Songkran and Traditional Thai Dress

I got to celebrate Songkran with my family over the weekend—the Thai New Year and water festival, where we symbolically wash away misfortunes, pray for prosperity for the coming year, and honor family and community. Wat Tummapratiep DC has an AMAZING 2-day festival, open to the public—so many dishes and desserts that you can usually only find in Thailand (some Laotian and Vietnamese foods too!). It’s a foodie’s dream, a great way to support local businesses, and truly a hidden gem if you’re visiting the DC area in April.

It’s also a chance for many of us to dress in traditional Thai formal wear, which showcases some of the most incredible textile work. The intricate designs you see on traditional Thai skirts are not printed, but actually woven.

Source: JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/).

And finally, a wonderful primer on some of the different types of Thai royal traditional dress:

Because...Doggos!

I’m just beginning to explore some dog characters, so I let myself have some fun painting a few faces in my sketchbook. And yes, that is my beloved Indie in the top right corner (she can be a bit of a scaredy cat sometimes!)

For a very long time, realism was the only way I knew how to draw things. I’m still constantly trying to find the right balance between stylized versus realistic representation, and tight compositions that still feel loose, spontaneous, and alive. And when I first started sketching these puppers, they were looking far too realistic for my liking.

“Draw them with your left hand,” my partner suggested. It was just what I needed to get the right level of “wonkiness” for the undersketch, and then I went back and refined them a bit more with my usual drawing hand.

Drawing with your non-dominant hand was something I learned from my high school art teacher, but it had been ages since I tried it again. I’m so glad I did, as it’s a really great exercise to try if you’re struggling to break out of old drawing habits, or just want to explore a fresh look.

Millefiori-Inspired Timelapse

A little watercolor painting inspired by millefiori glasswork! Timelapse below:

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While we typically associate millefiori with Venetian glass, in fact the art of these layered mosaic beads can be traced back to Ancient Roman, Phoenician and Alexandrian times. Here are some lovelies from the Roman era, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

To get that organic layered feel, I practiced my wet-on-wet skills, using Dr. Ph. Martin’s radiant concentrated watercolor. I often use a mix of liquid acrylics, acrylic gouache, and watercolor—which means some layers are permanent, while others can be reactivated with water. And that can lead to some nice bleeds, runny colors, faded spots… I love that element of unpredictability, of the work having a life of its own!

First I lay down a light wash of acrylic ink in raw sienna, to give a warm cast to the whole illustration. Next, I used my Neocolor crayon in beige, to very lightly block out different garden “sections.” I wanted to make sure there was a nice variety of both big and small “plots” of flowers, so it helped to decide that beforehand (and since the crayons are water-soluble, the outlines just melt away beautifully into the painting when activated with water.) The rest was just done on the fly. Some dots of rubbing alcohol help create that cool dotted effect, and acrylic Posca paint markers came in handy when I decided to throw in a black cat at the very last minute!

Full material list:

Canson XL watercolor paper
Princeton Umbria Round 2 brush (I reach for this brush the most)
Liquitex Acrylic Ink in transparent raw sienna (for the background wash)
Caran D’Ache Neocolor II Aquarelle wax pastel crayon in beige
Dr. Ph. Martin’s radiant concentrated watercolor in Slate Blue, Daffodil Yellow, Cyclamen, Ice Pink, Olive Green, and Sepia
Rubbing alcohol (so fun for creating cool resist effects with watercolor! Use an old brush for this—alcohol is very harsh on the bristles!)
Posca paint markers in black and white

Fantastical Botanicals (and the Voynich Manuscript)

A children's book watercolor illustration of two kids watering a giant flower in a garden.

Since we were on the topic of scientific logbooks and journals last week, another one I adore is the Voynich Manuscript–a 15th century text written in code, filled with mysterious botanical illustrations and otherworldly diagrams. To this day, no one has deciphered it! But you can find all of its glorious pages online, thanks to the digital collections of Yale University.

*Voynich Manuscript.* General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Revisiting those beautiful, mysterious old pages got me in the mood to paint my own fantastical botanicals. As for all the dots? I’ve been a bit obsessed with orbicular jasper lately:

Detail image of orbicular jasper from Madagascar.

It’s a form of cryptocrystalline quartz, formed when silica-rich water percolates through cracks and fissures in other rocks. Over time, the water mineralizes and deposits tiny quartz crystals, which fill in the spaces and eventually replace the original rock.

The distinct patterns are created by various mineral impurities or inclusions within the silica solution–minerals such as hematite, goethite, chlorite, or other oxides and hydroxides, crystallize in concentric layers around a nucleus, which forms the orb-like structures.