Art Postcards

Old Faithful Geyser / Verbal Fallout

Sand Path 

a mid week experiment

A little experiment... I spent Wednesday playing with the outline, textures and tones of this little scene.

(Our fig tree is very productive this year. Not only do we love it, but I found these two green fruit beetles each claiming their own individual figs. I just learned that these beetles are also called... figeater beetles. So true!)  

Color Studies of Mars

Recently, I've been working on illustrations involving different space phenomena and Mars. I had a ton of fun determining the colors for my quaint little Mars scene. The final will be displayed at huge public party for the Mars Curiosity landing. Here's the event info!

By the way, the Curiosity rover should land on Gale Crater, August 5th at 10:31 pm PST.

First, I created some thumbnails. Then, started layering colors to reflect the unique properties of Mars. The atmosphere is dusty and... composed of very different layers and chemicals than Earth's. So, there is no blue sky on Mars. Actually, Joe pointed out that our sky would look similar during widespread wildfires.  

Based on this color study, I decided to add a couple new paints to my palette. Specifically, I love Sicklerite Genuine. It's the warm, grainy brown. Perfect for the dusty skies above Mars! (I used my Daniel Smith watercolor sampler sheets. This lets you try each of their 238 colors.)

   

I dream of gems and minerals...

I  was recently reading another illustrator's blog. This blog, actually: This is the link.

I realized that I would like to share some unpolished doodles of mine.

Why not?! These illustrations were responses to a conversation I had with a friend. He was sharing stories about watching geysers in Northern California. Mind you, he anthropomorphized the geysers and the earth... the earth was belching and vomiting. I shared that I had recently had a dream about the earth creating huge cut, shiny gemstones in its depths.

Colors of the Eastern Sierras

Field sketch from the upper Owens River in the Eastern Sierras. I love the color palette of this area. There's so much contrast! There's rich green sedges and the deep blue of the river. Then, the yellows and creams of the dried pasture lands and great basin scrub sandwiched between mountain and river.

It's been a long time since I've sat and studied a landscape like this.

April Showers bring May... MUSHROOMS!

I'm happy to post an older set of illustrations. I drew these mushrooms right after a foray in Monterey last May. Both are edible boletes; left, a Zeller's bolete (Boletus zelleri) and right, a porcini (Boletus edulis). For about two months after picking these, I tried convincing friends that I could identify edible mushrooms. Not as easy as it seems, though... to convince people to eat wild harvested mushrooms!

I was inspired to post after visiting the mini comic con at the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts yesterday. Good times!

spring garden invasion!

I just got back from the International Magnolia Society conference and a week of garden visits. During the conference, we visited many gardens and I got a chance to display some of recent botanical illustrations. Here's one of them. This stunning magnolia is called Magnolia dawsoniana.

 

This is magnolia lives at the Huntington Botanic Gardens (BG) here in Los Angeles. The conference brought us to various Bay Area botanical gardens and arboretums. We started at Quaryhill BG, then went on to the San Francisco BG and the University of California BG at Berkeley.

During the conference, I had the pleasure of meeting a garden curator who grows Victoria water lilies Victoriana cruziana. I had no idea that I could become so enamored! These water lilies are huge and often photographed with children sitting on them. In the wild, they're found in Bolivia in the Rio Parana. But, the largest water lily was grown in the courtyard of La Rinconada restuarant in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. To my family living in Bolivia, go see them!

Victorias can hold up to 300 pounds. So, in homage, I sketched a newborn elephant planted on one. Oh, a newborn elephant weights just under 300 pounds. 

The last garden of my garden tour was Filoli. My transformation to aesthete was complete. Filoli is a lavish estate and gardens reminiscient of England and all things fancy. I enjoyed the meadows of daffodils, rows of herbs and fruit trees, and the formal walking garden. There was even a gravel driveway lined with enormous "Michelia" magnolias. The main house was full of gigantic flower arrangements, gilded bits and beautiful botanic illustrations... I drew these doors in their ballroom. 

Well, that's it. I'm back in Pasadena. Thanks for keeping in touch. I'll be posting more magnolia painting before long.

Cheers! Andrea