Winter Night, Watercolor Painting

It's finally done. The Winter Night in watercolor and ink is up for your viewing pleasure. I added another layer of blue-black paint on the background and another layer of cool green on the pine tree. From there I added dark shadows from the branches and snow resting on them. A few dozen snowflakes falling all around. I wanted it to be somewhat realistic but not exactly. To do that I decided to get imperfect shapes nature has to offer for the pine tree and abstract snowflake.


    Buy Print $20

Abstract Painting, The Beach and the Palm Tree

The Beach and the Palm Tree is a painting I did for a challenge. The challenge was to paint ocean/beach. I decided to make it cartoony looking after I remembered all those cartoons about islands in the middle of nowhere I've seen when I was little. A swirl of sand and water on the background is what I imagine someone who is stranded on such island would bee seeing after getting a heat stroke

  Original $100

  8.5x11 print $20

If you would like to hear more about this painting, feel free to watch this video where I describe it in more details

After a crazy day, I was finally able to make this video. Making this video was the real challenge. First I recorded it just to find out that the camera was breaking and was doing some crazy tricks. I went out to get a new one and on the way back almost got pooped on by a bird. Seriously, bird, have some respect. I mean, I'm vegan so that you can live and not be eaten, and what do I get in return? Anyway, when I got home with a new camera I realized that the microphone on this camera is rather bad, but I couldn't handle going out again, so I just worked with what I had. I'll have to get a new microphone some day because this is clearly not working too good. On the brighter side, my cat friend, Cuteness is performing a magic trick on this video, he magically disappears.

Snowflake, Work in Progress is Progressing

Well, This snowflake is going along nicely, even though I had no time to work on it. I'm almost done with this one, just need to add more shadows to the pine tree and fixing the shape of it, give the background another layer and add some specks of whitish blue in the background. I'm really liking where this is going and am thinking about doing another 10 of the same type for every month of the year and making a calender with them.
 ________________________________
Apocalypse Update: Naturally since I'm planning on making a calendar I'm planing on living that long and hoping to have other people around who would want a calendar for the next year. Which also means that next year needs to happen. I'm totally banking on it. It would really suck if it didn't happen.

Alter Ego, Art and Giveaway

Some time ago I wrote a blog post about these super-fast digital paintings I did and how I was wondering if they would sell. Well, I wanted to add some humor to my YouTube videos, so I developed an alter ego named Tatyana. She is a crazy woman with fake Russian accent and she is convinced that she is the best thing that ever happened to this world. She will be the one responsible for these digital paintings. She is so in love with herself that she sells her prints for $1000 each and thinks it's cheap. She is being generous enough to give one of the prints away though to one lucky winner. The print that will be given away is of a painting "The Healing Spirit" that is created on this video.

To enter the giveaway, you need to go to and subscribe to my YouTube channel and leave a comment on this video.

There will be more of this crazy Tatyana every Friday, so stay tuned and catch some artistic craziness. For those who wonder:she is based on the overwhelming ego of some of the artists I've met in my life.

Youtube and Fire of Life

Here is one more youtube video, I haven't shown this drawing anywhere on line yet, so this is the first time it sees the light of the internet. It's about the difference in how people react to illness and how important it is not to give up. I drew this a couple of few month ago and recently I almost lost someone very dear to me because she gave up on herself. She was going blind, almost lost her sight completely a was just waiting to die. Luckily my mom got there in time and was able to intervene in time. Thanks to a surgery one eye was saved, the other might be fixed after the second surgery that will be a little harder. Ability to see with at least one eye however gave her the desire to life again.

This drawing was inspired by someone who is the exact opposite, he fights for his life and happiness no matter how hard it might be.

Snowflake, Work in Progress

I'm getting ready for the busy season. Summer is the best time to do that. I'm about half way done with this painting, just have to finish the pine tree and do the background color. In order to draw the snowflake, I first cut it out of paper, which is very easy and then I traced in onto the watercolor paper. After that, it's all history. Hm... I just thought about doing a tutorial on drawing snowflakes like this...

Apocalypse Update: It just stopped raining. My little garden is growing really fast with all this rain fall. With all the fresh veggies I don't think this world is doing all that bad and I'm sure those leafy greens agree with me.

Cookie and Chocolate Milk Diet

Yeap, this is basically what I was living on for the last few days. Occasional sandwiches and fruits are thrown in, but for the most part it's huge, home made chocolate chip cookies and tons of chocolate milk. I would like to thank Vincent for it since he is the one making these cookies for me. Would you like to know how? I think you would, because they are actually healthy. What he uses is organic chocolate chips (sometimes carob chips), sprouted wheat flour, poppy seeds, brown sugar (sometimes maple sugar), aluminum free baking powder and lots of love. He bakes them at 300F. When he made the first batch I thought they weren't cooked all the way through because they were really soft, but that's actually normal. The taste and texture is actually like something between a cookie and a cupcake. Chocolate milk he's been getting for me is organic Wegman's brand chocolate soy milk. And yes, it's his way to celebrate our anniversary that is coming up on July 4th. That's basically what I've been up to these days, eating cookies, drinking chocolate milk, getting scratched by Monkey boy and fixing up all those letters to get them print ready.
 __________________________

Apocalypse Update: it's a cool summer, I'm rather liking it. This end of the world thing is rather pleasant. I remember last year I was ready to fall over and die from heat. Oh, yes and we officially have 5 month till the end of the world ends.

Namesake Set

Have I mentioned I started selling sets of prints of letters? They are sets of 5 letters. I figured it would be a good gift, so there you go. If only I had enough space on my walls, I would hang my own name there. As of right now though it's covered with artwork of countless artists.

When I first decided to do these sets, I had a little problem. I realized that the background color on some of the letters was a little different from others. Lets be honest, it's impossible to mix exactly the same color. In sets it would've looked bad to have mismatched colored prints, so I had to fix the problem. What I did, was a little GIMP magic. I basically painted a blank bage with a color on the background I wanted and then replaced backgrounds of all the letters with this one. This way all the prints now look like they belong together. It took me a lot of time to do it for each and every letter, but it was worht it.

One of the mane reasons I love GIMP so darn much...
______________________________

Apocalypse Update:
It cooled down again... figures, weekends are approaching... It looks like there wouldn't be and beach time for me this week, although... you can never trust forecast. So nothing new really.

Spoof of a Crazy Cat Lady and eHarmony Video

So, I watched this video the other day... You know, the crazy cat lady video. I was actually surprised to see how much hate the woman got. It was rather clear to me that she was playing, it was a role. She is good and it looks realistic, but honestly, she said she wants cats on a rainbow, come on. Anyway, I figured all the hate wasn't enough... I decided to do a spoof of it, as if there weren't plenty of them already... Since I am Russian and I did live in Russia for many years, I figured I'll pretend to have a much heavier accent then I really do and change my name to a typical Russian name. Oh yes, and I will totally love vodka. so, there we go, me and my vodka loving self.
 _________________________

Darn it, I keep on forgetting that we are all going to die in a little over 5 month, so here, Apocalypse Update: it looks very nice and quiet down here. The pool which is right under my windows is open, and all the crazy kids and screaming all day long. Right now, at 1:30 am I hear someone diving in it. I guess that could be considered to be a horrible destruction... on my peace at least...

Underwater Women and Why Animals Rock

Ok, Here is my 3rd video. It's about animals, and understanding and emotions and so on and so forth and I really need to go to sleep now because I was awake for 30 hours now.

"Don't Take my Manhood Away"

I have posted a while ago about my 2 cat-friends. What I didn't mention is that Cuteness has been castrated while Monkey hasn't. Cuteness was born in the wild, but he and his 2 brothers were captured by a local "Humane Society" and butchered. As a result he and one of his brothers, Boss, developed psychological as well as physical problems. The other brother, Barron was OK more or less, in a sense that it didn't effect him as drastically. What happened to Boss and Cuteness however is as follows: the scar is way too large, and the surrounding area gets inflamed from time to time. It hangs like an extra flab of skin and is reddened. Boss, although liked having his tummy scratched would sometimes remember what was done to him and go into a complete craze mode trying to protect himself and his organs. Cuteness gets visibly upset whenever there is any talk about testicles around. He understands perfectly well what happened and does get upset when he is reminded of it. 

When we found Monkey, he was in a very bad shape, but his organs were all in place. Thanks to that he is developing really well, growing fast and has huge paws. We never had a problem with his behavior, or grooming. He knows we love him, he loves us and he doesn't want to upset us by making a mess. 

Both of my cats are staying at home because there are too many crazies out there who would try to hit a cat on purpose. I try to make their life indoors as fun as possible by giving them things to climb on and play with. 

So, here is a question, why am I told that I need to cut Monkey's balls off? 

Now, here is exactly what happened. We went to a pet store, and there were these tiny kittens there. Now, first of all, the store was PETCO and it's known for it's mistreatment of animals, which is why I ended up getting only what I needed ASAP and calling it a day. So, this lady sees me and Vincent looking at the kittens and says that the only thing is that the kittens aren't "fixed" because they are too young. Vincent tells her that we are against butchering animals and she gives us a whole lecture about how there are too many cats in "Humane Society" being killed every day because cats just keep on reproducing. Here is the question: can you call it "humane" if they kill animals there? And is it ok for us humans to tell other animals if they can have children or not? How many humans want to have kids sometime in their life? How many suffer because they can't? Why can't we assume that animals can have the same feelings? I know Cuteness is very happy we have Monkey because it's the closest to being a father he can get. He teaches him how to fight, how to hunt, all the things fathers would teach their kids in the wild. Infertility isn't where it stops however. Cat's can't even have sex. They can't develop properly, the way mother nature intended. Heads of male cats don't grow to the proper size if they are castrated. Hormones aren't produced ether, which leads to a whole array of problems. Medically, there is only one benefit for this practice, it reduces chances of mammary cancer in both males and females. The side effects are many however: increase rates in many types of cancer, hair loss, CCL rapture, obesity, increase in adverse reactions to vaccinations, psychological problems, inability to develop properly not to mention possible death during the procedure. 

I live by the rule, don't do to others what you wouldn't want to be done to you. I wouldn't want someone to take my reproductive organs away from me as long as they are healthy. If I have ovarian cancer for example, that's a different story, but if I'm healthy, I want it intact. I would never want anyone to take my ability to have sex away from me ether. If someone thinks there are too many creatures like me to take care of, don't take care of me then. Let me out in the wild where I can fend for myself. Honestly, I don't see why instead of killing animals, shelters don't just let them go in the woods. Cats can hunt, and they will not overpopulate because there are predators out there. In the area I live in, we have coyotes and cougars, bears, gray owls, and many more who would keep the population down the good old natural way. You know, the way that actually gives cats a chance at life.

Anyway, after talking to this lady, I really wanted to cut her uterus out and cut her husband's balls off, because I really don't want people like her to reproduce, but do I have a moral right to do it?

I talked to many people who view other animals as a lesser beings. Most of them happen to be Christians (not all Christians are like this, but for some odd reason, many are) and their thought process is that humans are special because god gave us the ability to love. Animals however love because it's an instinct, not god's gift. Because of this thinking these people think they have the right to do what ever they want to the animals. They don't want to understand that animals have feelings. That you can stop your cat from acting all crazy by simply loving it and talking to it.

I know my opinion on this matter isn't a popular one, but think about it, would you want it to be done to you? In fact it was done to people in the past, not that long ago. There was this notion that some races shouldn't be reproducing, as a result, many black women got procedure like this done to them. We can all look back now and shutter at the injustice and horror of such acts. People who were doing it viewed blacks as lesser beings, dumb, unable of complex thought, wild animals... They were viewed about the same as many now view cats. It took us long enough, but we did figure out that every race of humans is capable of complex thought and emotion, that we are all equal. How long will it take until we look at a cat, exchange the loving looks and understand that they too can feel? 

In the Middle of it all is Love, Abstract Watercolor Painting and Crazy Kitteh

 

Here comes my second video, In the Middle of it all is Love, plus a little bonus kitty love.

I wanted to poke fun at putting cute adorable animals in the videos and using sex just to get more views. In order to make fun of it, I went ahead and filmed my little kitty friend. He tried to eat me in the process, but it ended well. I ended up getting a lot more views in the first day then I did with the first video. Somehow I think it's because it had "cute kitten" as one of the tags. Surely after Monkey was done trying to kill me, I went ahead and talked about my art, to be more specific, about one painting about love. 

 __________________________________

Apocalypse update: Oh, yes the Jews never had those who enslaved them as slaves and there are people living on the land that used to be Babylon. Since the bible predicts these things and they haven't happened yet, there can't be the end of the world just yet. Interesting, I totally forgot about all the predictions the bible made that haven't come true yet. Well, we have a little over 5 month for it all to happen. If it all does happen and the end of the world will come, well... I guess I'll have to accept my defeat. If all these predictions don't happen and the end of the world comes, then God is a liar and I would still have to accept my defeat because I really don't like the end of the world idea. And if the end of the world never happens at all, then I'll go ahead and scream into the faces of everyone who believed in it "I TOLD YOU SO!!!"

Abstract Beach and the Palm Tree Pianting. Finally Done

This abstract watercolor and ink Beach and the Palm Tree painting is finally finished. I literally just finished it. The paint is drying, so I can't scan it in, but I took this photo. Tomorrow if all goes well, I'll post it on etsy and perhaps make prints of it as well. I learned a lot from this challenge. Every painting slowly but surely improves my skills, but I think this one improved them much more then any other work I did. It's mainly because I did something I wasn't used to. I experimented, tried new things and as a result learned much. Something I was dreading to do turned into something I really enjoyed painting and seeing it come to fruition.Well, now I'm going to make some prints and see about selling them :)
____________________________________________

Apocalypse Update: There was hail today. So much for me wanting to go to the beach... oh well, at least it's not scorching hot and I don't need to water the plants since all the hail melted right in the pots.

Work in Progress, Abstract Watercolor Beach painting

I finally got a chance to put a few more hours into this painting. I'm actually almost done with it, just have to do the water swirl. Today I finished the palm tree and the sand swirl. You can see some of the details of the palm tree here as well as a part of the swirl. This painting is coming out way better then I expected. The added benefit is that I'm trying new techniques on it. I was watching a youtube video yesterday about this guitar lesson. The guy was basically showing that you don't have to always follow the rules, play the same things everyone already have played. You can find your own way. If it sounds good, why not do it? The example he was showing is called "triangles" where he literally was forming triangles with his fingertips while playing the guitar. It sounded great, but you will never find "triangles" in any book or guitar lessons. This is my approach to art. Some of the best artists I've met are self taught. They always stand out, because they do something different from every other artist. They don't use the same techniques. Instead, they develop their own techniques. This is the route I went with this painting. I didn't use watercolor the way it's taught. I used it in my own way. It actually turned into a combination between watercolor, marker and inking techniques. You can clearly see the inking techniques in the was the leaves are colored. What I did was basically mixing paint a lot thicker then you would normally mix for watercolor painting. With a very thin brush I applied it as if I was using a pen. As a result you have these thin ink0like lines on the leaves.

Every form of art, be it performance, fine art, craft or any other form is based of imagination, expression of an idea or feeling, innovation. If we always walk the same walk, nothing new will ever be developed. The techniques everyone is using now have been discovered some time long ago by some artist who was thinking outside the box. Art has no rules, it has no boundaries. Why do we keep on putting those limitations to the way we express ourselves? Do an experiment, do something completely different. There is a good chance you will find a new way to improve your skills through this experimentation. The amount of new recipes I came up  with by accident, the amount of new cool discoveries I've made by messing up what I was originally intending to make. Don't be afraid to do something unusual. Break those boundaries.
______________________________________

Apocalypse update: When am I ever going to get tired of making fun of people who believe in this nonsense? Oh, I don't know... when the lobster will whistle on the mountain. Or at least croak a few times. Anyway, it cooled down to comfortable temperature here, the air is great, no humid. I think Yahveh is loosing the battle. Hopefully it will stay this way because I really want to go to the beach tomorrow. Get away from the computer so that I can get more drawings done. I might even dress up as a pirate to pastafarians my support. They are doing such a great job. Who cares about football and baseball when you have such epic battle going on? GO PASTAFARIANS!!! GO FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER!!!

Palm Trees, and Monkeys. Painting of a Beach

In one of the art teams on etsy we have these challenges. We pick a topic and try to paint it. This time the topic is beach/ocean. Well, I must admit, this was actually challenging. Mainly because of all elements in nature, I never got special attachment with the beach. I lived most of my childhood ether close to the forests or mountains. We had rivers and lakes, but they were small and never inspired that great of an ow in me. I only saw sea for the first time when I was in my teens. The earlier memories were much more important to me as far at loving elements in nature goes. Plus, I'm really not "painting the beach" kind of girl.

After thinking about this challenge for a few days, I finally figured out how to combine this topic with my painting style. I finally cracked it, I'm doing it and I'm loving it. This picture shows it as it is so far, I have to put another day into it before I can say I'm done, but so far I think it's going well.

Now, here is how I managed to get this to the point where I can actually enjoy doing it. First of all I needed to figure out how to do it in abstract, more importantly my style of abstract. I googled "abstract beach" images and saw how other people did it. This started bringing me in the right direction. I figured out what I wanted on the painting plus I got the boost of confidence that I can indeed do it. Then I remembered all those cartoons I watched when I was little and how small islands were depicted in them. This helped me develop it further. Now add a simplified version of my crazy lines and here it comes. Beach painting that is my very own and that I can relate to. Now I just have to finish and hope I wouldn't mess something up in the process.

The whole time I was painting, Monkey wanted to be close to me. After trying to get comfortable on the drafting table where I was painting, he figured there was too much water and paint, plus I was moving things around too much. He changed his position by switching to the table just an arm length away and of all places, he went ahead and fell asleep on the printer.

-Monkey, can you print out last month expenses?
-Mew, give me catnip

Oh, and the spiders... I hate spider... For some odd reason they seem to like the idea of moving in with us though. Killed one of them myself (after screaming like a little girl) and Vincent killed the other (after I screamed like a little girl.) Now, this is how the conversation went between Vin and I after I screamed
-Vincent, there is a spider in the bathroom, can you kill it?
-Nah, it's going to keep the flies away (he has a thing against killing things, even spiders)
-No, it's going to keep me away
Anyway, after threatening to spray the spider with chlorine so that it would die a terrible and painful death without me getting near it, Vincent agreed to catch it and release it outside. Killed it in the process of catching though.

Don't forget about the giveaway btw, it's still on at http://artofarmadavolya.blogspot.com/2011/05/giveaway-of-painting-joy-and-my-first.html

Apocalypse update: Good news, it cooled down a bit over here. It was so much nicer today, I didn't even have to turn on the AC. Though I still have to water the plants myself :(
Darn, this end of the world is very sneaky, you can't even see it coming.
 ______________________________________________________

Update: 3 spiders... 3... One of them snack up on me while I was typing the blog post for From the World of Art. My arachnophobic mind can't handle it. Perhaps this is the way the world will end... it'll be huge aggressive spiders... they will scare us all to death...
 ______________________________________________________

Another quick update, there is another giveaway I'm sponsoring. If you would like one of my Ancestor's Spirit paintings, I'm giving away the largest, the most expensive and the one I like the most. It's an $80 painting, so don't miss out