
Hello, my Beautiful Butterflies!
April is officially over, and we're finding ourselves inching closer to summer. I spent the first two weeks of April (and my birthday) off on an adventure in South America where Autumn was in full swing. It was such a unique and beautiful trip and definitely a check off the bucket list. Because I'm mainly in catch up mode for work, I thought I would share a few pics of my trip with you for this post.
We traveled to Chile and Argentina, specifically the Patagonia Region, and went hiking on the W-Trail in Torres Del Paine National Park and again in El Chalten to see the infamous mountain range that the Patagonia Apparel Logo is based on. I find travel and hiking to really be a refresh for me and also a huge source of inspiration. Wanderlust, Adventure, and Nature play a large role in my work so it's always magical being immersed in that world in real life. This trip truly was magnificent, but it was also challenging from an endurance perspective. We spent 5 days hiking 50 miles with all of our stuff in our backpacks (25 lbs to be exact for me and closer to 30 lbs for Ricky). And then we drove to the El Chalten hike, a few days later, to hike 13 miles for the infamous Fitz Roy mountain range. We were a little rough for the wear by the end, but it was very much worth it.

Pictured above is the view of our last day on the W-Trail. We woke up at 4 am to hike to this viewpoint to watch the sunrise. It was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip.
A little cluster of some of the animals we saw along our trip. 2 Penguins (which was such a treat because most had gone back out to the water), horses galore, and guanacos which are kind of like llamas that roam the land like deer in the US.

One of my favorite pics and spots on the trip. We were fully immersed in the beautiful fall foliage and experienced (on top of that rock) a 360-degree view of Autumn colors and mountains. Because Patagonia is so far south their fall coincides with our Spring.
A compilation of the many glaciers, lakes, and gorgeous mountains we say. We were truly gifted with such great weather considering how unpredictable the weather can be in that area of the world.

A view from the boat that took us to the start of the 5-day hike. Truly we were startled by the beauty and of course, we started to get so excited seeing everything from afar.
This is a final compilation of pics and a few of my hubs and me. We were definitely challenged on this trip in terms of endurance, but I cannot tell you how proud I was when we completed all of these hikes. We saw so many beautiful views that you can only see if you walk a ton of miles, so it made everything that much more special.
Not much art in this post as I said at the beginning, but I've been busy playing catch up, and next month I'll be sure to share some fun things I've been working on.
Until next time,
Rachel

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