I use watercolors, Krita, & pixel art/animation to paint flora & fauna & fanart. Self-taught & still learning; no AI, no NFT, & no ads. New post on Tuesdays.
Every 2 weeks I post a new art challenge prompt!
The new #KWPrompts is WinterTime
Winter is Magic
It's the last #KWPrompts of 2024! I just had to pick Winter. Why? Because it's been a loooooong year, I'm out of spoons, & I'm interested in finding out just how much mileage I can get from using the white, unpainted paper as snow.
3 ghosts eating marshmallows during a blizzard
Share your winter art with us! Let's spend the next 2 weeks making terrific art
Each challenge lasts 2 weeks from the day this post was made. You can submit a new picture every day, work on one picture for 2 weeks, or post pics randomly. This is the most laid-back art challenge on the internet, & that means you have plenty of time to make your art however you want.
All art styles & skill levels are welcome- beginner to expert, renaissance painting to rough sketch!
No AI, Yes alt text, CW as needed.
Have a fantastic day, draw something for my art challenge, see you next week!
It's finally cold enough to use my oven again! Do you know what this means? That's right; more bread art! I love making art, baking, & feeding people. I think bread art is almost too much fun, & my friends/family love to enjoy the results!
Which Bread Recipe Should I Use?
Whatever you want! I used Wolfe3D's pizza dough recipe (Bake 30ish minutes @ 400 F (205 c))! I have used the focaccia recipe from Joy of Cooking. I believe that a thick quickbread batter (like cornbread) would work, but I have not had time to test that idea. Don’t want to make any kind of bread dough? You don’t have to. Pick up a pre=made pizza dough at the supermarket & go wild!
It’s so easy!
Lots of different herbs & vegetables can be used for bread art. Experiment with whatever you’ve got! Just keep a few things in mind…
Think Thin, But Not Too Thin
Slice those veggies extremely thin. Anything too thin, like fennel fronds, needs to be packed tightly together because it will shrink quite a lot
Ask me how I know
Stay Cool
Soak your cut veggies in ice water with a squeeze of lemon, drying thoroughly before you arrange them on your dough.
Use the Right Tools
A sharp knife makes your job much easier. You could also use a mandolin or vegetable peeler for those very thin slices. Cookie or biscuit cutters are great for punching out shapes!
Preparation is Key
Take your time & get all your veggies prepped, soaked, & drying on a clean dish towel before you start decorating.
Be Firm!
Poke your toppings into the dough firmly; I like to use a chopstick. If they are just sitting on top of the bread the design will explode & your thinner greens may burn, no matter how well you soaked them in ice water.
What Do You Think?
Will you make your own bread art? I hope so! I want to see what delicious art you make
MastodonBluesky
For more, click on #recipe
Every 2 weeks I post a new art challenge prompt!
The new #KWPrompts is #Turtle
Turtles Are Magic
Turtles bury their eggs in nests on beaches. As soon as the eggs hatch (roughly 2 months later), the hatchlings dig out of their nest. This process generally takes a few days. Then all the tiny turtles rush down to the water & out into the open ocean.
The temperature in the nest has a huge effect on sea turtles. Cooler incubation temperatures produce male hatchlings and warmer incubation temperatures produce female hatchlings. Temperatures that fluctuate between the two extremes will produce a mix of male and female hatchlings.
Turtles were around more than 200 million years ago – they lived alongside dinosaurs.
These days, scientists recognize seven species of marine turtle: Hawksbill, Green Turtle, Loggerhead, Leatherback, Olive Ridley, Green Flatback, & Kemp's Ridley. Six of these are officially threatened with extinction. It is assumed the Green Flatback is also threatened, but they are incredibly reclusive. There's simply not enough information on the flatback to know how at risk they are.
Marine turtle species vary greatly in size. The smallest, Kemp’s ridley, measures around 27 inches (70cm) long and weighs up to 88 lbs (40kg). The largest, the leatherback, can reach up to 70 inches (180cm) long and weigh 1100 lbs (500kg).
Leatherback turtles are soft-shelled turtles. All other sea turtles have hard shells.
The Green Sea Turtle is the largest of all the hard-shelled sea turtles. Many different turtles have green shells or skin, but Green Turtles are called that because their diet of sea grass & algae actually turns their body fat green.
When sea turtles are actively swimming, they have to surface for air every few minutes. When they are floating calmly, they can stay underwater for hours! This is how they often sleep, among the rocks on the ocean floor.
You can make any type of turtle for this challenge. I will probably stick to sea turtles, since I am just a tiny bit completely obsessed with marine animals! Do you have a favorite turtle? Share it with us! Let's spend the next 2 weeks making terrific art
Each challenge lasts 2 weeks from the day this post was made. You can submit a new picture every day, work on one picture for 2 weeks, or post pics randomly. This is the most laid-back art challenge on the internet, & that means you have plenty of time to make your art however you want.
All art styles & skill levels are welcome- beginner to expert, renaissance painting to rough sketch!
No AI, Yes alt text, CW as needed.
Have a fantastic day, post something for my art challenge, see you next week!
Puffins, unlike the penguins they resemble, are decent fliers. In spite of looking like roly-poly stuffed animals, they can reach up to 55 mph in the air.
Baby puffins are called pufflings & they are every bit as fluffy & cute as their name implies.
Puffin bills are serrated, allowing them to hold onto fish they have already caught while grabbing even more. This is why you so often see pictures of puffins with beaks full of fish
Puffin beaks literally grow a more colorful outer shell during mating season. Afterwards they shed their brightly decorative layers & spend the winter with plain orange beaks.
The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds by John Muir Laws (I linked directly to the bird books, but the whole John Muir Laws website is worth checking out. It has lots of free drawing guides & tutorials.)
I have heard good things about Drawing Birds by Raymond Sheppard but the wait list at the library is so long I have not managed to read it yet.
This art challenge lasts until next Tuesday. You can submit a new picture every day, work on one picture the whole time, or post pics randomly. This is the most laid-back art challenge on the internet, & that means you have plenty of time to make your art however you want.
All art styles & skill levels are welcome- beginner to expert, renaissance painting to rough sketch!
No AI, Yes alt text, CW as needed.
Have a fantastic day, draw something for my art challenge, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled Tuesday post next week, see you then!
Every 2 weeks I post a new art challenge prompt!
The new #KWPrompts is #Seabird
“Seabirds” are technically only one subset of marine birds, but all marine birds are welcome for this art challenge! Bring on your best penguins, albatross, petrels, gulls, pelicans, terns, puffins... Ever notice how many ocean birds begin with the letter P?
Did you know that water birds can go from swimming to flying without having to dry out first? Their feathers are coated in special oils and very dense, so they stay dry! (Pre-K book recommendation: Ducks Don't Get Wet by Augusta Goldin.)
If you had asked me this morning if I had a favorite seabird, I would have said “No”, & I would have been a damned liar. Looking through my old work shows that that the only kind I've ever painted is penguins. I guess they win by default! Do you have a favorite seabird? Share it with us! Let's spend the next 2 weeks making terrific art
Each challenge lasts 2 weeks from the day this post was made. You can submit a new picture every day, work on one picture for 2 weeks, or post pics randomly. This is the most laid-back art challenge on the internet, & that means you have plenty of time to make your art however you want.
All art styles & skill levels are welcome- beginner to expert, renaissance painting to rough sketch!
No AI, Yes alt text, CW as needed.
Have a fantastic day, draw something for my art challenge, see you next week!
The current #KWPrompts is #MarineMammals. (Find more info about the KWPrompts art challenge here.) I want to share some tricks & tips I've picked up after a week of drawing & painting these lovely animals.
Gray whales have no dorsal fin
Use a lot of reference photos! Marine animals are so different from terrestrial ones. This sounds obvious- a whale is different from a horse, of course! – but compare a polar bear to a black bear or a grizzly. The polar bear is more streamlined, since it is adapted to spending so much of its life in the water. If you try to draw a polar bear with a grizzly shape, it will look wrong.
Watch a lot of nature documentaries! Animals in the water are always moving. Even when they sleep in the water, they drift about
Narwhals change color as they age, from greyish to blackish to white.
This is as far as I had gotten a week ago. I've been a bit distracted since. On a lighter note-
Here are some of my favorite facts about marine mammals
Gray whales hold the migration record at nearly 14,000 miles, round trip. Other whales, like the narwhal, do not migrate at all.
Narwhals & beluga whales can breed. The hybrids are called “narlugas.”
Blue whales are so big, their tongues weigh as much as an elephant!
Dolphins have individual whistles that their friends & family recognize.
Porpoises always look like half-made dolphins.
The art challenge lasts 1 more week from the day this post was made. You can submit a new picture every day, work on one picture for whole time, or post pics randomly. This is the most laid-back art challenge on the internet, & that means you have plenty of time to make your art however you want.
All art styles & skill levels are welcome- beginner to expert, renaissance painting to rough sketch!
No AI, Yes alt text, CW as needed.
Have a fantastic day, draw something for my art challenge, see you next week!
Every 2 weeks I post a new art challenge prompt!
The new #KWPrompts is #MarineMammals
Marine Mammals live in saltwater ecosystems but can't breathe underwater. They are a diverse group! There are aquatic animals, such as whales, dolphins, porpoises, manatees & dugongs. There are also semi-aquatic animals, such as sea otters, walruses, seals & sea lions. Polar bears are technically pagophilic but they are also counted as marine mammals because they rely so heavily on oceans to survive.
There are dozens of species of dolphins: 38 kinds of oceanic dolphin & 4 kinds of river dolphin! You may not realize it, because lots of dolphin have misleading names like “pilot whale” or “killer whale.” The average Dolphin can stay underwater for 10 minutes. Pilot Whales live in pods of between a few dozen to a few thousand. People used to believe the entire pod followed one ‘pilot’, hence the name pilot whale.
Humpback Whales are enormous. Their tails can be as much as 18 feet wide! Each tail has a unique shape, size, & pattern of black/white markings. Humpback whales from the Southern hemisphere tend to have more white markings than Northern hemisphere ones.
I don't think I have a favorite marine mammal. Do you? Share it with us! Let's spend the next 2 weeks making terrific art
Each challenge lasts 2 weeks from the day this post was made. You can submit a new picture every day, work on one picture for 2 weeks, or post pics randomly. This is the most laid-back art challenge on the internet, & that means you have plenty of time to make your art however you want.
All art styles & skill levels are welcome- beginner to expert, renaissance painting to rough sketch!
No AI, Yes alt text, CW as needed.
Have a fantastic day, draw something for my art challenge, see you next week!
The current #KWPrompts is #Trees. (Find more info about the KWPrompts art challenge here.) Trees are a great art subject to have fun with, no matter how experienced you are or what your preferred art style is. I'm here to share some tricks & tips I've picked up after a week of drawing & painting these lovely plants.
Look at trees that have shed their leaves! Understanding how the branches grow will help you draw better trees, much like how studying bone/muscle structures helps you draw better animals.
Less can be more – don't draw every individual leaf on a a tree unless you are one of those artists whose style involves putting in an absurd level of detail & maybe not even then.
Even a fairly straight branch isn't really straight- they're all lumps & bumps & twists & turns. Don't just look at the branch, look at the space between branches (aka the negative space.)
Does your tree look a little too... deliberate? Hold your pencil, brush (etc) as far from the tip as you comfortably can. This loosens up the marks you make.
Avoid symmetry at all costs. The two sides of a tree are siblings, not twins. The only time they sides should be very similar is when the tree in question has been purposely shaped– & even then, the symmetry is rarely perfect.
Use the back end of your paintbrush, or anything pointy but not really sharp, to lightly indent the watercolor paper after painting it. The pigment settles into the dent, making it darker. This is one of my favorite ways to paint bark right now.
One Tip I Didn't Try
Old brushes are valuable! Mushing, crushing, even — yes — cutting an old brush can make it a great tool for painting foliage. I have only been painting for 2 years, so all my brushes are still my sweet little well-maintained tools & hurting them hurts me. As such I do not have it in me to mangle my brushes. I did not try this tip, but I saw it repeated so many times it is worth mentioning. I have very cheap dollar store brushes somewhere but could not find/mutilate them in time to write this. When I try this tip in the future, be sure I will come back here to write about it!
Got Any Trees?
Pass them this way! The art challenge lasts 1 more week from the day this post was made. You can submit a new picture every day, work on one picture for whole time, or post pics randomly. This is the most laid-back art challenge on the internet, & that means you have plenty of time to make your art however you want.
All art styles & skill levels are welcome- beginner to expert, renaissance painting to rough sketch!
No AI, Yes alt text, CW as needed.
Have a fantastic day, draw something for my art challenge, see you next week!
Every 2 weeks I post a new art challenge prompt!
The new #KWPrompts is #Trees
Read about how to draw & paint trees in my article “In The Pines”
Did you know that most tree species are only endemic to a single country, so you have to look really hard to find new ones? Did you know there are at least 70,000 species of tree on Earth, but I can't give you a more specific number because we keep discovering more & more new trees? Every time I turn around it feels like I'm hearing about a new tree being discovered. Trees are some of my favorite plants, but I don't think I have a favorite tree. Do you? Share it with us! Let's spend the next 2 weeks making terrific art
Each challenge lasts 2 weeks from the day this post was made. You can submit a new picture every day, work on one picture for 2 weeks, or post pics randomly. This is the most laid-back art challenge on the internet, & that means you have plenty of time to make your art however you want. Just make sure you tag me @KarinWanderer so I see it!
All art styles & skill levels are welcome- beginner to expert, renaissance painting to rough sketch!
No AI, Yes alt text, CW as needed.
Have a fantastic day, draw something for my art challenge, see you next week!
I am not a big 'holiday' person, but I absolutely love Halloween! Spooky or Spoopy, I'm enthralled by it all! Part of it is my love of autumn, which has always left me with questions. I know Halloween is bigger in the US than other places, but I've always wondered: People in the Southern hemisphere & tropics, how do you celebrate Halloween? Do you work Spring into it, or just hang up autumnal decor anyway? My socials are listed below, please tell me how you celebrate Halloween! Let's spend the next 2 weeks making terrific art
You can submit a new picture every day, work on one picture for 2 weeks, or post pics randomly. This is the most laid-back art challenge on the internet, & that means you have plenty of time to make your art however you want. Just make sure you tag me @KarinWanderer so I see it!
All art styles & skill levels are welcome- beginner to expert, renaissance painting to rough sketch!
No AI, Yes alt text, CW as needed.
Have a fantastic day, draw something for my art challenge, see you next week!
3 ghosts eating marshmallows during a blizzard
Ask me how I know
“Seabirds” are technically only one subset of marine birds, but all marine birds are welcome for this art challenge! Bring on your best penguins, albatross, petrels, gulls, pelicans, terns, puffins... Ever notice how many ocean birds begin with the letter P?
Gray whales have no dorsal fin
Narwhals change color as they age, from greyish to blackish to white.
Porpoises always look like half-made dolphins.
Marine Mammals live in saltwater ecosystems but can't breathe underwater. They are a diverse group! There are aquatic animals, such as whales, dolphins, porpoises, manatees & dugongs. There are also semi-aquatic animals, such as sea otters, walruses, seals & sea lions. Polar bears are technically 
Did you know that most tree species are only endemic to a single country, so you have to look really hard to find new ones? Did you know there are at least 70,000 species of tree on Earth, but I can't give you a more specific number because we keep discovering more & more new trees? Every time I turn around it feels like I'm hearing about a 
