Costa Rica Art + Travel

Oh my goodness, just as I’m taking off for another season in Hawai’i I finally have my splendoriffic Costa Rica travel vlog finished! It’s all I can do to keep up with adventures XD

My partner Alan and I spent 2 weeks traveling Costa Rica, mainly in the tiny town of Bahia Drake, where we saw soooo much wildlife we were literally blown away! When you read that Costa Rica has 5% of the world’s species, it’s an astounding figure considering just how small the country is. But when you are there that number is so tangible and awe-inspiring to be in the presence of wildlife constantly!

Here are the four tiny gouaches I created in my homemade zigzag sketchbook from some of our most favorite spots in Drake Bay. Our trip down the Sierpe River truly was an epic way to experience such a lovely, friendly, eco-minded nation!

The first painting at the top is from an amazing coastline hike we did a few times.. that view is not even an exaggeration - the jungle hike was RIGHT next to the tropical beach - I’ve never seen anything like it!

This second painting is of a bright toucan that visited the tree branch super close to the bungalow we stayed in at Bahia Drake. We saw another one on our fist hike as well, but that one was much more elusive.

This is the waterfall we hiked to on our first day. Alan’s first jungle hike was an absolute blast!

Ans finally, our fave happy hour spot with a treetop view and a pair of macaws flying by. We learned they mate for life so felt quite an affinity for them whenever we would hear or see them ;)

And this last gouache I made for Alan’s birthday of one of the beloved Scarlett Macaw couples we saw fly overhead so many times.

4.23.2023

Mushroom Paintings in Gouache

Do you ever have a project idea just marinating on the back burner for months and then finally have the chance/supplies/time to finally do it and it feels sooooo satisfying!?!

That’s totally me with these new supa dupa mushrooms!

…which will soon turn into big bright colorful stickers!

I want the stickers to be as colorful and eye-catching as possible as good little impulse buys when hosting my art booth (yay, I am so excited to get back into craft fair vending!), and since everyone loves mushrooms I figured these would be a great subject to appeal to the crowds.

I’ll also have these stickers available on my website in two weeks when my next video comes out showing how I made them (and how you can make stickers of your own art too!)

The supplies I use today:

Gouache (not an affiliate link) https://www.amazon.com/HIMI-Gouache-Supplies-Professionals-Student/dp/B09QRKQJZB?th=1

Any purchases through my special Blick link helps to support this channel at no extra cost to you. Thank you!

Princeton Size 1 Round Brush: https://bit.ly/3gFb7cT

Princeton Size 0 Round Brush: https://bit.ly/3bb05v9

Da Vinci Size 2 Round Brush: https://bit.ly/3diLEEK

Watercolor Sketchbook: 10 X 7in https://bit.ly/3miKrXY

Make sure to tune into my next video too to see these transform into fabulous brilliant big stickers!

Which one is your favorite? Would you rock any of these as a sticker?

3.5.2023

A Collection of Figure Drawings from Fall Semester 2022

Every once in a while I like to open up the sketchbook and share my latest works with you, and since teaching multiple anatomy/figure drawing classes I’ve been drawing a lot lately. Here are a few of my favorites from the last semester..

I seriously loved this stately model; doesn’t he remind you of like a casual-cool Henry VII or some other classical regal portrait?! He just got that self-assured-scepter-holding ‘kingly’ vibe I suppose.

And keep an eye out because I have a few photos of student work to share, including a few of me I’m sharing in my newsletter this week. We had a model cancel so I sat for some portrait drawings and many of them turned out surprisingly well! (If you’re not already getting my ‘Birds of a Feather’ quarterly letter you should definitely join in at the bottom of this blog post or through this link!)

With these next few you’ll notice a trend.. and that is they are all drawn of our models’ backs. I allow my students to all get their seats with the best, most forward views of our models so sometimes the only space for me is to set up around back. But I’m not complaining at all, any chance I get with a life model is an opportunity to learn!

And did you see the drawings from my first ever pregnant figure model? Now THAT was an amazing experience! The drawings turned out beautifully, if I do say so myself ;)

1.24.2023

Making Sketchbooks with My Students

You’ve probably noticed the recent posts about my latest handmade sketchbook release (thank you to those who ordered one!) both here and on my IG.

Last semester a few of my students commented on how much they liked the toned paper in my sketchbooks during our figure drawing sessions. So much so that when I told them I made the books myself, their eyes got wide and they asked if there was any way I could teach them.

Since I was getting low on pages in my sketchbook, I figured why not invite them to join me while I was crafting the next release so we decided to have a sketchbook making workshop here at Nossi.

I gathered most of the supplies they needed, which was made up of cloth and cardboard for the covers as well as box cutters and scissors etc. but I had the students bring in their own art paper so they could fill their sketchbooks with the exact paper they loved the most.

The workshop was quite a hit too! We had about ten students show up and they really impressed themselves and me with how beautifully and sturdy their sketchbooks turned out!

So if you ordered a sketchbook, keep an eye on your mailbox because they are all finished and have gone out in the mail already. Pretty please send in or tag me on Instagram in pics of your wonderful artwork in the sketchbook! I would love to see it!

6.1.2022

Custom Handmade Sketchbook Release

Hey folks I know some of you have been waiting for a new, inspiring, handmade custom sketchbook.. and I appreciate you being so patient.

I have just released the preorder forms for the custom sketchbook of your dreams, so head over here for all the details (including the deal you get if you order two!).

A few specs...

• 48 pages total

• Internal binds sheathed in tracing paper to protect drawings from touching each other

• Cloth hardback bound exterior with machine sewn bound interior pages

• Bound on the short side for ease of drawing for both righties and lefties

• Paper is acid-free and archival

• Your choice of toned paper or natural white...
  
  Learn more here!

These preorder sketchbooks are only available through Sunday May 22nd, and because I only offer them when I need to make new ones for myself, that's going to be it for this year!

I've also just come out with my latest Sketchbook Tour video so have a look at that if you need a refresh on all the awesome natural toned paper that comes in the 'Toned Variety' option.

I'm psyched to be making these again and I hope you get one!

Sketchbook Tour 2022

Yay I am so excited to be sharing my two latest full sketchbooks today! Sketchbook tour videos tend to be some of my most popular, and I totally understand why. I too love thumbing through other artists' personal works, sketches, attempts, and even (slight) failures.

These sketchbooks are comprised of all figure drawings, most from life but some from online figure models. I like to use Carbothello My Stabilo pastel pencils and white chalk for my drawings on Canson Mi-Tientes paper.

If you're interested in getting a one-of-a-kind custom handmade sketchbook from my Nest to yours, pop over here for all the info and ordering (these are only available once a year for about a week)

If you are seeing this video after May 22nd and would like more info on getting your own handmade-with-love toned (or white) paper sketchbook pop over here to be kept in the loop for my next sketchbook release.

Here are two videos on how I create my figure drawings: Vid 1 // Vid 2

5.15.2022

Merida Art + Travel Vlog

I’m so thrilled to finally bring you the full travel + art vlog from one of the most magical places I have ever been in my life! The colors, the culture, the history, the hospitality - all were top notch in Merida and the surrounding Yucatan area. I was so inspired I did one gouache painting there of our spectacular hotel, El Palacito Secreto (The Little Secret Palace), and then four more from our various adventures once I got home (like this one of the front of our hotel and another cute street scene!).

This painting was from the day we visited the Maya ruins at Chichen Izta - the largest ones in all of Yucatan! I shared a bunch more photos from this day in on my last blog post. Just seeing stone structures that were half a millennia years old and still preserved so well was truly awe-inspiring. My respect for ancient architects grows each time I’m able to travel to such exquisite places.

The day we boated through the mangroves to see the thousands of wild flamingoes was a day I won’t soon forget! They were so loud and animated and watching them run on water to take off was hilariously surprising! This is my lil gouache rendering, and you can see the actual photos from that day on this blog post.

And lastly, though probably my favorite, the small saffron yellow town of Izamal was every artist’s dream and jsut about the quaintest place I have ever been in my life! You definitely need to see more pics here.

Cheers!

4.17.2022

Ringling Museum of Art

Guess who discovered that the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, FL is free on Mondays?!?

Now free entrance to a quality art collection is like Christmas morning to this Bird!

While I was in St. Petersburg, FL last weekend visiting friends, attending a figure drawing session, and learning how to belay climb on an interior rock wall (yes, it was amazing!!), I was told by a fellow artist that I should pop down for free day while on my way out of town. And you know your girl looooooves to museum so how could I resist?!

I loved the wall of spots by Yayoi Kusama and a few textured abstracts by Syd Solomon, along with some old photos including Frida Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera in action as well as a young girl posing with an authentic Mexican sugar skull.

There was a fair collection of pre-Renaissance artwork as well. I was particularly impressed with the quality and precisionof some of the old wood sculptures.

And just a few more lovely and inspirational works from the collection….

Francisco Cairo

Gerard Kuijl

Lodovico David

Francesco Salviati

Carl Marr

G. Lachaise

Kay Sage

1.22.2020

Finding Beauty Everywhere

As an artist, you have an inherent eye for finding the beautiful, unusual, or remarkable in everyday life. It is a very special gift we visual artists possess and we should never let location or materials hinder our creative spirit.

Today I'm going to talk to you about finding beauty everywhere while just using a simple tiny sketchbook and regular pencil to do some graphic drawings from life in order to illustrate that you can make art anywhere with anything if you just open yourself up to being inspired.

If you'd like to see my sketches up close, check out my blog post from earlier this week.

12.6.2019

Graphic Sketchbook Drawings

Although I haven’t been able to do much painting lately (my oils are literally being shipped in using ground mail from O’ahu so it may be a few more weeks still), I have been enjoying playing with some graphic sketches.

Normally I’m not a fan of such smooth, light colored paper, but this is a style I’ve been wanting to play with so when someone gifted me this tiny unused sketchbook I figured it was the perfect place to get started. I’ve noticed that over the years different materials can shift my artistic style so I love to experiment and switch things up!

With this particular drawing style I have to make bold decisions about contrast with each subject. As you can see, I’ve chosen to show only highlights and low lights, no mid tones, as a really fun exercise in shadow shapes! (everything is drawn from life )

UPDATE: I just created a YouTube video in which i discuss finding beauty wherever you go while creating two drawings in this style of a tree trunk and two tangerines hanging from a bush. You can see it here.

12.4.2019