To Chase or Not To Be Chased

Yesterday the girls were full of energy and were chasing each other around my apartment. And by chasing I mean really Rosy chasing Sunny around. While I think this is one of the things that must go through their heads, don't feel too bad for Sunny because I think she secretly enjoys it sometimes. Most of these chasing zoomies are actually instigated by her! I guess she just likes being the chasee and not the chaser.

And here's a video of their craziness from yesterday.

Quick Sketches #1

I'm trying to improve my general drawing skills and perspective by drawing as often as I can.  I'm also just not used to drawing again so I struggle to think of ideas of what to draw and how to draw them.  While I'm trying to get back into drawing and keeping it low pressure, I do think I should be drawing more to just get back into the habit of it.  There's only so many times I can draw my pug and apartment so lately I've been using old photos as sources.  It's kinda fun walking through memory lane when going through these photos.  I'm doing pretty quick sketches - just trying to get volume in now to get used to drawing often.  So I'll be posting some of them here so I can keep track of them and hopefully see some progress!

Here's my first batch of quick thumbnails and sketches:

The top is my mom and me at my law school.  Ack I just realized I didn't finish the building behind us!  Haha that's why there are only a few windows.  Bottom is me and my middle sister.  I think that I kinda got my face right, but that totally doesn't look like my sister.

Some random sketches of me, my sisters, and my niece and nephew up top.

Sketch of me at Jeju Island (love those strange statutes you see everywhere) up top and then little me in Monterey (I think ??) in the bottom.

This is from one of my favorite pictures of me and my sisters.  It's pretty dark because my dad took it when it was dusk.  I love how sisterly we look all holding hands and caught in a candid moment.  I always like candid shots the best.  Maybe one day I'll work on this one a bit more to make a more polished and final piece with watercolors.

So this was the first post with some quick, very rough and small sketches.  I'm looking forward to doing more and progressing!

Distracting Billy and Emily

I love hanging out with my niece and nephew but sometimes my sister and I want some downtime or quiet time to talk.  That's when we whoop out the laptop and let them watch some kid's shows.  My sister and her husband don't have a TV in their house, so when given the opportunity to watch a show on the laptop, my niece and nephew quickly and eagerly climb onto the couch and get quiet.

How I Spent My Sunday

My sister managed to convince me to run 4 miles with her on a trail near my parents' house in the blistering cold by promising that we would relax afterwards with some wine and snacks.  Um, no more wine right after a run, because that knocked me out cold.  And whenever I get sleepy at my parents' house, I somehow end up passed out on their floor, using Sunny's bed and toys as pillows.  Usually my mom will take pity on me and cover me with a blanket or jacket and Sunny will use that as an opportunity to take a nap on top of me and use me as her impromptu bed.  To be fair, I was using her bed as my pillow so I guess I can't grumble too much about it.

My Sister, The Delta

Last time my second oldest sister came to visit we were all cuted out by Sunny spooning her.  The most recent visit, Sunny was no longer cutely spooning her.  Instead, she asserted her dominance by heaving her massive weight on top of my sister, refusing to budge despite my sister's feeble attempts to nudge her away.  Sunny wanted to make sure that we all knew that she was the beta and my sister was the lowly delta (I, of course, am the alpha).  I had to capture this moment and so you can see me in the mirror stealthily taking a photo.

Feminine Strength

My sisters and I are not exactly the most feminine or dainty ladies around.  And for some reason, any time we get together and get bored we resort to arm wrestling.  No clue why.  We always have.  Except now that we're all adults we pair the arm wrestling with numerous glasses of wine.  Like real ladies.

Family Holiday Run

My mom, sisters, and I did a 6 mile run around DC on Monday.  It was a beautiful day and pretty fun (for a run of course) and we rewarded ourselves afterwards with some Potbelly sandwiches (which my mom mistakenly called Fat Belly).  So here is us as pugs, with my oldest sister in the lead (she organized the run), my mom second (running for her is a breeze), my middle sister third (in the middle of one of her sprints), and me last (notice my tail and tongue are down).

My Sister, The Little Spoon in Color and Block Print - Process

I decided to redo My Sister, The Little Spoon (original ink drawing here) in color.  I also did another block print, but I think I could've done this without it since I ended up tightening up lines and brushing over it.

First I sketched it out in pencil.  I tried tracing at first but I hate tracing paper.  I hated it as a kid, and now that I've tried it again I have renewed my hate.  So  I had to freehand it, which was fine for the most part but I had difficulty getting the face right.

I did a block print for just the blanket.  I contemplated doing it for the carpet and walls but decided to keep this one smaller and quicker.  I kinda like the look of the ink sketch with the stark single color print on the blanket.

Then I painted in the rest using my gouache paints.  I like watercolors better than gouache generally but when I'm doing the ink prints, I feel like gouache is safer for layering with the ink but to get the watercolor effect is tough since the gouache dries so quickly.

I decided the blanket looked too messy and so I smoothed out the ink using just water and a brush, and then added some outline to the blanket and pattern.

Looking at the finished product I realized that I probably wasted time doing the block print since I could have just painted this.  I think I might use the block prints in a different way going forward - like above with just the ink and the single color print.  It's a bit more stark and stylized so the imperfection in the print doesn't look so unusual like it does when it's juxtaposed with traditional paint.  I dunno - I'll just keep playing around with this and see...

Run or Nap?

This post is in honor of my oldest sister's birthday today.  Happy Birthday!

My oldest sister is an avid runner.  She actually ran a marathon one weekend and then a half marathon the next.  Madness.  Sometimes she tries to convince me to go running with her.  Sunny and I would rather nap.

Rainbow Bridge (Sister's Request)

One of my sisters was generous enough to give me some new watercolors for my birthday and then promptly demanded a picture using said watercolors.  Since she gave me such nice paints, I agreed.  My sister has been fortunate to have three great dogs in her past, but unfortunate to have them pass away, one very recently.  So she wanted a recreation of my previous rainbow bridge (here) but with her three dogs together.  Since this was for my sister, I started with a pencil sketch and then went over it in pen and erased the pencil marks.  Here's the cleaned up ink sketch.

I wanted to have all three dogs doing something typical of their personalities and habits.  My sister's first chihuahua/pomeranian mix is in the lower left - her lil singing fox.  Her pug is on the right, gorging on hamburgers and kalbi (notice all the biscuit flowers nearby the pug are gone since she ate them).  And her most recent departure her second chihuahua/pomeranian mix is sitting on top of numerous plush comfy beds.  All three dogs' collars are nearby them.

I did some of the painting below, but need to touch up a few spots still.  The pug's lack of a shadow is bugging me the most.  But I got waylaid by weekend plans and a bad head cold.  I loved using watercolors again, but I missed the gouache a bit when trying to color in the trees.  Oh, and good watercolor paper makes ALL the difference.

My Sister - The Little Spoon

My middle sister (mother to my pug's cousins (see here)) came to visit me and the rest of the family recently.  One morning I woke up and found my pug spooning her.  Yes, my pug was the big spoon and my sister the human was the little spoon.  I was at the same time highly amused and also kinda jealous (how come my pug never spoons me?!).  There's nothing normal about any of this.