Long Overdue Update

So it's been a long time since I have updated because of my hectic nursing program. I haven't had a lot of time for anything other than school. First I am posting the picture I finished for my cousin Chico back in September:

It turned out just like how I wanted for the most part but I couldn't blend the blue "sky" with the white background as well as I would have wanted.

Also I have been practicing with the Japanese ink again. The next experiment was plum trees.

My first tree:

A close up of the flowers:

My second tree:

And a closeup:

I just love the look of the ink. It is so difficult to use but it's worth it. The flowers were the hardest. They turned out ok but they don't look like the ones in the book. Oh well, I just have to keep at it! I hope to be doing much more with this style, stay tuned!

Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes

So James's radiology class had a bake sale a couple of weeks ago and I thought I'd make some cupcakes of course! I followed a recipe for chocolate mousse cupcakes and they turned out pretty good. For these, the cupcake top is sliced off and a layer of mousse is added in between the bottom and the top. Here is how they turned out. You'll see some of the tops started sliding but they stayed in the fridge over night so they chilled before the mousse melted anymore.

View from above:

Some pictures of the process. The mousse:

The lonely bottoms, waiting for the mousse:


The tops:


The Chocolate Mousse Cupcake all put together!

And of course some didn't make it:

Overall I was really happy with how they turned out and everyone at the bake sale loved them. Yay! I have to give James credit for taking all of the pictures, I can never get the lighting right!

Bamboo branches

So I broke out my Japanese ink set again since I was itching to paint something.  I was once again reminded of how hard it is to use this ink.   It's extremely hard to get the right amount of ink on the brush and to do certain strokes.  It took me somewhere around two hours of practicing brush strokes just to make this picture actually look like bamboo and I still didn't get the leaves right.  Anyway I still like how this turned out overall and I'm excited to do more.  

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had to grind my own ink from a stick and mix it with water.  Then I load the ink on a small paintbrush to achieve this style of painting.

Anais Nin

Eh....I used to be better with the portraits...but I guess did only spend about 45 minutes on it.  

I took two pictures...wasn't sure which one was better.   She is wearing a hood in the picture which is why there are those lines.

It's been awhile

I haven't posted in awhile....I have been so extremely busy and haven't had time to do any art.   Anyway I'm doing  a drawing for my cousin Chico, because I promised I would do something for him :)   

It's in colored pencil and is something abstract which I never do but I'm trying really hard to be more creative with my art.  

I'm not sure how to do the background...it's a work in progress....

The Sultan's Elephant

The Sultan's Elephant was a street show put on by the Royal de Luxe theatre company.   The show consisted of a giant puppet girl and a giant mechanical elephant that they built.  It only showed in a few cities including London and Nantes, France.  Anyway I randomly came across pictures and youtube videos of the show and I am in awe of it.  I wish I could have been there when they performed.  Here is a video of the performance:

Anyway the painting above was based on the elephant in the show.  I was so inspired by it and....I also love elephants.  

The painting was done with pen, watercolor and colored pencil on charcoal paper.

She Sells Seashells....

I finished the painting for James's mom, Teresa.  I didn't really like how the scallop was going when I first started but I think it turned out ok.  Although I had imagined it completely different.  I'm posting the whole painting and then a closeup of the three shells.

Um so the pictures didn't turn out so great because you can see my hands but the lighting was better this time.  

Whole thing was done with watercolor and some colored pencil was used on the scallop.