Spring Flowers

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We've got 5 days until Spring! There's a big blizzard happening on the east coast, cold temperatures up north and we've had constant rain and grey skies here in Portland. We had two days where the sun was outin the early day and people were all outside, beaming like crazy. You can tell we are all waiting for the season to change. We have our crocuses, our daffodils and our mushrooms growing. I love seeing buds on the vines and the grass starting to slowly grow. So, I had more fun and made another animation about how spring feels to me. I hope you are thawing out in the colder parts of the U.S. and if you live in the southern parts, I hope the temperatures are perfect and not too hot.

Happy Wednesday 💞

Caramel Apple Pie Bread

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It's 12 more days until The Spring Equinox and counting. Even though I'm loving the crocus' coming up and the daffodils starting to bloom a little early - it's still a little chilly out there. Good thing I can still bake a little bit more before it's too warm to run the oven a lot. I've been watching some back seasons of The Great British Baking Show and even though I can't eat anything on the show or even find anything remotely appetizing - I watch the show anyway. I learn a few things from the show about bakes being underbaked, close-textured, too dry and so on. A lot of it I can't totally apply to gluten free baking but I can on some things. I wanted to make an apple bread that was grain free, dairy free and low on sugar, so I found this recipe. It's totally healthy, it's sweet and you don't feel cracked out after you eat it. If you're interested in making this, it's worth it. It's really like apple pie in a cake-like bread form! So delicious. Happy baking!

And Happy Wednesday ❤

Revisiting

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So my shiny new multi-port hub is still in development. And even though I've figured out a way to scan my watercolors in, I thought I'd still stay on the train of trying out some new things with digital. Last week was making a full rendered digital piece to look like a painting and today was animation. This piece was a static illustration originally done in india ink back in October (Inktober on my instagram) but I always saw her animated. It's been way too many years since I did animation. Not many people know that I was a film animation major in art school. I did some digital animation early on in my career as a designer but not in the illustrated way that I wanted to. So I thought I'd give it a whirl this week making a walk cycle - one of my first assignments in art school way back when. I decided to keep her cycle in the middle with a cat alongside her with the background panning. It did present some challenges... there are certainly a lot of things I would do differently or better and a lot of things I need to re-learn. But I'm going to share it anyway. I hope this sparks you to try something new or even revisit something you've put down a long time ago.

Happy Wednesday 💞

Out of the Ordinary

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So I've been changing things up in my studio. It's been nothing to write about but has been massively satisfying. From recycling unused things, donating them, selling them to re-organizing the new stuff to fit nicely with the old stuff. In the process, I got a new computer and there have been some bumps that have been pretty frustrating - mostly due to cords being outdated to the new technology - which has caused my scanner to not operate with my new system. Without getting to technical, I usually scan my watercolors into the computer to be digitized in some way. This week I can't do that, so I was pushed into making a piece of art completely digital. I've done completely digital work before but decided to move back into painting about 10 years ago. I've used digital as a compliment to my analog work but this was something out of the ordinary to create all digital work to look the way I wanted it to. With all the fun, came some challenges - (mostly the struggle with myself) but I managed to make something pretty close to what I would paint with real watercolors. So enjoy - you may be seeing a couple more of these digital works until my new hub comes in. I hope this inspires you to try something new today.

Happy Wednesday ❤