Every time I paint a page that I really like, I get all excited and think, "Oooooh!
This one is my favorite!" But then a few days later, I finish up another one that turns out better than I ever expected it to, and I think, "No, really, I think
this one is my favorite!"
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10" x 7" ink & watercolor in Stillman & Birn Beta series sketchbook |
I can't pick just one! This page is definitely in the running though. Ah, the memories of all that delicious food! Eating gluten-free in Italy is no hardship - not when you can have yumminess like this:
rich, dark chocolate desserts...
tortas and cakes...
seafood pasta sprinkled with aged Parmesan...
soft, creamy, locally-made mozzarella drizzled with fruity olive oil...
salty Parma ham, artisanal cheeses and fresh veggies drizzled with syrupy balsamic vinegar...
gluten-free rolls and pasta...
Prosecco and limoncello...
I never had a disappointing meal in two weeks of travel. Even the food we bought in the grocery stores was good.
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Lettering how-to: Draw letter forms with permanent ink. Paint one color at the top of a letter and a different color at the bottom, allowing them to blend and merge where they meet. Keep the paint fairly concentrated, but wet enough to move and flow a bit. |
Fitting everything in on this page was so much fun. Many of the little sketches were drawn in restaurants, before I ate my lunch or dinner. When I just couldn't wait to dive in, I snapped a photo to paint from later. I just love how the jaunty lettering and bright colors give this page such a happy feel.
You might wonder why I painted a weird spider-webby thing on this next page. If you read my journaling, you'll understand. Those circles are roundabouts - we went around or through about
five hundred of them in ten days of driving!
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The colors on this page didn't scan well; they're actually much less muddy looking in the original. I used a white gel pen for the center lines on the roads. |
Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but in Siena it felt like there was one every fifty feet! So, to liven up this text page, I painted a background that will always remind me of the times we went round and round those crazy circles, trying to read signs in Italian, listening to a silly GPS that couldn't pronounce Italian street names, and trying to figure out which turn would send us where we wanted to go. Travel is always an adventure, isn't it?