R is for ...

(Up until now, the "title" art has been from Pixabay.com.  However, the artist whose work I have been highlighting has not provided a graphic in this series for every letter of the alphabet ... (wah) ... but ... I'll explain a little further down about how this came about, but I ended up creating my own "a la the style of" graphics for a few of the letters in the alphabet yet to come ... including this one ...)


Thanks to brownielocks.com/april.html once again, here is the list for
Today is ...
*Bulldogs are Beautiful Day
*National Chocolate-Covered Cashews Day


Today's Baker's Dozen Plus ...

1. ramble
2. rabble
3. robe
4. robin
5. radical
6. random
7. radius
8. rose
9. rat
10. ran
11. rattan
12. rather
13. rust
14. rustic
15. ribbon
16. roost
17. roust
18. rebel
19. red
20. rouge
21. rum

The "Explanation"


Okay, the "explanation" of today's title art.  If you were brave enough to read the entire "N" post, you may have noticed I said I had begun to take art courses at the community college because I thought I wanted to be able to, at least, make a simple sketch of what I wanted the illustrations to be like in children's books I might write.  Well, I "can" draw but not to the point where I can actually draw the same character twice ... though, in truth I had thought I would just do a very basic sketch that a "real" illustrator could work from ...
Well ...
Since then I have watched a free webinar (it was, like all "free" webinars, a long advertisement for a course someone is offering).  But in the webinar enough useful information was given that, while I must admit to the "utter sinfulness of lusting after" the entire set of courses he was offering, I can get to work on my own illustrations right away!  Hence, today's "R" illustration and a few more to come ... WOO HOO!
I'm havin' fun!

Well, I got a big surprise.  I thought I knew what a rumba is -- but not one I watched at YouTube was what I thought I was looking for ... hmmm ... Here, I thought it was a Latin dance with a beat and as flamboyant as a tango  (or showy or ... but not so "melodic" more of a beat to it ...) ...

So ... now I need to reorient my thinking and find something else ...

 

Gotta find one more (at least) but between Foggy Brain and a YouTube that is being very unhelpful when I type in the search box -- I am getting really really frustrated ...

Gave up on YouTube

I don't know if the "paste" I am going to try here will work or not -- but here goes --

Oh, what am I pasting?  From my public library consortium's site, they utilize the Novelist info to show all the books in a series and then go on to suggest "you may also like these books" (or series or other authors) ...

COOL!  It worked but now to remove all the "links" -- oh, maybe not -- you probably won't be able to order a copy to arrive at your library from my libe but it will take you to a page describing the book ... This series by Ron Roy is really good (I've listened to quite s few of them in eAudio format) and is appropriate to share as it is an "A-to-Z" series of mysteries ... Lots of fun ...

Well, it only looks like it works -- everything fits here in the compose box very well, but when I preview the post -- it all spills out into the sidebar ... so ... no links just covers ... :-D

Okay, now we have just the covers in 3 columns instead of the original 4 columns ...

Books in This Series  

A to Z mysteries. Main series

Back to YouTube ...

While looking for something for "S," I found this ... and WOW!

And this next one is long-ish but WOW!  WOW!  It shows how one of the items in the above video was made ... well, maybe not the above as the artists' names are different but the items are very similar ...

Call to Action ...

There are 5 things you can do to earn a free gift (probably a selection of Color-Your-Own SuseDoodle postcards from a forthcoming collection to be released soon! WOO HOO!)  All five  Call to Action options can be found here -- two can be  answered in the Comments Section here or via the InLinkz section at the end of the post ... I wanted to set the closing date as May 7 but InLinkz would not let  me run a link list for that long ... so the deadline is May 1 ...

Q is for ...

Today is ...

(Thanks once again to brownielocks.com/april.html)

*  National Cheddar Fries Day

*  International Cli-Fi Day (Climate Fiction)

Today's Baker's Dozen Plus ...

1. quince
2. quinine
3. queen
4. quick
5. quit
6. quiet
7. quite
8. quality
9. quiver
10. quote
11. queue
12. quack
13. quest
14. question
15. quill
16. Qwilleran
17. quota
18. quantity
19. quibble
20. qwerty
21. quotientQ
22. Quimby

QUILL, QUILLING, QUILT & QWILL ...

Gotta send you to a link for Quilling -- used to be able to find YouTube videos of just finished work but all the options it gives me right now are "how-to" videos ... not on my agenda today.  If you want to find out how to make this kind of art, I am sure you are quite capable of getting YouTube to spit out a few hundred videos for you to choose from ... for a really cool gallery of Quilled Works go here ...

and ... now for Quill ...


More links -- :D
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_Who...
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheCatWhoSeries


To be honest, I am not sure Lilian actually wrote all the books in the series -- there are three or four in a row that don't have good "continuity" (that is, they contradict the book immediately preceding it or "facts" from the earlier "down below" set of stories) ... But then, I have been following a few authors over at Facebook and have found out that those who have series that are 15 or more books long may not remember details they wrote 20 years ago -- one even asked what color a car is supposed to be ... she forgot ... turns out it is yellow ... LOL ... so maybe Lilian did write them all.  I love 'em anyhow.  But be sure to start at the beginning of the series and work through in order ... more fun that way ...

There really isn't anything as wonderful as watching a mama bobwhite quail taking her little ones for a stroll in your own yard. Especially if you are about 8 years old at the time you watched them wander by ... too bad I could not find a video of something like that ... **sigh**

The Call to Action:
There are 5 things you can do to earn a free gift (probably a selection of Color-Your-Own SuseDoodle postcards from a forthcoming collection to be released soon! WOO HOO!)  All five  Call to Action options can be found here -- two can be  answered in the Comments Section here or via the InLinkz section at the end of the post ... I wanted to set the closing date as May 7 but InLinkz would not let  me run a link list for that long ... so the deadline is May 1 ...

P is for ...

Today is ...

* Bicycle Day

* National Garlic Day

Today's Baker's Dozen Plus ...

1. perfect
2. purr
3. puma
4. pumpkin
5. palace
6. princess
7. prince
8. pounce
9. palisade
10. piglet
11. puce
12. pumice
13. panic
14. paper
15. poodle
16. puddle
17. pink
18. participate
19. particle
20. parable
21. practice
22. purple
23. Peter
24. piper
25. picked
26. peck
27. pickled
28. peppers

Pottery Tour ...

It is a lot of fun!  It is clay-spirational, too ... Meet the potters, see and buy their work.  It is the Annual Upper St. Croix Valley Potters Tour. 

While you are in the area, be sure to stop by the Franconia Sculpture Park!  Free and open year-'round.  There used to be an official Tour studio stop, and an unofficial studio Tour stop, very nearby in the area (one was the previous location of the Sculpture Park).  This year's map isn't showing these locations (well, they wouldn't show the "unofficial" one, would they?)  Keep your eyes open as you go through the Taylor's Falls area for signs to another studio having a sale at the same time -- if they are holding their sale this year at the same time, it is well worth taking your time to detour and stop by.

When you visit the tour webpage, click on links across the top for lots of info an all the participants and lots of other good info.

Oh, you might like to know that Richard Widmark, actor, was born in Sunrise Township -- and one of the pottery tour stops in in Sunrise ...

Unabashed "Plug" -- Prima ...


Back in November, I saw a YouTuba (I almost like that better than what is was supposed to say -- "YouTube") about the Prima watercolor pencils. 

In early December, after searching around the Net -- I decided to get a set of the Prima Watercolor pencils in the "basics" colors.  Got an excellent price on them from scrapbook.com
I did not get around to actually opening up the tin to use the set until early April.  I did not really remember where I had ordered them from but did a quick term-search for "prima watercolor pencil" in my email account and looked for an email that had been opened.  Found the invoice then wondered -- do I contact the seller or the manufacturer to deal with this.  Well, it was a packaging problem, so it was not the seller's problem to deal with.
Went to the PrimaMarketingInc website and found the contact us page.  I could email them.  I could use the box on the page.  Or I could call them.
I called and got the best customer service in the universe.  After getting really bad customer service from a few other companies recently, I was overjoyed by this.  I've decided that Prima is my Watercolor Pencil of choice (1) because the customer service was so awesome, and (2) the pigment and pencil lines dissolve very very well when water is applied with the paintbrush, even a slightly damp brush.  WOO HOO!
I received my new pencil (#16) -- the tin had held 2 white pencils and was missing the yellow -- by PRIORITY 3-Day mail!  WOW!
Peacock Spider

Be sure to click on the YouTube symbol on the second Peacock Spider video and go read the notes there under the video.  Fascinating creature.

I grew up next door to a children's amusement park that had peacocks in the aviary.  Imagine hearing the cry any time, day or night ... ugh ... sometimes it sounds like a scream for help and at others can mimic the sound of a baby crying ... and just once in a while it sounds just like a peacock.  :D

And, now for the "Best" "P is for ..."  --  Terry Pratchett

(There are tons and tons of Pratchett interviews at YouTube and more -- this is one of my favorites because of one statement -- about "plot" ...)

Piano Cat

Call to Action

There are 5 things you can do to earn a free gift (probably a selection of Color-Your-Own SuseDoodle postcards from a forthcoming collection to be released soon! WOO HOO!)  All five  Call to Action options can be found here -- two can be  answered in the Comments Section here or via the InLinkz section at the end of the post ... I wanted to set the closing date as May 7 but InLinkz would not let  me run a link list for that long ... so the deadline is May 1 ...

O is for ...

Today is ...

* World Amateur Radio Day

* National Columnists' Day

* National Golf Day

Thanks to brownielocks.com/april.html for our "today is" info.  :D

Today's Baker's Dozen Plus:

1. opera
2. operetta
3. ornery
4. ornament
5. other
6. ostrich
7. omelet
8. owl
9. oryx
10. orangutan
11. otter
12. orange
13. ouch
14. oh
15. omega
16. olive
17. Osage
18. oregano
19. oyster
20. outside
21. original

Well, the next set of videos was what I could find ... I know I have seen some other compilations of work but could not find them or just did not have the right search string in place to get what I was looking for ... Hope you find these ones interesting:

So -- what do you do with an
Ostrich Egg?

And ...

AND How Can I forget to include ...?

Call to Action

There are 5 things you can do to earn a free gift (probably a selection of Color-Your-Own SuseDoodle postcards from a forthcoming collection to be released soon! WOO HOO!)  All five  Call to Action options can be found here -- two can be  answered in the Comments Section here or via the InLinkz section at the end of the post ... I wanted to set the closing date as May 7 but InLinkz would not let  me run a link list for that long ... so the deadline is May 1 ...

N is for ...

{Sorry -- "Gusty Winds" seem to have taken over on this one ...}

No-Line Watercolor ...

for your rubber stamping ...    

(Blogger can be a real pain when it comes to getting the line breaks / returns to work correctly ... right now, as I try to change from "centered" (as the video above) to get left margin for text, Blogger just erases lines above me but stays in the center ...)  So ... Sorry about the dang extra lines (unless I can find the right ones to remove in the html ... then maybe it will okay by the time you see this mess ...  **sigh**

WOW!  Isn't that gorgeous?

Most of my rubber and clear stamps are still packed up ... I have a few sets within reach but nothing with a large flower like these.  So, I wasn't exactly sure what I would use to try this.
Actually, I had done something very similar.  Way back in the Dark Ages (oh, say around the year 1999 or 2000), a friend had a Stampin' Up! Party and then joined the company as a demo during the next Sale-A-Bration in January -- and got a bonus of all the red stamp pads SU had in their line at the time.  What a great deal, eh?

Anyhow, I became her occasional customer and one thing I decided to try was watercoloring stamped images.  I had a couple of gorgeous stamps I had gotten at Michael's or Joann's ... based on paintings by a particular artist (whose name I have forgotten but once I find those stamps again, I'll "remember" because her name will be on them LOL!)  Anyhow, the index "print" of the stamp shows it colored in, probably with watercolors.

CHEATER!

One little digression before going on.  I love to watercolor but do not trust my own ability to draw out the image in pencil before I start.  In fact, for a very long time, I thought that it was "CHEATING!" to actually draw out the image first.  I thought "Any bozo can color inside the lines!"  **snort** Was I ever wrong!

Well, maybe not.  Anyone can color in -- we just approach it in our own way and within our own level of skill and knowledge.  And it is not cheating to draw it out first!  It was Bill Alexander and Bob Ross who painted, on PBS, showing us how to paint with oil or acrylic without putting some kind of guidelines, at least, if not the entire carefully drawn picture, on the canvas or paper first.  I got lured into believing that "real" artists did not use lines ...

I can draw.  I just don't feel skilled enough at it -- and once that idea filtered in, I just did not pursue it.  Now, 589 years later I can realize that my childish belief in "perfection must come out immediately" rather than the maxim "practice makes perfect" really hurt me a lot.  I missed out on a lot of things I think I would have enjoyed ...  **sigh**

So, when I was in my late 20s, I began to take courses at the local community college to be able to do two things:  (1) make simple sketches to show what kind of illustration(s) I wanted in any children's book I might write, and (2) make illustrations that I could then turn into counted-cross-stitch patterns.  This stupid concept about being perfect was still firmly lodged in my mind.  I have not yet achieved either of those goals -- I got hooked on working in clay mud instead.

At the community college, I joined the Art Club. One of our field trips was to the National Watercolor Society Show at a gallery in Soho, NYC.  I stood there in front of one painting of copper cookware, just flummoxed by the fact someone could capture the look of metal so well in watercolor!  And then the painting next to it was gorgeous.  Again I stood there so in awe.  But ... then ... I saw the pencil lines.  All my excitement fled.  All that was left was disappointment.  The painter wasn't so talented after all.

WHAT AN IDIOT!

That painter was extremely talented. 

As I took courses other than the clay ones (well, there were just only so many in the catalog unless I wrote up requests for "personal study" classes) -- I was still interested in those original ideas, too. So, besides classes in drawing, watercolor and 2-D and 3-D design, I attended a few Saturday events where professional artists came in and demonstrated their technique;  we got to work along.  I have since learned that it is not a sin to draw out your image before coloring it with whatever medium you want to use.

But, when it came to those scenic rubber stamps, I wanted to watercolor it but not have the lines of the stamped image be a very dark black.  I'd learned about "stamp off" and bought a very light gray pigment pad from Stampin' Up!.  I tried it.  The details of the stamp were just too small and detailed to get the results I wanted.  It did not take long for me to give up on using that technique.  (I am fairly certain that the original paintings were larger than the rubber stamps of them.)

Distress or not to Distress?

One last digression -- at one of the Facebook groups I belong to (or maybe more than one) -- there was a short in-the-comments-section-of-a-post discussion about Ranger's Tim Holtz Distress Inks.  Personally, I don't own any and have never ever seen any reason to want to own any.  (I will admit that there are a few colors there that get used a lot onYouTube because they are great (dare I say "awesome") colors -- I may actually be willing to get the Distress Paints because they are the only items in the line that are not water-reactive after they dry ...)  That is, I did not see any reason to want to own any of those inks until I saw this video.  The light ink line will get incorporated into the watercoloring and disappear.

I had made the comment that I believe ANY water-based ink will do the same things when they come into contact with water as the Distress inks will.

Well, that is not true, apparently.

BIG FAIL!

As you can tell, I goofed and forgot to stamp off when applying one of the smaller flowers to the paper.  I goofed big time, actually ... Idiot here thought this was just an experiment.  I grabbed a 4x6" index card off my desk.  There is writing on the lined side.  Info I no longer need, so the card was there to use for whatever else I might find I needed to jot down in a hurry.  (The other side is actually a chart telling me which letter falls on which date in April for this A-to-Z Blogging Challenge 2016 -- the calendar at the site about the Challenge is wrong!)

The background was painted with a really cheapo set of "metallic" watercolors from Oriental Trading Company.  The set of stamps I used is a "Stamp of the Month" from Close To My Heart a few years ago -- S1306 A Flowering Bunch.  I also used CTMH dye-based inkpad in "Whisper."  Stamped off once, it left a line just dark enough to see to paint into ... where I forgot to stamp off, it is really dark.  Ut oh!

I tried to add water to blend out the stamped line.  The card of the index card began to pill and the background was getting into the flower.  The stamped line seemed to remain just as dark ...

I tried a line of darker watercolor pencil (Prima #17) and the lighter #14 ... and used a paint brush with just the tip dampened, so I wouldn't get too much green into the petal area. 

Finally, after a couple of weeks of looking for the watercolor "box" I was sure should be easily found -- I found it.  LOL!  I was sure it was about 5x7" and slightly off-white in color.  Should have been easy to spot ... Ha!  I had put it back in the box it came in.  A black box.  It is not a Cotman, like I thought it was, but a Koi ...

So along with the slightly dampened brush, I tried adding a bit of other green watercolor paint (the Koi) to try to disguise that dark green edge.  Ended up with more green in that area than I wanted.  Put it aside as a "big fail" attempt.

But ...

Well, I decided that giving up on the thing was not an option I would settle for.  It was, after all, just an experiment, right?  You live.  You learn.  Or you should ...

After a day or two, I picked up the "thing" and worked on it some more.  Finished it.  Not overly happy with it.  For one thing, the Koi watercolor box does not have a decent red in it.  The reddish paints in the metallic watercolor set from Oriental Trading Company are brighter and helped but did not rescue the flowers from being "rusty" in tone.

Truthfully, I did a different one before I decided to go back and finish the first -- I made the same mistake on the second one too -- forgot to stamp off before stamping one of the parts ... **sigh**

You Live.  You Learn.

Or, You Should ...

Even though it is on an index card, I decided to use it on a greeting card after all.  It will take a bit extra adhesive to hold it in place since it warped when the index card was wet and while drying ...

Now for the other one:

This time, I used the same stamp set from Close To My Heart, plus the Fun Stamper Journey ATS stamp "Honeycomb" (AT-0090) stamped in Close To My Heart "Pear" ink.  You can tell where I goofed?  Yep, the stem under the tulip.  **Sigh** It is on Canson watercolor paper, though, instead of cardstock ...  **phew!**

Jake & Kitty and Unk are giving me conflicting advice.  I hear from them that I should leave it the way it is.  Then I hear mumbling, "No!  No!  She should trim it down to the 4x6 inches like she originally planned.  Then it can go on a card front."  "Yeh?  She has cards she can put it on that don't have that embossed area that is 4x6 inches.  She has 'flat' cards -- like that Cheap Joe's one that is a watercolor paper that comes with the 4x6 panels.  You know the ones I mean!"

They argue and I, for now, plan to leave it just as it is.  And just keep on painting them until I get it "perfect" -- which means I may never get to do anything else ever again, since I'm sure it will never be 'perfect' in my mind! 

A Happy Ending ...

Yep.  It is a happy ending!  You see, in the past (and that can be as recently as 2 seconds ago or a gajillion years ago), I would have never finished that first attempt and if I had decided to finish it, seeing that I call it a failure, I would never ever have shared it publicly!

I have discovered something, though, through wading through tons and tons of electrons over at YouTube -- failures are as encouraging and inspiring as successes.  Actually, failures are often more inspirational. 

The problem when I was a kid was that I was exposed to the finished work of the "masters" -- and did not have any conception of all the steps it took to get there.  I believed I had to produce things that good, immediately, before I could share it.  When I see people, who are just starting on their journey of artistic discovery, sharing their work, I get encouraged to share my own -- no matter what it really looks like.  The Inner Critic Monster is having a far less frightening hold on me these days ... wanna see him?

I've drawn other monsters, but this (above) is the one that got that name ...

Okay, onward to

The Baker's Dozen Plus for the letter N ...

1. neither
2. north
3. nimble
4. nugget
5. nougat
6. newt
7. noun
8. never
9. needle
10. new
11. nest
12. now
13. new
14. naught
15. name
16. nine
17. Nellie
18. noodle
19. nestle
20. noink (a new made-up word that sounds funny -- use it as you will ...)
21. naked mole rat
22. nandoo
23. narwhal
24. natterjack toad
25. nut
26. night heron
27. night
28. nutcracker (a type of bird or the wooden or metal 'thing' ...)

Because the bit on watercoloring a stamped image took up so much space in this post, I had decided to not include any other "N" stuff -- but if I totally bored you, you may have skipped over all that.  So, if you actually got this far, you should be "rewarded" ... so ...


Longevity Noodles

Nettle Tea

They say it is good for you but ... I remember when Barbara made Nettle Soup and green dye for wool from nettles that Tom had gathered off the golf course in the British comedy "Good Neighbors" ... and a character makes Nettle Tea teabags (and tea) in Whispering to Witches by Anna Dale.  **shudder**

I mentioned to hubby that I was including Nettle Tea today and he said he has a great story about nettles -- Many years ago, Gov. Rudy Perpich of Minnesota was on a campaign swing by bus through northern Minnesota.  Hubby's sister was a photographer for the U of Mn and somehow was on the bus;  she witnessed this.  At one stop, he lost his balance getting off the bus and headed down into the ditch.  He grabbed hold of two plants to steady himself so he would not fall.  The governor went through the greeting line, gave his speech and then another line of shaking hands.  He said nothing about what had happened until he was back on the bus when he asked for two buckets of ice water and jammed his hands down into the water.  When he drew them out again, the hands were red from the cold but also from all the stings and punctures he had gotten from the stinging nettles he had grabbed hold of ... All I can say to that is "Ouch!  Ouch!  Ouch!" and "Wow!  He actually went ahead and did not complain until after all that time had gone by?  Wow, again."

And Thanks to brownielocks.com/april.html, here is

Today is ...

* Husband Appreciation Day

* National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day

Call to Action:

There are 5 things you can do to earn a free gift (probably a selection of Color-Your-Own SuseDoodle postcards from a forthcoming collection to be released soon! WOO HOO!)  All five  Call to Action options can be found here -- two can be  answered in the Comments Section here or via the InLinkz section at the end of the post ... I wanted to set the closing date as May 7 but InLinkz would not let  me run a link list for that long ... so the deadline is May 1 ...