is way unhappy in their own lives, and they have to be around themselves 24/7! Yikes!

5. Know there is nothing wrong with simply block-report-delete. This person has disrespected you so you owe them exactly nothing in return. Do not allow this person to bully you into a response, especially if that response would require you to sink as low as their level - ew!

6. The very best way to deal with negativity online is to have a mantra ready so you have a swift and confident inner-dialog answer for any time some awful comment sneaks up out of nowhere and completely derails whatever awesome thing you were about to do. Do not allow those trolls any power over your mindset, goals, or accomplishments.

7. Above all else remember that H.A.T.E.R.S. are just losers who Have Anger Towards Everyone Reaching Success. They are not productive contributors, pumped on accomplishing their own goals - no. They are miserable little wastes-of-space without enough creativity to produce anything notable on their own. They’re succubi. They’re leeches. They are not worth any time and we don’t even know who they are. They know who we are, but they are so insignificant that we don’t even know who they are. Just understand that haters only come after those who are doing something noteworthy and interesting. Along with fame comes haters - it’s a very backwards compliment but trust me, it is one.

Gouache Materials

Any purchases through my special links helps to support this channel at no extra cost to you. Thank you!

Titanium White

Azo Yellow

Gamborge Yellow

Napthol Red

Cerulean Blue

Permanent Green Light

Payne’s Grey

Princeton Size 1 Round Brush

Da Vinci Size 0/2 Round Brush

Da Vinci Size 2 Filbert Brush

And yes, these gouache mushrooms are available for purchase in my Shop right here.

9.19.2021

Making Art with Snow!

Brrr! What a cold week! Didn't it seem like I was just in my sports bra and shorts on top of a tropical mountain on O'ahu and suddenly I'm here freezing my feathers off in Nashville, Tennessee?!

Yikes! What happened?!

Luckily I'm in a safe spot, just stocked up on groceries, and my awesome new artsy job cancels when it's this icy on the road so I've had the luxury or being able to do some healthy baking, snuggle up, and have my own little mini snow excursions around the nature areas of my new apartment complex. I even figured out the perfect spot to do some indoor plein air landscape painting with gouache right out my window so I wouldn't freeze my fingers off trying to set up to paint outside. Yay!

I hope you enjoy this vlog as much as I enjoyed making it for you! Here's a playlist of some other art + adventure vlogs from my travels.

Shoutout to Study Girl at Chilled Cow for the best snowy day streaming music.

Please stay safe, stay inside, and drive slow! Here are a few links you may find helpful should something go wrong:

https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/how-to-survive-a-power-outage-in-winter/432226 https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/15/us/power-outage-winter-storm-how-to-trnd/index.html

And a place to donate to those in Texas who have lost power: https://breadoflifeinc.org/

2.21.2021

First Time Plein Air Painting!

I had a truly magical journey into the jungle with my sister artist Zee this weekend., followed by relaxing and playing with some paints I brought along in a clearing by the head of the hike.

I cannot believe this was actually both of our first times painting from nature. We enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous hike through the jungle admiring a variety of ferns, listening to birds calling back and forth right over our heads (which you can hear in the vid below!), and gasping over the brightest greens you can imagine.

We are super excited to do more artsy adventures together and I can’t wait to practice more live plant painting with my gouache paints!

View fullsize

Now enjoy some incredible jungle bird calls:

4.10.2019