Karin Wanderer Learns

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.

Alina Chau is an award-winning artist. You may know her past animation work on projects such as Star Wars: The Clone Wars. What you may not know is that she quit her job at LucasArts in order to pursue her own artistic dreams! Today, she is an author & illustrator whose palette, plants, & people absolutely blow me away. I have read every one of her books available at my library. Her words & watercolors are overwhelmingly beautiful.

Alina Chau, Illustrator

Bonnie's Rocket written by Emeline Lee Bonnie wants to build a rocket ship. Hundreds of miles away, her Baba is developing equipment for the Apollo 11 space mission. This story follows Bonnie as she tries several different rocket designs & gets letters from Baba talking about their work. The book includes several different rocket-building activities for children! It is best for ages 5 & up. If you have space-obsessed 3-4 year olds, you might be able to read it in sections as it is a bit long & wordy for small children. The activities look very fun & require supervision. A great book! If I worked with slightly older children I would definitely have this in my classroom. Watercolor of a cute white puppy about to lick a red & yellow rocket ship. A large plant is growing nearby with lots of foliage & orange flowers. I spent more time than I should have painting scenes from Chau’s books this week

Lunar New Year written by Hannah Eliot This sweet book introduces the readers to the Chinese Zodiac & Spring Festival by showing how one family celebrates, taking the time to briefly explain the significance of their traditions. The illustrations are beautiful & detailed; there is so much to talk about on every page! A very fun & informative read, good for preschoolers as well as older children.

The Rise (and Falls) of Jackie Chan written by Kristen Mai Giang As you may have guessed from the title, this is a biography about the powerhouse stuntman & brilliant actor Jackie Chan. This book goes out of its way to emphasize how hard he trained & how careful he is about his work. I loved learning more about Jackie Chan’s life! This book would be good for ages 4 & up. There is a bilingual edition but I have only seen the English one.

2 Watercolor children in bright red clothing play a flute & gong while dancing.

Double Happiness written by Nancy Tupper Ling In a series of illustrated poems we follow our main character as she & her family moves very, very far away from her Aunt & Uncle & Nai Nai to a new home. This is a great book for children ages 5-8, with a very sweet story that demonstrates healthy coping mechanisms for dealing with something as emotionally stressful as moving house.

The Nian Monster written by Andrea Wang Three days before Chinese New Year, Xingling’s grandmother explains how many of their traditions are meant to keep the Nian Monster away. It’s a good thing she does, Nian returns to eat the city that very day! Can Xingling use her wits to save the day? I love both the story & the illustrations so much! Especially the paintings of the monster, which manage to be bright & colorful & intimidating all at once; that is a hard balance to strike! I would read this with anyone 3-5 years old, but older audiences will probably enjoy it, too.

Watercolor little girl in a blue dress & bunny slippers smiling as she looks at a red lantern.

In the Spirit of a Dream & We Are the Change, both collaborations with many artists I enjoyed both these books quite a lot! Unfortunately I read them so long ago I don’t remember specifics. It’s definitely worth checking out if your library has them!

Alina Chau, Author/Illustrator

Marshmallow & Jordan I absolutely love Marshmallow & Jordan! I sat down to read just the first few pages of this graphic novel one Saturday morning, & ended up finishing it in one sitting. On her way home from school, Jordan hears crying. She finds that it is a white elephant crying over their injured leg, & decides to bring it home to take care of it. The rest of the story is even more magical than the beginning! The characters are well-crafted & believable in a way most authors don’t manage when writing tweens/teens. Characters who use wheelchairs are few & far between in comics. Chau clearly put a lot of work into understanding how the main character would navigate her world in a wheelchair, & it shows. The character designs & environments are beautiful! The story is so compelling; it made me care about sports just because Jordan & the other characters do! This graphic novel is recommended for ages 8-12, but I think older readers will also like it.

Watercolor bamboo wind chime hanging from a branch on a tree with green & gold leaves.

Alina Chau, Unstoppable Force Of Nature

Chau’s creativity seems to know no bounds. Her style works well with many artists/authors. This article only managed to cover a small portion of her work; I had to cut myself off because it was getting so long. I look forward to seeing what she creates in the future!

Would you like to know more about a specific picture book or comic book illustrator? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!

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  • All pictures posted are my own work.
  • All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

It’s Inktober!

Inktober is an art challenge with daily prompts for every day in October. The goal is to encourage people to post one #ink drawing every day! Every October all of social media gets flooded with #Inktober drawings & paintings. There is also a version that lasts all year – #Inktober52 – with a different prompt each week. Don’t like the official prompts? That’s OK, there are dozens if not hundreds of unofficial #Inktober lists out there! I have been sharing my art online for just over a year, so Inktober is the only annual art challenge I’ve had a chance to participate in more than once. I realized today that I haven’t ever looked into the history of ink, so I’m going to tumble down this rabbit hole & I’m taking you all with me.

Micron pen drawing of Miyamoto Usagi looking determined. Micron Pen Ink

What Is Ink? When Did Ink Start?

Writing is a concept that has fascinated humans. Around age three most children start to understand the distinction between writing & drawing. Children who have not yet learned to write will often make scribbles lined up horizontally or vertically, with left or right alignment, according to whatever style of text they have been exposed to the most. Is it any wonder that a medium that we invented to write with should be equally fascinating?

Ink has existed for at least 4,500 years. People in China & Egypt are both credited with discovering ink at the same time. This is called Simultaneous Invention, & it happened with the wheel, too. I have to say ink is “at least” 4,500 years old because there is some debate over when people started using ‘ink’ as opposed to ‘paint’. The debate rages on in large part because of a simultaneous debate over where the line is drawn between what is ink & what is paint.

Sumi ink painting of plum branches with several blossoms & a bud. Sumi Ink depicting the Plum Tree, a very popular sumi-e subject.

What Makes It Ink, Not Paint?

There are many different kinds of ink, & many kinds of paint. Sometimes the only difference is that you use paint to cover a wall, & ink to write a letter. Most of the differences can only be discussed as generalities. Paint is usually more lightfast, whereas ink is generally a “fugitive” pigment unless it is designed to be long-lasting. Ink generally has the consistency of water, while paint is often thicker. Paint often changes the texture of any surface it covers, but ink usually doesn’t. Natural inks mostly come in blacks & browns, whereas natural paints come in a rainbow of colors. In short: you could apply most ink with a paintbrush, but most paint could not be applied with a fountain pen. This is because inks are made with very small pigment particles that dissolve easily, while paints often use larger particles that may dry with a slightly grainy look.

Minimalist sumi-e of cat sitting, facing away & looking back at you. Sumi Ink depicting a cat, a very popular subject in every form of art.

There Are Many Many Many Types Of Ink

The earliest inks got their color from a variety of natural materials. Egyptians used inks to write on papyrus. Those inks were made of ingredients such as ochers, which are also the colorants used in some of the earliest paints. Many inks, such as India Ink (which is actually Chinese) & Sumi (Japanese), are colored by soot. Whether the ink is a cool black or a warm black depends on what is burned to produce the soot & what the soot is mixed with to make it into ink. There was also cephalopod ink which dries to a shade of brown called ‘sepia’, because of the Latin name for the cuttlefish: sepia officinalis. Other inks were made from chemical precipitation formed from ingredients like oak galls & iron sulfate. I have made inks from crushed berries & vinegar (pretty successfully) & walnut shells (pretty unsuccessfully). Dyes that work with synthetic inks were discovered by a chemist named William Henry Perkins while he was trying to cure malaria, & now ink comes in any color you like. Even today, though, many inks are made with animal-based glue & other non-vegan ingredients, so if this is important to you it is something you must be very careful about!

Ink painting of Calvin. He squeezes his eyes shut, flings his arms out,  throws his head back & shouts "HAVEN'T I SUFFERED ENOUGH? WHERE WILL IT ALL END?!?

Which Ink Is Best?

Some artists remain devoted to one type of ink, or have different types designated for different jobs. Some artists have a more free-for-all approach. Bill Watterson, of Calvin & Hobbes fame, uses India ink & watercolors. Stan Sakai, creator of Usagi Yojimbo, uses Sumi & watercolors. Suisen Nakatani, a kokotsu-bun specialist, also works in Sumi. Alphonso Dunn uses an impressive array of inks & pens with his watercolors. Cheriue Ka-wai Cheuk is an expert in the gongbi painting style, which is specific about all the tools an artist uses. The ink an artist works with is a very personal decision.

Sumi ink painting of Miyamoto Usagi sitting & drinking tea. I work with Sumi because I, personally, am a shameless Sakai fangirl.

What’s your favorite kind of ink? Are you participating in #Inktober? Let me know on Mastodon & Ko-Fi!

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  • All pictures posted are my own work.
  • All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

Watercolor of pink water lilies (one open & one a bud) and a lily pad. The flowers are reflected in the rippling water.

The Amazing Author/Illustrator

It absolutely breaks my heart that more people haven’t heard of cartoonist Nie Jun. His watercolor comics are beautiful. His use of greens stops me in my tracks page after page after page. He paints insects with as much love & attention as people. I spent this whole week finishing all my other work at the last minute because I wanted to paint so much of his!

He is the perfect author to continue my #WatercolorBooks series. I will be talking about watercolor comics & picture books & their illustrators from both an artists’ perspective as well as that of a preschool teacher, where applicable.

Watercolor & ink of a tree surrounded by a grate. Next to it is a green motorized tricycle with a compartment on the front for a child to ride in.

The Breathtaking Books

My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder is the loveliest comic I have ever read. The stories focus around a child named Yu’er, her grandfather, & the people in their small neighborhood. It is marketed towards 7-10 year old readers, but I’m in my 30s & enjoyed every page. Really, it is a book for everyone- although some of the storytelling devices may be a bit confusing for children younger than 7. All of my paintings were from this book.

I ran out of time to do anything beyond reading Seekers of the Aweto. Two brothers seek (can you guess? … No, what an odd guess! ) Aweto, aka little plant spirits that can be used for medicine. The first book was amazing! Nie Jun’s love of insects has been cranked up to 11, his mythical creatures are a sight to behold, & his landscapes are dazzling! This comic series is great for anyone ages 12 & older. The second Aweto book came out this year & my library has not gotten it yet. I am very excited to read it!

Watercolor of a sunburnt man with an orange-yellow-blue butterfly perched on his nose. This is Yu-er’s grandfather, a true insect aficionado.

The Lovely Lianhuanhua

One of Nie Jun’s earliest inspirations was Lianhuanhua – old Chinese sequential art. Lianhuanhua was the precursor to modern Manhua – modern Chinese comics. It is a very interesting form of art worth checking out, if you're interested! While I have been calling Nie Jun an illustrator for clarity’s sake, he calls himself a Manhuajia, or ‘humorous cartoonist.’ Does the word ‘manhua’ sound familiar? It eventually made its way from China to Japan, when it became the word ‘manga’ we all know & love today.

Watercolor of a black cat sitting happily. Spoiler alert: cats are awesome.

Would you like to know more about a specific picture book or comic book illustrator? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!

Get my art on mugs & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Join us for #ArtABCs, a year-long art challenge!

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  • All pictures posted are my own work.
  • All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

Hi folks! It's your friendly neighborhood Karin here! Now is an auspicious time to review my review policy. All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions. ~KW

Isabella Kung Knows All About Cats

Isabella Kung is an author & illustrator whose watercolor art has lived rent-free in my mind since the first time I read No Snowball. In an interview with CanvasRebel, Kung said, “Children are amazing and it is an absolute honor to delight and entertain them, to teach and show them our world, to empathize and tell them they are not alone…” This is exactly how I feel about reading with children. She is the perfect author to begin my #WatercolorBooks series. I will be talking about watercolor comics & picture books & their illustrators from both an aspiring artists’ perspective as well as that of an experienced preschool teacher, where applicable.

Watercolor of pink mugs in various shapes & patterns with cats of various shapes & patterns sitting in them. Some cats have a mug to themselves, some share with a friend. Watercolor cats are a weakness of mine

Kung is the Author/Illustrator of No Fuzzball! & its sequel No Snowball! She captures a wide array of the emotions – & the narcissism – of cats in these two picture books. No Fuzzball features bright illustrations focused around one adorable black cat, the eponymous Fuzzball. Fuzzball is an unreliable narrator, written in such a way as to be age appropriate for preschoolers. As a super fan of dialogic reading, I love this book. Talking about whether or not a character’s words match their actions has always led to very interesting talks with my students! In the sequel, No Snowball! the family adopts a new kitten. How will Fuzzball handle it? The answer is so sweet – not to mention so amusingly cat-like! – that this has become one of my standby books for children having trouble with the idea of becoming a ‘big sibling’.

Three watercolor cats - grey, brown, & orange - watch a dragonfly overhead with wide eyes. I might have gotten distracted from writing this article by painting cats.

Kung is also the illustrator of Lesléa Newman’s A B C Cats & 1 2 3 Cats, which required her to illustrate over 120 cats. These books are wonderful! The illustrations are gorgeous. There is a rhythm to Newman’s rhyming that makes it extra fun to read, which is good because this seems like the type of book kids are going to want to hear over & over & over again.

Kung is a prolific illustrator whose work has won many awards & honorable mentions. This is one of my favorite of Kung’s illustrations, & here is a video of her painting it. Also deserving of mention is that her book titles both have punctuation, putting them in exalted ranks along with classics like Thud! & Guards! Guards!

Watercolor black cat sitting & looking up at you with yellow eyes. It is pretty much just a ball of fluff with a tail & yet you can tell it is also gleefully evil. What an adorable ball of demonic rage!

Would you like to know more about Isabella Kung? Is there a picture book or comic book illustrator you want me to talk about? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!

Get my art on mugs & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Join us for #ArtABCs, a year-long art challenge!

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  • All pictures posted are my own work.
  • All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

I Have 12 Hobbies & 0 Space

I have quite a few hobbies I engage in regularly. I do both traditional & digital art. I also cook, bake, sew, embroider, read, write, garden, watch movies, play video games, listen to music… That’s a dozen hobbies. This presents a bit of a challenge.

Almost completed embroidery of a sunflower mandala in yellow thread on a grey background.

Why Can’t I Have 0 Hobbies & 12 Space?

It can be hard to find the space in your schedule & in your actual physical space for your hobbies. My apartment is tiny, I am not the only person who lives here, & my time is a finite resource. I have had to develop strategies to help fit all my hobbies into my life, since restoring a vintage TARDIS is not one of my hobbies.

Ink drawing of Miyamoto Usagi looking determined.

Strategy 1: The Buddy System

It’s a classic for a reason. Happily, lots of hobbies pair up well. I can paint while I bake, write while my paint dries, & listen to books or music while doing just about anything. Which of your hobbies can be buddied up? Which ones need to stand alone?

Watercolor of a nightingale singing while sitting on a branch. I baked a cake while painting this nightingale.

Strategy 2: Figure Out If It Needs Scheduling, Then Do It- Or Don’t

Sewing a simple garment or household item takes my entire work table, plus my ironing board set up nearby, as well as several days’ worth of my free time. Obviously I need to schedule that in advance. Things like gardening & cooking need to happen regularly. Listening to audiobooks or painting can happen at any time. Which of your hobbies need scheduling, & which can you jump into right away?

Reading Log designed to look like a library. Most of  the shelves of books have titles, on 1.5  shelves blank book spines wait to be filled in. Outside the window is a watercolor; several witches & 1 ghost are flying up to the moon from the city below. One of the witches is a cat. A moment of appreciation for my local libraries' audiobook selection.

Strategy 3: Know When to Rest

Mind your spoons. Sometimes you need to take a break & abandon all but your lowest-energy hobbies. Sometimes you need to enjoy the oldest hobby of all – taking a nap!

Photo of two potted pepper plants climbing up a loose macramé string trellis all the way to the roof. A burro's-tail succulent grows in a pot hanging nearby. Or sitting & enjoying your tiny garden.

Variety Is A Blessing & A Curse

Having too many hobbies can be overwhelming. How many is too many? That largely depends on what hobbies you have, how much time you want to dedicate to them, how much time you have to spend… Some might say having a dozen hobbies is too many, but it suits me just fine. Of course, sometimes they distract from one another. Say, for example, you were supposed to write an article on watercolor illustrators & then, to pluck a for-instance out of the air, you got distracted reading the books they illustrated instead. And what if you followed this up by re-reading as much of Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur as you could get your hands on? Well then, dear reader, if you had a dozen different hobbies then you too could pivot to an article about one of those other hobbies, or even an article about how to balance many different hobbies at once…

HEY WAIT A MINUTE!

See you next week for an article about watercolor illustrations! Maybe. I just got the notification from my library that my hold copy of Yukon Ho! has arrived…

Is there a picture book or comic book illustrator you want me to talk about? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!

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  • All pictures posted are my own work.
  • All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

Hello & Hello Again! I absolutely refuse to apologize for any puns used in this AuGHOST postmortem. Even that one. Enjoy! ~KW

Watercolor & ink on brown cardboard. A smiling, blushing ghost is wearing a flower crown. Such ghastly humor!

What Is #AuGHOST?

AuGHOST is a ghost-themed art challenge for the month of August. There is a different art prompt for each day. AuGHOST is billed as a “all-skills, all-inclusive, no-pressure art-event” & that’s exactly what it was! Draw one ghost, draw all the ghosts, make it a scribble or a fine oil painting- anything goes. If you’ve been haunting this blog long, you know how much I love art challenges. It probably won’t surprise you to find out I did all 31 Days of #AuGHOST!

Watercolor & ink on brown cardboard. A black cat sits happily on the ground as a ghost pets it. The ghost's typically compact form is being stretched & distorted, but she still looks happy to be petting the cat.

Let Me Introduce You To My Boo

Here are 31 pictures & 2 animations featuring the best little ghostie in town: Milly!

This video does not feature descriptive audio. A thread where each picture & animation in the video is posted with alt text can be found here

Last Time I Did All 31 Days of an Art Challenge…

…I made many grave mistakes. In an effort to push myself to expand my skills, I put so many restrictions in place that I got in my own way. I learned an important lesson that changed my approach to these challenges. This month was much more fun than MerMay because of that difference in approach.

Watercolor on brown cardboard. A happy ghost holds up a basket of glass gem corn in one hand & ear of glass gem corn in the other. Behind her, the corn has been grown to make a maze.

What I Did Differently This Time

I focused on challenges, not rules. Instead of saying I couldn’t use certain media or colors, I challenged myself to incorporate something new. This led to my using cardboard from cereal boxes & embroidery thread scraps. It resurrected my love of upcycled materials, which I had not worked with much since I stopped making collages a lifetime ago. I also challenged myself to create a new character like I did for #HippySheepFest, only more in-depth since I would have 31 days instead of 4. I think we can all agree this worked, as in my totally logical & objective opinion Milly is the greatest ghostie who ever was.

Watercolor & ink on cardboard. A smiling ghost knits a web for the spider sitting on her head, waiting patiently. The knitting is embroidery thread stitched through the cardboard and the thread ball sits at the ghost's feet. Eat your heart out, Casper!

How Changing Things Changed Things

All these changes were for the better. I think it probably helps that I like painting ghosts more than people. It helped me see that I’ve grown, not just in terms of artistic ability but also mindset. I’m still getting used to gouache & am a bit inconsistent with transparency levels, but most of the time I would sit down to paint a prompt with an idea in my head & end up with pretty much what I imagined on the paper. More importantly, to my mind, is the change in mindset. I am always very critical of my work. (If I waited to share only the paintings I loved, I would share maybe one a month.) I am still very critical, but in a better way. Now instead of oh, that’s terrible I’m more likely to think oh, that’s the wrong color or the wrong proportion or something else that’s much more constructive. All in all, these changes have definitely made a positive impact!

Paint & ink on cardboard. A happy ghost is holding a coffee & reaching out toward a falling leaf. Other leaves swirl around, in the air & on the ground.

It’s The Magnificent Milly Announcement We’ve Been Waiting For!

I have spent the month of AuGHOST being absolutely amazed to see that other people love Milly as much as I do! I am finally doing it- opening a TeeSpring store! This is your chance to have your favorite Milly on mugs, notebooks, & even stickers, in case you want to put Milly on something that isn’t a mug or a notebook!

My Spring Shop is Officially Open!

Follow me on Mastodon or Ko-Fi to be the first to hear about updates as I add new watercolor designs- more Milly as well as watercolor flora & fauna!

#Inktober Inspiration

4-panel comic, watercolor & ink.
Panel 1: A smiling Milly the Ghost, in top hat & bow tie, holds a magic wand in one hand & a curtain in the other.
Panel 2: The curtain is raised to hide Milly.
Panel 3: The curtain is covered by a cloud of smoke that says "POOF".
Panel 4: The curtain falls to the ground, revealing a sign which reads "The Amazing Milly will return, #Inktober".

Which was your favorite Milly? Let me know!

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  • All pictures posted are my own work.
  • All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

Hello & Hello Again!

This week’s blog is written by KWL’s very first guest blogger! This is my favorite pizza #recipe, from my favorite pizza chef. Introducing the sweet pepper to my red onion, the mutant turtle to my samurai rabbit, self-certified Pizza Expert: Wolfe3D!

Watercolor & ink painting of a man with curly brown hair & a beard smiling as he leans out from behind a computer monitor. There is a Superman action figure on his desk & a Super Star on his monitor. Certified Pizza Expert

Wolfe3D, developer of free PICO-8 awesomeness & frequent contributor to PICO-View! Pronouns: He/him Profession: Visual Effects Artist/Teacher Hobbies: Music, cooking, retro gaming Where to find me: Reddit, Discord, BBS, or Mastodon.

I’m working on a free Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan game called Shredder’s Prevenge for Pico-8, which should work on your phone or computer. It’s a great way to learn coding and have fun! I hope to make games based on original ideas some day, but for now this is a way to build experience and learn the tools and systems I need to make those games. It’s a side-scrolling beat-em-up like most TMNT games, but with a few unique touches including an interactive arcade and a vs. mode.

One of the things I love the most about PICO-8 is the community. Whether it be in the subreddit, the Discords, or on Mastodon, everyone involved in the PICO-8 scene tends to be friendly, welcoming to newcomers, and generous with their knowledge and skills. Thanks to all of you for helping me to learn, and to teach.

To Pizza!

This recipe makes 4 pizzas’ worth of dough. If you get this dough going on a Sunday night you won't have to worry about dinner until next Friday! You can bake it on a cookie sheet, we used a 12 inch round pizza pan.

Ingredients: * 4 cups AP flour * 1 tablespoon active dry yeast * 4 tablespoons of sugar * 1 teaspoon of salt * ⅓ teaspoons of baking soda * 1 cup of warm water * 2-3 cups of room temperature or cold water * Olive oil * Semolina flour * Low moisture mozzarella OR sharp cheddar & Monterey jack cheese * Pizza toppings

Kitchen counter is crowded with a mixing bowl & ingredients, such as salt. flour, & baking soda.

Step 1: Add yeast to warm water and allow 4-5 minutes to activate.

Step 2: Set aside 1 cup of flour. It will be used in step 5.

Step 3: Combine the other dry ingredients, and a drizzle of olive oil in a large bowl. Mixing bowl full of pizza dough ingredients, ready to be mixed.

Step 4: Add warm, yeasty water to the bowl and combine. Add cold water until flour is absorbed and a sticky dough forms. Mixing bowl full of very sticky dough.

Step 5: Add 4th cup of flour to bowl and mix until flour is absorbed and dough can be touched without sticking to your hands. Mixing bowl full of dough that is no longer sticky to touch.

Step 6: Form dough into a ball, cover with cloth and allow to rise.

Step 7: After the dough has risen (approximately 1 hour), cut into 4 separate pieces and place each into a greased bowl 2 pictures side-by-side. Pic 1 is a mixing bowl with a small ball of dough in it. Pic 2 is the  mixing bowl with a larger ball of dough in it.

Step 8: Cover any dough you want to store with plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator at least overnight. Allow at least 3-4 hours of rising time if you want to eat it today.

Step 9: Preheat oven to 475°F (246°c)

Step 10: Grease the baking pan and liberally sprinkle semolina flour. A round baking pan with semolina flour dusted across it.

Step 11: Stretch dough carefully into a disc and place on a baking sheet. A round baking pan with a raw pizza crust on it.

Step 12: Add sauces, cheeses, toppings, etc. 2 pictures side-by-side.  Pic 1 is Raw pizza dough on a round pan with a few spoonfuls of tomato sauce in the center.  Pic 2 is Raw pizza dough on a round pan with a tomato sauce spread across the dough.

Step 13: Focus topping placement towards the center of the pizza; toppings will drift towards the crust as it bakes. We like chicken or veggie sausage with mushroom, onions, or peppers. 2 pictures side-by-side. Pic 1 is an uncooked cheese pizza. Pic 2 is an uncooked pizza with sliced sausage & mushrooms on it.

Step 14: Bake at 475 for 10 to 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and beginning to brown.

Step 15: Add spices and extras such as parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes, oregano, or garlic salt. 2 pictures side-by-side. Pic 1 is a close up of the pizza. Pic 2 is slices of the pizza on a blue plate.

Step 16: Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Hope you like the pizza, folks. Stay radical! -Wolfe3D

We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled art blog next week. If you want more awesome food ideas, click #recipe, included there are several non-pizza foods you can make with pizza dough. If you make any of these recipes, share pics with me!
See you next week.

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  • All pictures posted are my own work.
  • All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

This blog has an ongoing series of #WatercolorScience articles about how different types of weather affect your painting, even if you work inside. Extreme Heat & low humidity: We're Having a Heat Wave & I Started This Heat Wave Freezing Temperatures: When Winter Comes Howling In Humidity & Rain: Lost in a Fog

If you want to paint en plein air (fancy art term for outside) you will need to consider the weather as well as a number of other factors. Let’s begin at the beginning.

A Super Beginner’s Guide to Painting Skillfully Outside

Painting outside is more different from painting inside than you may realize. What you bring to paint, what you bring for yourself, where you go, how you sit… Everything has to be thought out in advance. Start with figuring out what you want to bring with you & then do a test run at home. I tried out my potential art kit while sitting on my tiny porch. This helped me realize I had completely forgotten a waterproof pen & water for me to drink.

Outside art kit arranged on a small, round table. Glass of water with lid, cloth, 3 paintbrushes, many-colored watercolor palette, & a black & white gouache palette.

The following lists are just suggestions – I don’t carry everything on them, & sometimes I pack extra things. I don’t have a car, so generally if it won’t fit in a backpack, it doesn’t go in my kit. Luckily enough there are several parks with chairs & tables nearby, so I can skip carrying in my own furniture!

Kit For Painting

  • Paper
  • Waterproof pen(s)
  • Brushes: sizes 2,6, & one from 99¢ store.
  • Jar with a tight-fit top for water
  • Cloth to wipe your brushes on – a tshirt rag or old athletic wristband is reusable
  • Paper towel – there’s nothing like it for dabbing at watercolors – tuck it in your wristband or under your paint while you’re working so it’s less likely to blow away
  • Easel or Clipboard or Table (or plan on working with a sketchbook in your lap, like I do)
  • Small DIY travel palette. This has black & white gouache & will someday have 3 primary watercolors in it, but I need to buy more tube paint for that.
  • Paints, of course! I used a watercolor paintbox for the test. I will bring watercolor markers when I’m not working right on my porch, as they take up less space & use less water. I got lazy here & grabbed the paint that was already out.

Things to Think About

If you get impatient, like me, bring enough paper so you can work on multiple paintings at once. That way you can switch between them, leaving ample time for each painting to dry before you continue. I generally have 4 rectangles of paper taped into my sketchbook, so I can keep it open & just rotate to a new painting.

If you are pressed for time, consider painting at home & save the excursion for another day. Remember, if you try to pack up wet paintings they will be ruined by the time you get home! I walked home carrying an open sketchbook once because I ran out of time. It wasn’t the end of the world, but it was quite annoying.

Another option to consider is using a “wet panel carrier”. It is a small briefcase-like box that (can you guess?) carries wet paintings. You can probably buy one, but you could also DIY one. You could even kick back, relax for a couple weeks until I make one, & then read my future blog post about it! (I’ll add a link here when I write it)

Kit For Humaning

  • Seating of some kind (even if you work standing up, you’ll probably want to sit at some point!)
  • Water
  • If you like to listen to something while you work, wear your most stable headphones! This is not the time for ill-fitting earbuds you are constantly adjusting.
  • Snacks
  • Sunscreen
  • Bug spray
  • Lightweight jacket
  • Umbrella or wide-brimmed hat
  • Backpack (or a reusable shopping bag, whatever you’ve got) to carry it all
  • Camera – the one on your phone will do just fine!

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list. It's going to change not only person-to-person, but day-to-day. Water is the most important thing here. Your paints will dry faster outside & so will you! Make sure you bring plenty of water to drink, even if it isn’t hot.

One More Thing To Think About

Be prepared to carry everything you need in & back out again. This is a literal ‘take only pictures, leave only footprints’ scenario. Many articles that I have read advise using ‘found water’ & ‘found objects’, but only do this if the location you picked specifically allows it! Also be aware of what might be in that ‘found water’. How might various pollutants affect your paints & brushes? This is always a concern, but especially after massive flooding or near construction sites.

What’s Next?

OK, we’ve got our painting kit together with our water & sun protection. Now what? How do we actually paint outside? We’ll cover that in a future article. When? I don’t know. Southern California is getting hit by a tropical storm, we’re about to go into another heat wave, & we literally had an earthquake as I edited this paragraph. This #EnPleinAir series will continue in a few weeks.

Next Tuesday’s Karin Wanderer Learns will be my 30th article! It’s going to be about Pizza & the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (My 20th article had my favorite vegan cake recipe.) I never intended to make KWL into a baking blog every 10 weeks, but I’m happy it’s turning out this way. See you then!

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  • All pictures posted are my own work.
  • All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

How Does Humid Weather Affect Paint?

It’s probably not very surprising that “water” is an essential part of “watercolors”, especially if you’ve read my last 3 articles! In this case the high amount of water in the air is affecting everything, so the problems & the solutions are all slightly different than what we’ve seen before.

The best humidity to work in for most paints, not just watercolors, is in the 40-60% range. Painting in high humidity – at or above 70% – is going to affect every aspect of your watercolor experience. This is true even before you start mixing paints.

Before You Paint

Museums tend to keep the humidity between 50-60% in order to protect the paintings hanging there. This is too dry for mold or mildew to grow, without being so dry that the paper or paint are damaged. If you can work inside near a dehumidifier, make sure it is running well before you start painting.

If you have been storing paint supplies in areas over 70% humidity, or near cold surfaces where condensation builds up (e.g. windows, water pipes, etc.), check all your supplies for mold & mildew before you start painting. Once watercolor supplies have gone moldy, they cannot be used. They will spread the mold to every pan, brush, & painting they touch. Any mold can mess with pigments. Some molds are dangerous to your health. There is no way to dry out your supplies enough to kill every single spore, so each time you add water to start painting you will just be re-invigorating the mold. I’m so sorry. If you see/smell mold, it’s over.

If your paper is not moldy, but has been stored in a humid area, test the paper’s sizing before you start. “Sizing” in this case means the treatment the paper has received so that it absorbs the paint properly without dulling the colors.

Watercolor of a woman. Her clothes are bright green & her skin is peachy-pink. She sits resting her chin on one hand while looking out at the viewer. Her head is on fire, the flames are vibrant orange & yellow. Properly-sized fire

Have you ever tried painting on printer paper & the colors end up washed-out or uneven? The paper wasn’t sized, & too much pigment ended up inside the paper instead of on top of it.

Watercolor of a woman. Her clothes and skin are washed-out. She sits resting her chin on one hand while staring listlessly at a coffee cup. Her head is on fire, but even the flames are washed-out. Poorly-sized fire

Sizing can be made of gelatin, starch, or a number of other ingredients that all degrade over time, especially in humid environments. Paper that has lost its sizing can still be used for drier media, or you can resize the paper using a product called Watercolor Ground. I have no personal experience with this product, but I want to try it. Watercolor Ground will let you watercolor on not only paper, but also metal, glass, plastic, fabric… just about anything!

While You Paint

There are myriad tips & tricks to weather the humidity a little better while painting. Please be aware, painting in extreme humidity can be dangerous. Sweat does not cool you as efficiently in humid heat & humid cold can sap your body heat very quickly. The following tips are more appropriate for painting in a poorly-insulated studio or out on your porch than on a mountaintop. Please read guides on proper clothing & safety equipment before painting en plein air (fancy art term for outside) in humid weather.

  1. Do not paint in the most humid parts of the day, if you can avoid it. Mid-morning to early evening will be more comfortable for you & your watercolors, as it is comparatively drier. Want to know the best time to start in your area? Touch grass. Once the dew has dried, you’re usually OK to start painting.

  2. Work on multiple pieces at once, if you can. Everything dries more slowly when it’s humid. If you switch between pieces, it’s easier to wait until each layer of each painting is really truly dry. Don’t muddy your colors or blur a piece just because you’re impatient!

  3. Give your paintings lots of support. If you’ve painted even a single watercolor painting I probably don’t need to tell you how water can make paper buckle & ripple. That can be much worse in humid weather, & the paint is more likely to peel. Make sure you tape, tack, stretch, or otherwise secure your paper to avoid this trouble! The adhesive in tape can fail if it gets too wet, consider using binder clips.

  4. I don’t think I can emphasize enough how long everything is going to take to dry. It will take forever. Maybe even twice that. If your paper looks dry but feels cool to the touch, it is still damp. Give it more drying time!

  5. Turn on a fan. You may not want it pointed directly at your paper, but keeping the air moving will make everything better for you & your painting.

  6. Switch to a different medium entirely! I recently switched from ​300 lb (640 gsm) watercolor paper to cardboard from a cereal box, as well as using ink along with my paint, as the humidity fell so low the “water” part of my colors was evaporating before I could work.

Watercolor & ink on brown cardboard. A smiling, blushing ghost is wearing a flower crown!

‘Art differently’ may not be my favorite tactic, but it is a tactic. Thinner paper, less water, or switching entirely to pencil, charcoal, or markers, will all work better at higher humidity than watercolors will.

Happily, there are other solutions. For example, there are a number of DIY solutions you can add to your water to make the paint dry faster. Read I Started This Heatwave & revel in my meticulous #WatercolorScience. Those experiments were focused on keeping the paper wetter for longer, so several solutions which were considered failures in that experiment could be immensely successful in this one!

After You Paint

Be patient! This goes for your painting as well as you paint pans & palette. Everything needs a long time to dry, preferably undisturbed. Give it all as much time as you can! Some paint companies recommend sticking your paint pans in the freezer if it is too humid for them to dry properly- check with your specific paint manufacturer. Do not freeze paint tubes! Read When Winter Comes Howling In to find out why. Many people will let their paint pans dry as completely as possible before storing them & the paper with those little silica gel desiccant packs to be extra safe from moisture build-up.

We Didn’t Listen!

Something went wrong, & now your paintings are moldy. Don’t cry- that will just make it more humid. You may be able to fix this! Here is a link to the Museum of Modern Art’s guide to fixing molded paintings

Turn A Bug Into A Feature

There are countless wet on wet watercolor techniques, & you will have time to play with all of them on a humid day! There are also many desiccants, such as salt or sand, that will soak up moisture. The world is your oyster- dehydrate that sucker!

I Want YOU To Do #WatercolorScience

I live in an area experiencing a drought, so I can’t test any of these solutions. This is your chance!

Test the various solutions in this article & any tricks you may have of your own, then send me your results & pictures! That way I can write a #WatercolorScience article for humid weather. You can contact me on Ko-Fi or Mastodon. Please include the name/user name you would like me to use so I can give you proper credit! I can’t wait to hear from you!

This is an ongoing series of #WatercolorScience articles about how different types of weather affect your painting, even if you work inside.

Extreme Heat & low humidity: We're Having a Heat Wave & I Started This Heat Wave Freezing Temperatures: When Winter Comes Howling In Humidity & Rain: Lost in a Fog

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Join us for #ArtABCs, a year-long art challenge!

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  • All pictures posted are my own work.
  • All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

I’ve spent the last few weeks writing a series of articles on how to paint in extreme heat & low humidity. These two conditions lead to your paint & paper drying fast. They have been making my life very difficult recently! However, I don’t want to neglect my peers from other hemispheres, my beans from other scenes, my legions from other regions… Don’t want to season shame anyone.

So if you want to learn how temperatures over 90°F (32°c) can affect your watercolor painting, various techniques that can help you watercolor in hot & dry weather, as well as a number of solutions you can buy to help you in this endeavor, read Part 1. If you would like to read all about my #WatercolorScience experiments with DIY solutions for hot & dry weather, read Part 2. If “hot & dry” are not your current problems, read on!

How Does Cold Weather Affect Paint?

Watercolors, as the name implies, rely heavily on water. If you have to paint at or below 32°F (0°c) your paints can literally freeze. Tube paints are more susceptible than pan paints, as they have a much higher water percentage. Previously-frozen paints can end up with a grainy texture & are more likely to develop mold. Paint tubes subjected to freezing temperatures are more likely to rupture as the paint expands & contracts.

Paints Are Like Human Beings

There are myriad tips & tricks to weather the cold a little better while painting. Please be aware, painting in extreme cold is much more dangerous than painting in extreme heat. Sitting still for the long periods of time required to paint helps you stay cool on hot days, but that is exactly what you want to avoid in the cold- even above freezing temperatures! The following tips are more appropriate for painting in an unheated studio or out on your porch than on a mountaintop. Please read guides on proper clothing & safety equipment before painting en plein air (fancy art term for outside) in cold weather.

  1. Do not paint in the cold, if you can avoid it. Working in the middle of the day or early evening when it is comparatively warmer will be more comfortable for you & your watercolors.

  2. Work smaller, if you can. Cold paper dries more slowly. If you can finish fast enough, neither you nor your paints will have time to freeze up.

  3. Give your paintings lots of support. The water can freeze as it dries on the page, which can crack if your paper is bowed or bent. The adhesive in tape can fail at low temperatures, so consider using binder clips or a watercolor pad instead.

  4. Recognize the effect freezing will have on your painting, even if it doesn't crack. When you bring it inside it will thaw & need to re-dry, which can make your picture muddy & blurry. This is probably not the time for an extremely detailed masterpiece.

  5. Switch to a different medium entirely! I recently had to switch from watercolors to ink mid-painting as the temperatures climbed so high the “water” part of my colors was evaporating before I could work.

Watercolor & Ink painting of a telephone pole with lots of wires towering over trees. The sun is so low you can't see it. Yellow streaks the sky & pink tinges the underbellies of the heavy grey clouds.

‘Art differently’ may not be my favorite tactic, but it is a tactic. Pencil, charcoal, alcohol-based markers, & oil paints will all work better at lower temperatures than watercolors will.

Happily, there are other solutions. For example:

The Cause Of – And Solution To – All Of Life’s Problems

Alcohol is the famous answer here. Traditionally, painters have added anything from gin to vodka to their water to keep it from freezing. This absolutely works for watercolor paint! Painters have also traditionally added it to themselves “to keep from freezing”, but this is a myth. Drinking alcohol makes you feel warmer, but makes you cold faster. So far as paint is concerned, mix the alcohol in with the water used to dampen your paint pans, brushes, & paper, as well as the water you wash brushes in. ⅓ to ½ alcohol seems to be what most people prefer. This will damage brushes, don’t use your nice new ones for your boozy painting.

PSA: Do Not Use Rubbing Alcohol!

I tried this once, to see if it worked like DIY alcohol inks. It does not! The watercolors gets all gross- on the palette, the page, & in the pan. I ended up washing a fair amount of paint down the drain trying to make sure it was all rinsed out of my paint pans!

DIY Solutions

Putting your palette on an electric heating pad or radiator set to “low” is almost certainly a fire risk, but it is a suggestion I have seen several times. Your metal & ceramic palettes could easily get too hot & your plastic palettes could melt! I wouldn’t even mention it, except it keeps being suggested online & I wanted to emphasize how easily that can backfire.

Warm water. Seriously, try it. Hot water will damage your brushes, but warm water will take longer to ice up.

Turn A Bug Into A Feature

Work with the freezing temperatures to make new, cool art! Many different artists have experimented with intentionally letting their paintings freeze. I tried to do this in my small freezer, it resulted in a muddy mess! People who work outside have gotten very nice results, though.

I Want YOU To Do #WatercolorScience

I hate the cold. I am very dedicated to never being cold again, & I live in an area that doesn’t get very cold even in winter. In other words, I can’t test any of these solutions. This is your chance to shine!

Test the various solutions in this article & any tricks you may have of your own, then send me your results & pictures! That way I can write a #WatercolorScience article for cold weather. You can contact me on Ko-Fi or Mastodon. Please include the name/user name you would like me to use so I can give you proper credit! I can’t wait to hear from you!

This is an ongoing series of #WatercolorScience articles about how different types of weather affect your painting, even if you work inside.

Extreme Heat & low humidity: We're Having a Heat Wave & I Started This Heat Wave Freezing Temperatures: When Winter Comes Howling In Humidity & Rain: Lost in a Fog

Get my art on mugs & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Join us for #ArtABCs, a year-long art challenge!

Find me

  • All pictures posted are my own work.
  • All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.