🎨 My first watercolor! I love how my sketch turned out, but the paint part was hard. That sky looks terrible, LOL! I kept practicing with other reference photos and eventually figured out what I was doing wrong (a mix of bad brushes and too little water).
TLDR; It it possible to use DxO Photolab to edit raw files produced by ANY camera that is not on their supported list, even from mobile phones such as Samsung and Xiaomi. It involves using two free tools, and the terminal/command line. Skip to the workaround for instructions. Even though I shoot raw exclusively on my Canon cameras, I’m completely fine shooting jpegs when the camera’s internal processor is good enough for that.
Moving on from this. Colored pencils are beautiful, but slow! I think my next one will be a base of water markers with the pencils on top. 🎨🖌️
First day doing the free course over at Sketch Loose and my first urban sketch ever! Learned to simplify shapes and draw from a reference image 🎨🖌️😍 Can’t wait to learn about watercolors!
I have just discovered the concept of loose lines sketch and look at this! I have filled a page with vegetables, pens, a water bottle and two plant pots! I CAN DRAW! Stick figures, no more! 🖌️
Finished reading: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin 📚
One of the first dystopias, came out in 1924 and inspired many down the line. A totalitarian regime, literal glass walls, state-assigned lovers, where mathematical logic rules over individual behaviour. If you could only choose one, Freedom or Hapiness?
Finished this page with water markers! Next up: colored pencils! 🎨
I’ve been living for the past 15 years with a massive question mark: to blog in English or Portuguese? EN is my main language for everything, web, books, movies, work and even marriage! PT-BR is the language of my IRL family and friends, probably the only folks who want to read my stuff.
🤧💉 Did a prick allergy test! Allergic to all kinds of pollen and stratospheric levels of dust mites allergy! Doctor thinks the immunization shots would be nice in my case. 🌶️ Bought a Peugeot Paris pepper mill and I’m in love! I didn’t know what I was missing. Never again will a grocery store pepper grinder enter my kitchen. 🎄 We got an Escape the Room Advent Calendar book this year again.
Did an allergy prick test yesterday. Tested positive to a ton of stuff – some known: birch pollen, dust mites; some suspected: almonds, cypress pollen; and some surprises: all other kinds of pollen, nuts, cats and DOGS!
I fell off the wagon completely after my blogging partner (mom) went back home, and this weeknote is three weeks long, lol. 🚗 I started my driving lessons! AAAAAAAAAH! 🎨 Gifted myself a Disney coloring book, a set of 120 Castle Arts colored pencils (wonderful), a box of 150 Crayola Super Tips water-based markers and 24 Crayola Colors of the World markers. I debated long about buying the more expensive alcohol markers, but I just don’t know if I’ll stick to coloring books for more than 2 months… So I bought the cheap crayolas and that will scratch the itch!
Watched Alien: Earth 📺 Full of plot holes and nonsensical things, moderately entertaining. The best actor was definitely the octopus-eye, such a character! 👽🐙👁️
Already gave myself my own early xmas present: a Disney colour by number book and a box of crayola markers! 🎨🖍
No desire to blog this week, but just wanted to write for posterity: started driving lessons last week! Drove all over town and on the highway too! Anxious and insomniac AF over this, but also having fun.
😍 My mom flew back to Brazil – his mom had gone back to Sweden a couple weeks ago. We are finally alone at home in Valencia, for the first time in three months, just the two of us and our dogs, and it feels good! 🎨 I’m really excited about my illustrated journal. I’m using a super cheap notebook with 90gsm paper, a waterproof pen (uniball ub150) and coloring pencils.
My sourdough starter died! 🥖 With the travel to Italy and our mothers here trying to take over my kitchen, I ended up not baking for 3 weeks, and now Ryan is gone. Completely moldy, smelly and beyond salvation. RIP. 🪦
I’ve been perfecting this recipe for over a year now, and I think this version is really good. It’s so good we need to purposefully NOT make it, otherwise J. and I drink it all at once. Be warned, ABV is about 15% and calories are through the roof. Ingredients 1 can of sweetened condensed milk 3/4 of the can above filled with cheap whisky1 30 ml shot of weak coffee 3 tsp of 100% cocoa powder2 1 tsp vanilla extract Instructions Prepare your weak coffee and while it’s still hot, add the cocoa/chocolate powder and mix well to dissolve.
“Drawing… it is the best thing that I ever do. First of all because it gets me to be so silent. To not be blurting out what I think about this or feel about that. Second, I become an open observer, jotting down visual notes about something I see. And third, it puts me in the world of praise. To be looking upon an object and taking the time to sketch it is an innocent, unaggressive, and grounding act. It is where bliss resides. It is pure being…” — D. Price, The Moonlight Chronicles.
Watched yet another inspiring video on illustrated journals by Danny Gregory and signed up for his course! 🎨 Between this and the 2 books I read this past week, my drawings have improved a lot already. I went from stick figure to cute colored doodles in a week!
Watched: Murder Mindfully Season 1 📺
Loved it! I’m fully convinced about the power of mindfulness and will get back to my daily practice, as I have many great things to accomplish! 😂 Looking forward to season 2.