New Revisit Project prints! And a sale!

Busy day! I finally finished up the next two pieces in my Revisit Project! Santa Chiara and Castiglion Fiorentino are completed! And are now in my Etsy shop! 


To celebrate their completion, I'm also having a sale on ALL my prints in the shop! Including all the Revisit Project prints and all my little owls! 
AND if you buy two, you get FREE SHIPPING! Huzzah! 


I also just dropped off another batch of pearl snap earrings at Los Olivos General Store this morning! Busy week, and I've only been able to get into the art bubble twice! 


The Chair Faire is coming too so I need to get cranking on those two beauties. And I'm making the invitations for my future cousin in law's bridal shower! Lots happening...plus my bookmaking workshop next week. Oi vey. 

Revisit Project: Santa Chiara

Been a while since I've updated/been able to work on this project! I'm still in the process of watercoloring the Trevi Fountain and Castiglion Fiorentino pieces. I had some time today to edit up the next one, Santa Chiara. 

I made the original sketch way back in 2009 when I was just a student studying at Santa Chiara. I've watercolored and sketched and inked up and printed that courtyard so many times but somehow it still doesn't get old. There was always a new vantage point. Depending upon the season, the shadows were different and the whole space changed. The vines turned bright red during the fall. Like clockwork, the swallows would swoop in and make their laps at sunset. Then the turtles would join in the scene during the summer months. I spent so much time over the 3 years in this courtyard, and I could return tomorrow and find some little detail that I had never seen before. 

Revisit: Paris

Finished up another watercolor for my Revisit Project. The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France! The Trevi Fountain and Castiglion pieces are still works in progress. 
Hoping to get a print of it in my Etsy shop before the end of the day...

revisiting Europe via sketches...

Printed/edited a few more sketches from the giant Euro sketchbook. I've started watercoloring them and bouncing between the sketches. It's a depressing but slightly happy thing to revisit all these sketches again. Depressing that I'm not there right now making more (and that it's been 3 years since my addiction to Italy first started) but happy to remember all these great moments.

Like the little winding street below. I drew that one during my first few weeks that I returned to Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy to work at Santa Chiara. It was close to sunset and this cat was just too perfectly napping in the shadows on this tiny vicolo overlooking the valley. I was nervous as hell for the arrival of 100+ students.

Then Trevi Fountain. I'd wanted to draw this fountain when I was there as a student but never found the time. During first break between summer sessions after returning, I went to Rome to visit a Cali friend and had some time to kill. I spent the whole afternoon in the boiling sun in front of this fountain fighting for my curb spot from tons of tourists finally fulfilling this sketch desire.

And Paris! This trip to France was pretty spontaneous. I think I actually bought the ticket 3 days before the actual flight! It was one of the most liberating sensations stepping off the plane in France. I spent most of this day napping in front of the tower, munching on bread and nutella, sketching the tower and reading. I even remember that I was in the middle of reading Stephen King's The Drawing of the Three.






























I kinda find it odd how well I remember everything through these drawings. I never made a journal while I was over there. I don't really regret this. There's not way to accurately express that experience in words that doesn't make it all sound trite or cliche. Overall this is a pretty melancholic project but it's the closest I can get to Europe right now so for the time being it will continue...

Been staring at my La Sagrada Familia sketching...Barcelona is coming!

write & sketch (repeat)

Writing and sketching, then writing and sketching some more. Not sure why but today I decided to try and tackle a bunch of story commissions I've had gathering up...6 to be exact. Eep!

And of course in my moment of needing to channel my inner Dr. Seuss more than ever, I'm having the hardest time rhyming! che palle... so that's where the sketching is coming into play. Bouncing between one story to the next with some sketching of random things and some tattoo designs in between to stay sane...

I also picked/editted the sketch that I'm going to use next in my Revisit project...a little vicolo from my lovely town, Castiglion Fiorentino.

Revisit: Venezia

Alright...so I don't completely hate this experiment so far.

Last night I edited my sketch I did of Venice and printed it out on watercolor paper. Very strange to be looking at this sketch larger and gearing up to doctor it...but I like the results. It's just weird revisiting a piece that I had already considered complete. Vabbè...

And here's what the original sketch looked like...I made this way back in August 2010 when my friend and I ventured to Venezia for the first time!

Next up, I may take on my Pantheon or Trevi Fountain sketch...or maybe a tiny Tuscan town alley...or maybe head back to Barcelona!