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.
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
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.
Karin Wanderer. I paint flora & fauna & Miyamoto Usagi fanart.
What Is This?
This is my blog, where I will mostly talk about learning how to draw & paint on a shoestring budget. It’s only my second entry, so I’ll be talking about how I started & how I got to this point. It’s a short story- I’m a pretty new artist.
How Did This Start?
Last September I was reading Usagi Yojimbo (one of my favorite comics) & at one point he made a face I really liked. Stan Sakai had drawn his determined expression in a way that captivated me. There was a pencil and some scrap paper near me, so on impulse I picked it up and drew this
When I was done, I looked at it & I laughed out loud.
This is terrible I thought.
I really like it!
Then What Happened?
I drew Usagi a lot. I drew him standing, sitting, & leaping through the air. I even drew him on a skateboard! I spent the last week of September realizing that I loved drawing, then drawing until my wrist ached. I rested my arm on a heating pad & kept drawing. I asked myself, out loud, “what am I going to do with all these Usagi pencil sketches?” Then I learned about a little tradition called Inktober!
Inktober is an art challenge for the month of October. There is a theme for every day, but you don’t have to follow it (I mostly didn’t.) By the end of the month, I was drawing Usagi mashed up with Simpsons characters, Dr. Seuss characters… any & everything I could think of. I was also coloring the pictures using Infinite Painter (the free intro version) on my phone (a Note8) because my dollar store markers were not up to the task. I was head over heels in love with art, even if I was calling them “my silly pictures.”
This is getting to be longer than I thought.
Click here for Part 2! Same Karin time, same Karin channel!
[Hello & Hello Again!
Due to Reddit choosing to mess w/API, putting money over people & making accessibility for people with disabilities difficult if not impossible, I have wiped all the pictures from my Reddit account/subreddit. That was, apparently, the only place I kept the pics for this article. Apologies for the inconvenience.
~KW 30/6/23]
Who Am I?
Karin Wanderer. I paint flora & fauna & Miyamoto Usagi fanart.
What Do I Do?
I teach myself how to draw & paint on a shoestring budget. I also work with children, mainly preschool age. I have degrees in Early Childhood Education & Special Education. I read a lot.
What Media Do I Work In?
Watercolors, mostly, & an open source digital art program called Krita. Otherwise I like to work in ink (especially sumi) or markers or food or fabric. I’m always open to trying new art! The only exception is AI art, as all generators that I know of are “trained” by art taken without the artists’ consent.
What Is This?
This is where I will be sharing my progress. As a fairly new artist I’m interested in sharing all the things I learn. As a completely new blogger I’m interested in being able to share those things in long form. I will be talking about what I am actually learning- the books, tutorials, art supplies, etc. that I find useful, & how I feel about it all. I will, of course, also be sharing neat facts I learn along the way!
This should be the cover for some fantastically experimental music album. Tell your friends!
This is my tiny work space in my tiny apartment