Monthly Archives: December 2023

4 posts

Art vs Artist 2023

#artvsartist center is a sunlit photo of Tatyana, surrounded by 8 of her fav paintings she created in 2023: Shedding Light, Fireflies, Can'tdle, Mount Leafpile, Write, Playtime, Flourish, Angy

It’s that time of the year again: #artvsartist. To participate, an artist chooses 8 of their favorite artworks that they created during the year, plus 1 photo from the year of themselves, and posts the complication image on Instagram and Twitter. I’m also posting it here on my blog because I believe in blog. My 2023 recap:

  • This year, I focused on painting a lot of smaller art, sized ~ 5×5 in and 5×7 in
  • I did a lot of brainstorming to prepare to paint larger art and these smaller pieces helped me nail down my ideas and techniques
  • This year, I especially appreciated the beautiful, little things in life, like watching the sunset from my yacht*

*It’s a metaphorical yacht. If I ever have a real yacht, you’d be the first I would invite.

Tree’s All That

Watercolor & ink of a Christmas tree with decorations arranged in a way that are subtly resembling eyes and a mouth of the tree making a sad facial expression.

Merry Christmas Tree
5″x7″ watercolor & ink

I created this painting in 2016. I wanted to paint a Christmas tree with a sad expression and how it might feel in contrast to such a joyful season, as a joke.

One evening on December 1st of that year in Chicago, I decided I wanted to spend time sketching at a cafe in the Lakeview neighborhood. Ordered a plate of fries and a glass of water for dinner.

A spiral-bound sketchbook of variations of the sketch of the Christmas tree on a table at a diner. There's a glass of water and a basket of fries on the side.

Thumbnail sketches of various ideas

Sketching at restaurants and cafes is super fun for me, especially when I’m sketching my ideas instead of sketching the cafe environment exactly as it is, or sketching the food in front of me. I sketched 3 thumbnail drawings in pencil first. If you haven’t heard of the term, I didn’t actually sketch real-life thumbnails, like the type on your fingers. It’s called a thumbnail sketch because the sketch is small and messy, like thumbnails.

Pencil sketch of a Christmas that was used to create the final watercolor & ink painting later. In this sketch, the tree is also with decorations arranged in a way that are subtly resembling eyes and a mouth of the tree making a sad facial expression.

The pencil sketch that was used to create the final painting

Or maybe it’s just the thumbnails on my fingers that are messy because they cracked in the past when I fell down the stairs at my house, not unlike Rachael Leigh Cook’s character Laney in “She’s All That.” But I really committed to the bit and continued to pick at my cuticles, mostly in high school during Algebra class. Since then, I’ve been fixing them by filing them and painting on vitamins and strengtheners. They’re finally getting better and look almost normal. This took several years. If you need advice on what nail strengthener I used, I’ve got you but you should probably go to the doctor.

After I completed the three sketch variations on my tree idea, I chose one idea and sketched the final pencil sketch underneath the thumbnail sketches. That’s the one transferred onto watercolor paper using a light box underneath the sketch and the watercolor paper.

To make your tree feel better, always place a mirror on the opposite side so that the tree can see how beautiful and loved your tree is.

Happy Holidays!

♥ Tatyana

A Ghost Story

Watercolor & ink painting of a glowing ghost surrounded by specs of dust and spider web.
You’ll Get Through This
5″x7″ watercolor & ink on 6″x8″ paper

I’ve spent my childhood and adolescence with TV noise in the background because, I was told, it was too quiet. The problem is, it wasn’t just ambient background noise to me. I paid attention to it. If someone was home, the TV had to always be on, which taught me that I should always be watching TV. Since striking out on my own at 19, I gave myself the gift of this “too quiet” but for me, it’s “perfect.” I won’t focus on the past too much, because I can’t change the past like a TV channel, but I can shut it off. Here’s why:

I grew up watching a lot of American TV, learning English, and was raised by sitcom families like The Brady Bunch, Family Matters, Full House, I Dream of Jeanie, I Love Lucy, Bewitched, Happy Days, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Taxi, Sabrina The Teenage Witch, Boy Meets World, The Wonder Years, America’s Funniest Home Videos, Two And A Half Men. That’s just a few off the top of my head. A lot of those were a part of Nick At Nite and TGIF on ABC. Oh, and I was raised by MTV music videos, but hear me out: first thing in the morning and immediately after school, because TRL on MTV.

All of this every day, usually 1-2 hours in the morning and then 4-5 hours in the evening. I’VE BEEN PREPARING MY ENTIRE LIFE FOR: nothing.

I’m not upset. I’m just disappointed.

I remember none of my training because now, all that TV is a blur. I don’t remember much detail about what I watched. I couldn’t recap a single episode for you (I could probably rap some of Eminem’s The Real Slim Shady for you, though, please.)

But all of those shows and music videos weren’t a waste of time, because they have been ingrained and programmed into me subconsciously. When I think of them, they feel like ghosts of the images replaying in my head, whose unfinished business is to support and encourage me, to make up for the support and encouragement I needed but didn’t have. Since being on my own, if I watch TV, I’m watching TV intentionally. I pay attention, from start to finish, until the credits end, because I read the names, like I did as a kid.

My real art desk.

And like a totally well-developed adult, I continue to develop healthy boundaries, standards, and practices based on these fantasies, idealisms, and images that are not real but were written by real people, whose names I’ve read in the end-credits – people who believed in their ideals so much that they created and worked on these shows, and had so many viewers, like me, love them.

My real painting process of “You’ll Get Through This“

I’ve never had the TV on while I paint. If I haven’t been painting, instead of TV noise, I’ve been talking to myself, a lot. Like, entire conversations, out loud. Talking to yourself requires that you are there with your thoughts and that you pay attention to yourself. You are your own TV.

A real rainbow I saw in November.

♥ Tatyana

Lighting A Can’tdle

A colorful surrealistic watercolor & ink painting by the artist Tatyana of an apple core skull candle.
Can’tdle • 5″x7″ watercolor & ink on 6″x8″ paper

My last year’s resolution was to take more selfies and I failed miserably. To take a selfie, you need a certain flick-of-the-wrist to turn your hand with your phone at your face and take a photo, and also to remember to do that, and I don’t have that. But at least I have a cramp in my hand and a headache.

I might as well learn to play the guitar – this would take just as much effort, but make the world a better place. Instead of learning a whole new instrument, I’d like to use the flick-of-the-wrist I already have and write. I’ve decided that my 2024 resolution is to share more of my stories.

If you’re reading this by email, you’ve been getting my newsletters for a while and now you’re about to join me and 83 other subscribers on my new adventures every Tuesday: in painting, hiking, and grocery shopping. Or you’re about to unsubscribe. Choose your own adventure, no hard feelings.

The rollercoaster of life is taking us through a series of holidays again and there’s a lot of apples. I’ve been loving Honeycrisp apples, in particular, and painted “Can’tdle.” It’s a juxtaposition of candles and apples, and apple candles.

Just don’t go too far into the core because the apple seeds can be poisonous. Can’tdle is how an apple can be angry for having its fruit eaten but not the seeds from which it can be reproduced. Something to chew on…

This painting was brought to you by a series of carefully-placed boops.

♥ Tatyana