I went back to gouache and watercolor paints, contributed bookmarks for a charity auction and I made donuts! π¨ππ©
i) Following Samantha Dion Bakerβs newsletter
I learned about a 7-Day Still Life Challenge hosted by Samantha and Ohn Mar Win. I immediately got on board and chose to resume painting with gouache. It was a wonderful experience! I managed to do 5 paintings (I ran out of white paint very quickly LOL). It wasnβt intimidating and something I looked forward to do after finishing up with work. πTwo of my personal favorites from the challenge!

You can see the other 3 paintings by supporting me on Ko-fi!
ii) Shortly after, I came across the #PLEINAIRPRIL challenge on Instagram! I had 2 weeks to prepare for it and choose the medium Iβd like to do the paintings with. As Iβve been trying to step away from my desk, I did not want to do it digitally. Therefore, watercolors it was! π
I even prepared my painting station (finally, a desk for painting away from my work-room) and a new palette with the new paints I had ordered.
Plein Air paintingβs important part is going outdoors (ideally, totally fine if you paint from pictures) to paint a scene (I did it once~). As I canβt really do that with work commitments, Iβm instead clicking pictures of places and things when I am out of my house, and painting them later. My focus is to paint frequently and to finish a small 30-page watercolor sketchbook. β
Here are some of my paintings so far~
You can view the rest of my paintings on my Ko-fi page!
iii) Iβve submitted 3 exclusive bookmarks for The Bookmark Project 2023! The funds are raised for Katiyo Primary School in rural Zimbabwe. The project started in 2017 and since then they have raised over Β£40,000. β
You can learn more about the project on their FAQ section and check out the bookmarks for this year on the link below! π
This year, the auction starts on Monday, 8th May at 6pm and ends on Monday, 22nd May at 7pm.
i) DIWALI IN MY NEW HOME won The Bookfest Award 2023, second place in the Fiction > Children's - Diversity & Multicultural category! π€©π
ii) I got to do plein air/urban sketching out in nature! We went to a bird park. The scenery was so beautiful. A couple of people stopped by to look at what I was painting and ask questions. π
And hereβs me, live-in-action painting! π
iii) I met a friend after many years (a long AF time, really) and made some donuts to celebrate! π©π Look at them!
iv) Lastly, I have concluded my 100dayproject for 2023 at 52 days. ππ I was losing motivation and having more fun painting, which led to me not being able to do either, before I took a step back from the gesture drawing project. I shall share a couple of more spreads from my sketchbook next time! π Iβm very happy though I managed to cross the halfway mark this time. π
See you in May! π