Late again.  Still dealing with house stuff.  I can already tell that even June’s video will be late but I will try my best.  I did buy a new mini tripod to have my videos be less shaky since I will no longer be holding my phone when creating the videos.  I have a gorilla pod but its too short to take a video that fits the whole sketchbook. 

Warning, I will be venting below.  If you are not interested or care just scroll to the bottom for the video or watch it on YouTube.

I’m getting pretty stressed with all this house stuff.  I was already a bit stressed before and the house stuff just made it worse. I’m an introvert, anti-social, quiet person and have been told kind of a hermit. So having all these people constantly in my house is making my stress level high. Also not being able to have my house looking clean and how I want because there are people constantly here creating tons of dust, being messy, etc is adding to the stress. Along with things taking forever or constant delays, not being able to sleep in my own room since its taking weeks for people to finish it since they disappear, don’t communicate well and aren’t timely.  As well as having my poor cats being so stressed because of all this.   

The stress is affecting my creativity as well.  There are all these art projects I had planned and nothing has gotten done.  I’m surprised I’ve been able to keep up with my daily sketches. Since when I create my sketches I tend to stare at the blank page for what seems like forever.  That does happen sometimes but usually in a half hour I got something.  Now its an hour or more.

Lately the littlest things can make me cry or get angry or both especially if its something that adds to my stress. I can’t wait for all this to be done.  Tired of dealing with everyone myself. 

As if I don’t have enough stress now I have to deal with someone who just did a terrible job. 

Sorry for the long post and venting.

Below is May’s video. You can watch it here or on YouTube.

As you can see this video was uploaded much later than the 1st week of the month. I had every intention of having it ready but unfortunately the sewer backed up into the house towards the end of April. Somehow tree roots got into the pipes. After the plumber took care of the problem we had to have a cleaning company come out. They had to remove all the flooring and trim in the powder room, entryway, hall, closet and the small cat room. They treated the areas with a solution that kills bacteria and they left dehumidifiers and fans for four days to make sure everything was dry. It was very loud during those four days.

We had a flooring company come out later that week to measure for new floors and about a week and a half later new flooring and trim were installed in all the damaged areas as well as the dinning room since the flooring continued in there. I spent several days after cleaning up because the previous owners removed tile from part of the area but didn’t remove the mortar. The previous owners solution to the leveling problem was to use the cardboard boxes the flooring came in under the flooring. So the flooring company had to jack hammer the mortar out to make the floor leveled. Even though they did their best to keep the dust contained, it got everywhere and took a day for all of it to settle.

The powder room however was not done as we wanted tile and the specific tiles we were interested in the company didn’t have samples of so they had to order them. Unfortunately we are still waiting for them. Once they get here we can pick one and finally get that done. Since the bathroom was gutted we decided instead of re-doing the bathroom next year we should just do it this year. We have all the new stuff for the bathroom but can’t put it in till the floor is done. While we wait for that I will be repainting it and installing a new door.

Now for what you actually came here for. April’s Daily Sketches video can be seen below or on youtube. One thing I realized is that I don’t mind the number of pages of the sketchbook; however I don’t like the size. Its too big. I struggle filling out the pages. I prefer 8.5×5.5.

Woot! I was finally able to do a video by the end of the first week.

Nothing new to report. I got the sketches done but am still taking longer then I’d like to come up with ideas. Though I feel this month was a little better then previous months.

Below is March’s video. You can watch it here or on Youtube.

During last October I participated in Karlaween; in which you colored pages from any of Karla Magana’s coloring books. I completed the entire coloring book during the event. I used markers, colored pencils and watercolors. Watercolors by far was my favorite way to color the pages. The coloring book pages really aren’t meant for watercolors but it works. It leaves the pages warped, wrinkled and crinkled but I liked how that looked.

This video was created for Instagram stories which is why it is vertical. Future completed coloring book flip thrus will be filmed horizontally.

Below you can view the video or you can view it on YouTube

Back in December I saw a video by HulloAlice where she showed a watercolor advent calendar by Schmincke. The advent calendar contained 23 Schmincke Akademie Aquarell half pans and 1 Shcmincke Horadam Aquarell full pan. For years I searched for an advent calendar with art supplies but never had any luck. Last year I didn’t even bother looking since they didn’t seem to exist. Once I saw the video I immediately went to purchase it. At the time the only site I could find that had it was the Society for All Artists which is in the UK. I figured I’d have to play catch up when it arrived since I’ve had items shipped from the UK before and they’ve only taken about a week to a week and a half. However I should have known that since it was the holiday season it would most likely not get here till around or after Christmas. It arrived after Christmas so rather than opening all the watercolors at once which wouldn’t have been any fun I decided instead to wait till February to open it.

I decided to have a Birthday Advent Challenge. Every Friday I would create a watercolor piece with all the colors I had opened up during the week. Since my birthday was the 22nd I would have 2 extra watercolors to open up on my birthday. It was fun opening up the day’s watercolor and at the end of the week creating something from all of that weeks color. If Schmincke came out with a new advent calendar for this year I think I will purchase it and create another challenge around it. I would just need to purchase it well before December.

Below are all the pieces I created during the challenge.

The first week only had 1 watercolor. The color was Naples Yellow. At first I wasn’t sure what I would create with just one color but I decided since the color was a little peachy I would create a naked mole rat.

The second week I had a full 7 colors to play with. The colors were Brilliant Green, Ultramarine, Indian Yellow, Permanent Green, Yellow Ochre, Prussian Blue & Burnt Brown. I had a much easier time coming up with something to create with the colors. I decided on a cat skull filled with flowers.

The third week the colors reminded me of Karla Magaña’s art so I created a piece inspired by her art. The colors were Indigo, Orange, May Green, Opaque White, Black, Carmine & Magenta.

For the last week I had 9 colors to work with. The colors were Cadmium Yellow Hue, Sepia, Cadmium Red Hue, Cyan, English Red, Violet, Olive Green Yellowish, Light Lemon Yellow & Yellow Gold (Special Edition). My husband said I should do a birthday cake since it was my birthday.