Winged wanderers in progress

 

My newest piece, Social Butterflies, is currently in progress.

Lately, I've been experimenting with combining different mediums alongside my usual colored pencil work. For this piece, I started with a watercolor base and then layered Prismacolor colored pencils, Pan Pastels, gouache, and water-soluble colored pencils on top. It's been a process of trying different techniques and materials, adding layers, and seeing where the artwork takes me.

While I probably won't create another piece using quite this many mediums at once, this experiment has given me some ideas. Moving forward, I'd like to explore combining watercolor and colored pencil more intentionally—working back and forth between the two throughout the creative process.

Experimenting and learning new approaches is one of my favorite parts of making art!

Flowers of the air

When you first step foot into the towering majestic Eucalyptus tree grove in Pismo Beach, you feel slightly disappointed as all you see is, well...just trees. But hold on...there's glittering flashes of orange all around you as well- camouflaged butterflies start fluttering over your head and you stand there just mesmerized with a stupid grin on your face...or was that just me!!

Western Monarches, my favorite of all the jewel-toned butterflies, migrate thousands of miles seeking shelter from the freezing northern winters and make a pit stop at Pismo Beach each year starting in late October. They cluster on the Eucalyptus limbs, hanging by the hundreds in an electrifying curtain of orange! I read that helps protect them from rain, wind and predators as well as providing warmth for the group! They estimate that over 20,000 butterflies migrate through that area in a single season!! That's pretty darn impressive for sure!!

Some fun facts:

Monarch weigh less than 1 gram!! Seriously?!!!

The Monarchs that visit Pismo Beach are of a different variety and have a life span of 6 months as opposed to that of the common Monarch which only lives 6 weeks.

Monarchs will lay around 1,000 eggs in their tiny 6 month lifetime...WOW!! After having 2 kids I was done...maybe laying eggs is easier...just saying!!

Winging it (c) 2019  13.5x8.75 colored pencil drawing