Here Comes Your Girl (Part 2)

Who Am I?

Karin Wanderer. I paint flora & fauna & Miyamoto Usagi fanart. If the rest of this post seems to be starting in the middle, that’s probably because this is part 2! Click here for part 1! Or read it backwards if you want, I’m not your boss.

I Love Sharing My Work!

By the end of Inktober I was in the habit of posting my silly pictures every day & I saw no reason to stop there. I share both the things I am really proud of & my embarrassing mistakes – #SlipUpSunday – due to a trend I noticed when I started drawing. There are an astonishing number of posts out there that claim to be the artists’ “first picture ever!” & then the picture is a beautiful composition that could get them hired at Studio Ghibli. I shared my potato Usagi sketch, & I continue to share my silly pictures as I learn & grow. I want people to see that progress is a series of ups & downs. As Jake the Dog once said, “sucking at something is the first step towards being sort of good at something!”

You Might be Wondering About Watercolors.

While trying to figure out a Halloween costume, I discovered some dollar store watercolors, brushes, & paper. I quickly learned Lesson 1: Paper matters. The dollar store paints are nice – I still use them – but it came with the cheapest printer paper. The paint sank into & through the paper, bleeding everywhere. It was nothing like the tutorials I watched, but I was having fun. I watched a lot of YouTubers talk about paper, I read a lot of library books about painting, & finally splurged on a pad of 140 lb (300 gsm) paper. It’s like a heavy card stock. This is one of the first things I painted… I was on cloud nine

Abstract watercolor, square like an album cover, white background. From the top left, stretching most of the way across the top, is a large blue bean shape that is partly out of frame. Bottom left corner is filled with a black rounded triangle with irregular white stripes, also partly out of frame. On the right hand side is a blue-purple-green shape that looks like a vaguely humanoid silhouette with no arms & a circle of colors here you expect the legs to be. This should be the cover for some fantastically experimental music album. Tell your friends!

…& A Bonus Fact

I never know what to write when posting my art. On Thanksgiving I was so tired I just shared something I had learned watching an ocean documentary while I painted a sea star “- not a Starfish, as it is neither star nor fish.” Turns out, other people like learning little bonus facts as much as I do! I’ve added facts to almost everything I’ve posted since then. I have almost as much fun looking up facts about the animals I’m painting as I do painting them!

What? We’re not done yet?! How much backstory does one Karin need? At least one more, apparently.

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