Karin Wanderer Learns

AuGHOST

One of my New year’s resolutions is to start a biweekly art challenge: #KWPrompts. I love a good art challenge. Finding a fun art prompt can result in me casting my painting plans to the wind & spending all my free time on whatever ridiculousness some word wizard on the internet came up with. Enough is enough! I want to be that wizard! Get ready to play…

This is my very first prompt! All art styles & skill levels are welcome- beginner to expert, renaissance painting to rough sketch. I’ll be posting new prompts on this blog & the sites listed below every other Tuesday. I can’t wait to see what you make!

Art Prompt: A Movie You’ve Loved Since You First Saw It

Tag me &/or #KWPrompts so I see your art!

Show me how you think! No AI, Yes alt text, CW as needed.

#KWPrompts posted here: Mastodon Bluesky IG

Here is mine Line art of a moderately-sized boat being chased by a shark that must be very large, judging by the fin that sticks out of the water. The boat's name, "Orca", is written on the side. A Movie I’ve Loved Since I First Saw It

Here’s a list of other art challenges I want to participate in this year: #FebruaryFaces 28 (or 29) Days of Faces! #AuGHOST (August) 31 Days of Ghosts! #Slowvember (November) Taking your time with your art! #FolktaleWeek (December) 1 week of folktale themed prompts! Last but not least: Krita is a free/open source art program that I use for most of my digital art. The Krita community is lovely, & has monthly art challenges with a new theme every month

Have a fantastic day! Draw something for my art challenge! See you next week!

Buy my art on mugs, notebooks, & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Join us for #KWPrompts, a biweekly art challenge!

Find me on Linktree

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

A How-To Guide on Alt Text This Book is a Movie

Art Challenges – new #KWPrompts every other Tuesday

Current Prompt: Animals Past Prompts listed here Do My Art Challenges, I Dare You

#ColorFull

Games Your Brain Plays With Color in The Colors, Duke! The Colors! Games Your Brain Plays With Color Preference in Your True Colors Games People Play With Your Brain Using Color in The Color of Money

Fidelia Bridges It's a Still Life Watercolor of a Now-Late Afternoon Bev Bos Like A Bos Andy Warhol Andy Warhol Was Right Kazuo Oga See Into The Trees Isabella Kung It's Your Kind Of Kitten Nie Jun Comic Books Are Coming True Alina Chau There Is Fiction In The Space Between

KidLit

Children's Book Week, w/ book list Read Books. Spark Change. Children's Books Inspired by Folklore Even Rarer Than a Unicorn Watercolors in Comic Books Wrapped Up In Books

#WatercolorScience

Painting in High Heat & Low Humidity We're Having a Heat Wave Painting in High Heat & Low Humidity (cont.) I Started This Heat Wave Painting in the Cold When Winter Comes Howling In Painting in High Humidity Lost in a Fog

Art Styles & How-Tos

Line Art (This) This Time I'm Drawing the Line Paper Cut It's Only A Paper Moon Kawaii To Be Constantly Cute En Plein Aire Saturday in the Park PICO8 Put Your Hand On The Computer Painting People As The Headless Horseman Said To His Associate… Drawing Faces There Go I But For My Face Face to Face

#Ink

History of Ink King Ink Sumi (traditional Japanese ink) Found In Ink Sumi-e (ink paintings) The Contents of an Ink-bottle More specific types of Sumi-e I Think In Ink

Recipes

A very flexible cake recipe Cups & Cakes (vegan) Iced tea with a plum simple syrup Have a Cuppa Tea (vegan) The best pizza dough Pizza Time! Super easy brownies Sweets For My Sweet Lemon Bars on Olive Oil Shortbread Texture Like Sun Peanut Butter Bread I Looked In & I Saw Bread Bulle Never A Frown With Golden Brown Bread Art You Need Bread (vegan)

DIY

Reference Photos (general) It's In The Photograph Reference Photos (nature) There's Lots Of Room To Roam Travel Watercolor Paint Palette 1, 2, 3, 4 Can I Have A Little More?

Troubleshooting

IDing Problems & Solutions What Can I Make From This Mistake? Getting Out of Your Own Way Breaking the Rules Time Management Who Knows Where the Time Goes? Tiny Workspace Organization Oh, Don’t You Hand Me None Of Your Lines

The Only One, So Far, With A Content Warning for Nudity

La Fontana del Nettuno The Statue Got Me High

About Me

Intro pt 1 Hello, World! Intro pt 2 Here Comes Your Girl Intro pt 3 Here Comes Your Girl Intro pt 4 Here Comes Your Brand New Day Intro pt 5 It Was Not Not Not So Great #AuGHOST review I Was Walking With AuGHOST 2024 Resolutions Harder Better Faster Stronger KWL's 1 Year Blogiversary! Everything Must Change

And The Rest

Wake Me When It's Over I Have A Secret To Tell

Buy my artwork, available in my SPRING SHOP!

Wish I talked about food more? I do! Epicures, assemble!

See everything else I do over on Mastodon.Art

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!

Buy my art on mugs, notebooks, & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Join us for #KWPrompts, a biweekly art challenge!

Find me on Linktree

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