- Mar 28, 2023
I realize we're still in March, but this month was truly a blur for me. Instead of moving slowly and steadily, like in January & February, it came and has almost gone before I knew it. Although each week went suspiciously quickly, I found time to work on some personal projects (yippee!) that I'm not quite ready to share yet (maybe next month). As you can see on your calendar, I'm coming to you while we're still in March, but that is for good reason. I'm heading on a trip to Patagonia for 2 weeks so I won't be able to send this out at the beginning of the month per usual!! I'm incredibly excited along with a slight dose of trepidation - going to an area of the world I've never been to before. I will share all about it when I return. But in the meantime, please accept an early "Happy April" from me, and let's dig into the subject of this month's newsletter: my favorite art supplies!
I love art supplies, quite honestly I could swim in them! Walking into an art store, whether a local joint like Texas Art Supply here in Houston, or a big chain like Michaels, or an online store like Blick Art Supplies, gives me so much excitement and possibility. I want all the things, and all the tools, just because.
One of the many aisles at Texas Art Supply is pictured above. Look at all of those brushes!
If I had my choice, I would solely go to Texas Art Supply, because as you can see in the photo above, they truly have everything! Their price points are nice if you don't want to spend a ton of money, but sometimes I will find myself at Michaels because it is closer to my house if I'm feeling extra lazy (which is often). I've gone to both places often enough, that I know which store has what and which is cheaper for which product. So I can plan it out ahead of time if a trip to my favorite local art store is needed (It's not that far away, but the traffic is bonkers in Houston, so legit I have a small window when I am willing to go there).
In terms of art supplies, I'm going to break it down for you by product type. Let's do it!!!
Favorite Art Paper:
I prefer painting on paper, rather than canvas, allowing me to be a little less precious and a little more playful with my work. I also tend to scan in, and enhance in photoshop, my paintings, so the paper is easier for me to scan. The Arches brand - is by far my favorite and is quite buttery. With inflation and supply chain issues they have increased in price quite a bit for their 20"x30" sheets, but they are worth it in my opinion. 140lb refers to the weight/thickness of the paper (I like this middle-ground size). And Hot Press refers to the texture (Hot being smooth, Cold being textured). For scanning in work and potentially deleting the background the hot press is an easier thing to manipulate in photoshop for me.
Favorite Paint Brand
Seriously cannot rave about this brand enough. I was turned onto them by an artist I follow, Rebecca Green, and I haven't looked back since. I use both their watercolors and acrylic gouache paints. And the pigments are just so beautiful I could melt, cue the fainting couch!
Favorite White Ink
I cannot rave about this brand enough. If I had the choice for any ink, I would pick this brand. But the Bleed Proof White in general is my favorite for post-painting additions. It goes on super opaque over dark colors and is great for touch-ups as well.
Favorite Painter's Tape
Hands down! No questions about it. The delicate surface is perfect for watercolor paper, and rarely ever bleeds through - and when it does my Dr. Ph Martin's Bleed Proof White will come to save the day!
Favorite Paint Brush Brand
This is a tricky one, because I am a Messy Marvin, and am rarely methodical when I paint. I just randomly pick a color and see if it works. I know a lot of artists that test things out a ton on thumbnails and scrap paper and multiple iterations of the same painting, and I envy that, but I just don't have the patience for it. I want to start and I want to start NOW! I am haphazard and did I mention messy? You may be wondering what this has to do with Paint Brushes. Well, all of the aforementioned attributes of my painting style mean I am not kind to my brushes. I try to be, every time I hold a new brush in my hands, but usually, I'll forget that it's soaking in water, and a whole day (or week) will pass by and the brush is quite janky now. So, I can't spend a ton of money on brushes, I am not nice to them. Winsor & Newton brushes aren't outrageous in cost (under the Cotman Line), but listen, friends, I will find myself spending even less if I'm on a particularly bad streak of ruining brushes. Sometimes you need to adapt to the art supplies, and other times you need to accept what you can't change and adapt the supplies to you.
Favorite Colored Pencils:
I draw over the top of my paintings pretty frequently now. Sometimes for texture, and other times just because I can...These work really nicely over gouache and watercolor compared to other brands that don't show up as well.
Favorite Paint Marker Brands:
Both of these brands have amazing opacity and go on smoothly. I'll use other brands if I'm in a bind, but these are the ones I prefer the most.
Favorite Honorary Mention: Watercolor Pastels
I only have a few of these, but I'm slowly collecting more. I'm finding them to be such a fun fusion of a pastel (kind of like a crayon) and watercolors.
Favorite Tool I Can't Live Without:
A lightboard - seriously! Changed Everything! They used to be huge, clunky, and expensive, so I used my window instead to trace my sketches. But now, they are sleek and affordable. I found mine on amazon, and it is sooooo worth it. The size I got (A2) looks to be unavailable at the moment, but the A2 size is here.
Coloring Page Freebie
I made a little coloring page download of the "Art Supply" Image for this month. Download it here, print, and color it with your own favorite art supplies.
That is all from me for this month. My shop will be closed for the next two weeks and I'll talk with everyone soon. Enjoy your April my Lovelies and I will talk to you soon, Rachel
Happy March to you all!! So excited to share a fun project I worked on the past few weeks. I had the absolute pleasure of creating an illustration for Houston Landing, a new newspaper in Houston. The illustration accompanied a poem written by Maggie Gordon titled "Twas the Night Before Rodeo: A Very Houston Poem".
As a little backstory, the rodeo is here in Houston for the next few weeks and it quite literally takes the city by storm with concerts, livestock shows, bull-riding, a festival, and last but not least Muttin' Bustin'. Muttin' Bustin' is bull-riding for the littles, but instead of bulls, the kids are riding sheep. And Maggie's poem follows a little girl practicing her mutton-bustin' skills the night before the rodeo. I was so excited creating this illustration - I was told to go cute and imaginative and I truly am really proud of the result. I'm not a Houston native, so the rodeo still is quite foreign to me, but I can 100% appreciate the excitement it brings to the city. Everyone starts buzzing about it when the concert list is dropped and everyone starts talking about their outfits and the food they can't wait to savor. If you'd like to hear Maggie reading the poem, I included a Soundcloud link below.
I thought it would be fun for this post to dive into how I made this painting and just a little behind-the-scenes for the process. So, let's get into it:
Below is the sketch I put together. After reading the poem several times I wrote key pieces for me to include in the sketch. (i.e. 8 sheep, pearl snaps, plaid shirt, hat etc.) Then, I imagined the little girl riding on a sheep with pure joy shouting to the world in excitement. But I wanted to include the other 7 sheep, so I wrapped them around her almost as though they were all flying - similar to reindeer - this is a Houston take on "Twas the Night Before Christmas" after all.
I needed to create multiple size formats of the painting (landscape, square, and portrait). Knowing I needed flexibility I decided to paint my main subject, but then add in the other sheep's details and background separately so that each size could easily be re-formatted. If you create one fully painted piece it can be great, but can also limit you if editing needs to be factored in as was the case here.
Here's a little snapshot of me in my mumu for painting. Fun fact I received this as a joke for my bachelorette party, but it has since become my painting smock.
Of course, I had to film a little timelapse of my main character coming together. (Forgive me now, I forgot to press play when I painted her face).
After painting my main character and the bodies of the other sheep I scanned them into the computer and sent the file to my iPad for touching up and for creating the full scene. You can see below that the paintings have been overlayed onto my sketch.
And from here was playtime - I needed to see what colors worked and what angles played out the best for the scene. I included a timelapse below of all the frantic play on my iPad. It's only 24 seconds long, but you can sense the frequency of change until I landed on a color scheme. I'll be honest, there are times when I feel like I'm cheating when I use my iPad for my work. I'm assuming because it's digital, my art school brain thinks I'm not actually drawing when quite the contrary I'm still 100% drawing. At the same time, it has become such an integral part of my work process, whether for sketching, editing or adding. Especially for projects like this where the artwork has to be editable in case any changes are requested - it is a lifesaver. It's this tricky field of embracing new technology to make things a little easier while still using old techniques on paper.
So there you have it! A behind-the-scenes peek into an editorial illustration for a newspaper. Such a cool and unique project to work on.
When I'm not painting...
I finished my zombie book from last month....I enjoyed it so much that I nabbed the sequel from the library Zombie, Illinois
I also took up reading a separate book from the creator of The Good Place, Mike Schur. It's called How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question - from the title, I think you can gather it has a comedic twist to it.
I recently made this challah wreath with rose topping and pistachio cardamom filling from The Rising Life - it was quite an adventure to make but came out so beautiful. I made this for a ladies' brunch and it entailed 48 hours of babysitting from proving the dough, then letting it sit for 24 hours, then prepping, filling, rolling, twisting, stuffing, baking, and topping. I've never had to make anything so involved before and I was a little deranged in the process but I found it to be quite delish in the end!
I just started watching You on Netflix - and my goodness I'm behind the curve on this addicting show. Super creepy but gives off major "Dexter" vibes.
Last but not least I've been knee-deep in a house project in my hallway. I've been wanting to freshen it up a bit so I added beadboard, paint, and a rug (with a touch of artwork). It's looking lovely so far and should (fingers crossed) be mostly done for the weekend.
Hope you enjoyed this month's cluster of words and pictures. I will see you next month my lovelies.
xoxo
Rachel
- Jan 30, 2023
It's February 1st, and it's officially the one-year anniversary of this super casual newsletter. I've so enjoyed sending this out each month to keep you updated on my work and personal life, and I'm slowly finding my way with this. Getting comfortable chatting with you and of course, staying consistent (ahem - this could use some work). But here we are officially in the year of the Rabbit! I don't usually get super into the Lunar New year, but after attending a Lunar New Year party I read up on this year's fluffy animal, the rabbit. She's meant to bring all of the calm, slow, and gentle vibes & remind you to self-reflect, rest, and work smarter, not harder. The moment January 1st hit, I was immediately in calm/cozy mode, so reading up on the rabbit was like someone telling me it was okay to be in a restful mindset. I've been reassessing a lot of work aspects and trying to pair down and not overdo it - if that doesn't scream year of the rabbit I don't know what does!
The rabbit was lingering in my mind so much that I ended up doodling one (you may have seen this on social media), and I made sure she had the coziest and calmest of vibes. And as a fun surprise, I decided to turn her into a little cut-out activity so she can hang out on your desk at work or your home just to remind you to take it slow and don't overdo it. Scroll through to see her coming together and download the activity.
It's always so fun to see the progression from sketch to finished piece after the fact. So, after I painted these I scanned them into my computer, did a little editing, and then sent it to my iPad to create the "activity sheet" of course I had to follow along myself so you can see the finished project.
Below is the Year of the Rabbit Activity Sheet to print at home on letter sized card stock, and the link to download this fun lil' babe :)
Hope you enjoy it!
