JUNE/JULY ART VLOG

When I started this blog and the YouTube channel, I had one goal in mind.  Promote my landscape design business.  So off I went on making posts and videos to do that.  It worked like a charm.  That being said, I have over the last few years felt like there needs to be a shift.  A shakeup in content to keep me interested in making more vids and posts.  During these few years I have also started an art business.  Selling prints of my art as well as custom made sketchbooks.   

I am still going to share my landscape design content with you, but at least once a month or so I would like to introduce some sort of art vlog into the mix.  In this video I share with you some art things that I have been doing during the month of June and July.  

MY ART WEBSITE RAMIDIO IS LIVE

 I love making art and getting crafty.  Now I get to sell my art alongside designing landscapes.  That means that there will be some changes coming to this space.  Both the blog and the YouTube channel will now have art content at least once a month.  The rest of the month will be dedicated to landscape design and sustainable living.  This video explains more.

EXCITING NEWS X ETSY

 When I am not designing landscapes, I am drawing and making art.  I love to watercolor and decided to sell prints of my art.   I decided to create an Etsy shop, in which you can buy digital prints of my art.  

Digital prints that you can then print to any size you would like.  Making this a perfect gift for yourself or someone else.  This also during the pandemic makes purchases contactless.  

You can go to my Etsy shop and check it out.  

MOVING THE ART ELSEWHERE

As  you know, most Monday's I have been blogging about watercolor and my art.  But that is not what this platform is really all about.  Earth friendly landscapes was always meant to be an extension of my landscape design business.  A platform to help inspire you to garden sustainably and/or to at least get all the info necessary to hire the right designer/contractor.

That being said I have decided to create a new blog and YouTube channel all about my art.  This way the to content can be separated and not conflict with each other.  So now what does that mean for this blog?  Well This means that I will still be posting regularly on this blog as often as I have been.  That will not change.

On the new platform I will be posting weekly and also creating regular content.  I am excited as this is another venture that I am diving into. You can check out my art website/blog here.  Keep in mind that it is currently being updated.

WHEN THE PAINTING IS NOT RIGHT

Yesterday I went to a coffee shop and decided to paint for a few hours.  It was great and relaxing.  I painted many things, including a drawing that I am not fond of.  The intent was to draw a surfer sitting on his surf board.  Sadly, this surfer is wider in the drawing than the original picture. 

You see, sometimes things don't go as planned.  So you make the best of it and go with it.  Except that nothing will be perfect, but everything can be good enough. 

This drawings was not perfect, but was enough to complete my day.  At least I tried and did somethings.  This is what life is all about.  Trial and error.  Now go forth and try.

ON THE BOARDS TO WATERCOLOR

Last week I did a lot of drawing.  I was on a roll.  I also spend yesterday water coloring.  It was nice to just allow myself to have several hours of chill time.  Yes I actually consider water coloring as my chill time. 

With that said, I decided to challenge  myself and draw two things that I am not good at being animals and humans.  For the life of me I just cannot seam to get these two subjects right.  I figure if I practice then I will become better.  So I shall try to draw more people and animals in hopes of getting to some semblance of good. 

But what really is good.  My version of good may not be someone else's.  Realistically, I just want to be able to draw these subject matters to a point of comfort. 

Over the next few weeks I will attempt at drawing more of these subject and see what happens.  For now let me explain these images.  They are self explanatory but the surfer is from an image that is monochromatic.  This means the the entire image is various shades of one color.  In this case blue.  I will come back next Monday and share how these fared with new drawings. 

ANOTHER WATERCOLOR VIDEO

In the series of video taping myself painting, I present to you a planter planted with cactus and a stem.  The point of this series is to inspire you to paint or do that hobby that you have always wanted to.  And also to help me get better at painting. 

I love painting and love sharing with you all.  Enjoy!

WATERCOLORING 3 BIRDS

I love to watercolor as it helps me relax.  So I thought I would challenge myself to watercolor more often and to film the process.  My goal is to practice, practice, practice.  To also share something new with my audience.  Keep things fresh and unique.  On that note in this video I watercolor 3 birds and chat a bit. 

SOME RESENT PAINTINGS

Sometimes its good to take a break from blogging and other times its good to be back.  Back I am with more watercolors.  These were inspired by my imagination and some random pics I found on Instagram.  Usually for me, it is not about painting something specific.  Rather just being inspired in my daily life and going with the flow.  That is what life should be about.  Not stressing or worrying too much about the outcome of a plan.  Just going with it and allowing whatever is meant to be just be. 

DRAWING FLOWERS

Recently, I came across an artist on Instagram and was intrigued by her work.   What I like most about her work is that it is easy for someone like me, that is still learning and growing in the art of watercolor to recreate and learn from.   So this past Sunday I decided to recreate one of her Instagram posts about drawing flowers.  

This is why I love following other artists.  I can follow their adventures and be able to learn and grow.  I also like getting inspired by the work of others.

I definitely need to improve my watercolor skills and following random artist helps me do that, then I am all for it.  

SKETCHING OUT IDEAS

I was in a mood  to sketch out some ideas before watercoloring them.  I like to do this, because the watercolor paper I use is expensive and really good quality.  I don't want to waste it.  This past week I did not watercolor but sketched out a few ideas.  It's hard sometimes to get into a groove when life is happening.  You just have to role with it and make the best of it. 

The original image has a cat sitting inside the tp.  I am not the best at drawings people and animals, so I have yet to draw the cat and am not sure if I will.  I recon I could say that at least I drew something. 

I COULD NOT PICK ONE

Usually I have a clear idea of what I want to paint.  Whether it's from my imagination or a picture, I have something to go off of.  This time I had the image but I was not sure if I wanted to paint it as is or modify it.  So not being able to decide, I decided to do two versions. 

This is what I like about art.  It does not have to be exact and can be whatever you want it to be.  I can make things my own and just go with the flow of  my mood in that moment. 

Art is subjective and does not have to be exact.  It can be whatever you want it to be. 

TRYING NEW WATERCOLOR BRUSHES

My existing watercolor brushes were the Windsor and Newton Cotman brushes.  They were not that bad, but I wanted to try some other style of brushes that were also more portable.  So last week I bought 5 of the Raphael precision 85046 series brushes at Art Supply Warehouse.  They were very interesting to play with.  They picked up pigment very well but were hard to blend with.  What did like about then in comparison to the W&N was that they allowed to less bleed.

This painting is what I painted with them.  Admittedly, I will have to play around with them more to get used to using different brushes.  My goal for the future months is to invest in some fancier travel brushes and non travel brushes.  In the meantime however, I will keep using these as they are really good for portability.

ON THE FLY WATERCOLOR

Yesterday I went to Whole Foods for lunch with my mom and then met up with a friend at the Portola coffee lab.  But before I met her I had a hour of time to kill and decided to watercolor since I had my stuff with me.  That's the beauty of taking my watercolors with me.  You never know when inspiration strikes and you have random time to paint.  

In this case I painted a bunch of concrete hexagon shelves screwed to the wall with some potted plants.  This was based off of a random image I found on Instagram.  I realized as I was getting my setup ready that I needed a new bag that would hold more room than the one I had.  Perhaps I should also look into a really small portable easel.  

THE LION THAT COULD

I love to search Etsy for things to inspire me.  Whether it be a piece of art or some handmade jewelry, I love to just casually search for inspiration.  So the other day I found this picture of a lion watercolor painting that caught my eye.  I wanted to recreate it, but I was fearful.  I am not good at painting animals or people.  Yet I realize that the only way to get better is to practice.  

That being said, last night I sat on the couch and painted this bad boy.  Only to realize that while I liked what I had done, it was not as great as the original.  That's OK I told myself.  Nothing is going to be perfect and maybe this is meant to teach you a lesson.  That you have to be patient and understand that things take time.  Eventually with practice, you will get the hang of it.  Just not right now.  So I redrew the lion and intend to paint it again and try a second round.  

Side note:  even if I paint it semi decently better than the first time, this will not be a piece that I would sell.  Why?  Because it would not be fair to the original artist.  

MY DRAWING PROCESS

I use Arches watercolor paper when I paint, which is really high quality paper.  A  pad of 10X14 paper with only 12 sheets is around $30.  Not cheap, but worth the quality that you get.  So when I paint, I like to make sure I am very certain with what I am going to paint so that I don't waste the paper.  Which is why I like to draw on a lesser priced watercolor paper to practice and determine if my idea is even worth painting.  I do most of my painting on weekends, since during the week I am busy running my business. 

I start by drawing the idea on my black watercolor sketchbook to test things out.  Am I even going to like the sketch and would it even be something that I would be inclined to paint?  This also allows me to play around with ideas, because I rarely paint as I see it.  I always try to put some unique spin on the painting that makes it my own. 

Then when I feel satisfied that I have something that would work, I proceed to draw it on the watercolor paper and paint it.  These images are my latest that I created yesterday to be painted this week.  The first images is the test and the second the to be painted. 

MY ETSY SHOP IS LIVE

I am sitting at a coffee shop as I write this listening to music and feeling very excited to share this with you.  So much so that I sat staring at the laptop screen for a few minutes wondering how I should write this post.  Geez Rama, just write!  So here I am writing to share the awesome news with you, that my Etsy shop is live.  Holy shit! 

This is not something that I expected would happen.  Not in a million years would I have thought that this would happen, but it happened.  What I am selling on my shop is digital downloadable art prints.  Eventually, I will get to selling hard copy prints but for now you can buy the digital versions of my art and print them out yourselves. 

Click here to visit the shop and go go go buy buy buy. 

ETSY SHOP UPDATE

I had announced in October of 2018 that I wanted to open an Etsy shop in which I would sell my art.  My goal was to get the shop rolling before 2019, but I hit a some road blocks that delayed me for a few months.  Thankfully, I have cleared the road blocks and am happy say that before the end of next week, my shop will be live.  Yay! 

The shop will contain digital prints for sale.  This means that you will be purchasing a digital downloadable art that you can then print how ever you choose.  This will make things easier as you won't have to wait for the item to arrive in the mail etc.  Within the shop there will be around 15-20 digital prints for sale that are mostly about landscapes.

Hopefully I will have a solid update for you next Monday. 

WATERCOLOR TO RELAX THE MIND

Usually on weekends, I try to do at least one watercolor.  It gets my mind in chill mode and allows me to concentrate on something that is not work related.  That's the problem these days, where you can let your mind live in work mode. 

So for Saturdays watercolor, I picked a random image from Instagram and painted it as best as I could.  I knew that my version, would not look exact but good enough for me.  That's the thing about life.  You cannot expect for everything to be perfect.  Sometimes you have to be OK with good enough. 

You must give God, the universe and your ancestors permission to bring great things into your life, and let everything else be what they will be. 

RECYCLED METAL ART

I love adding outdoor art to any landscape.  It's a great way to not only add a pop of color to the garden, but also add focal points.  So I decided to google search outdoor art and came across this video about a man that makes art out of scrap metal.  I was so intrigued that I just had to share with you.