Dysmorphia

I made it for the first time last year and I’m determined to get into no recipe needed territory by cooking it so often. Then I want to cook it for all my friends (who eat beef)

A bumblebee approaches an orange poppy

A bumblebee rolling around inside an orange California poppy like a drunk maniac

From last summer. You have to zoom in but this bumblebee is absolutely rolling around in the poppy. Maybe it’s just no nectar and only pollen because its legs are covered in pollen.

A bumblebee approaches an orange poppy

A bumblebee rolling around inside an orange California poppy like a drunk maniac

From last summer. You have to zoom in but this bumblebee is absolutely rolling around in the poppy. Maybe it’s just no nectar and only pollen because its legs are covered in pollen.

That is so reassuring. I’m going to keep up my messy native plant garden project and feel a sense of righteousness every time I see a bumblebee drunk inside a California poppy (which apparently aren’t a pollinated by bees? But bumblebees hang out inside them for some reason) or a weird bee on yarrow

I was inspired by this thread to also cook beef bourguignon. I made it for Thanksgiving and it was easier and better than turkey and the only reason it was hard was because I was making a lot of sides at the same time. So that’s the Sunday project.

Is this true all over the US? I’m in San Francisco and felt like I probably should get a beehive but it seemed too much work for now so just started working on more native flowering plants in my yard, slowly replacing the yard.

Knowing I could do it for the rest of my life and keep learning new things is a big part of what I enjoy about watercolor. There’s formal technique training and learning materials and tools and then there’s also the things you learn about your self through engaging with the process.

I overworked the shadow a little. Maybe it’ll look better dry. It’s dioz violet which is staining though so it may just be like that.

The positive is that it motivates me to paint very quickly so I avoid overthinking it. Like, I’m quite happy with the under-sketch. If I can get that spontaneous feeling in the colors and shadows, too, I’ll be very happy. I think it’ll come with practice. I keep being surprised how much does.

A watercolor painting of a croissant on a blue plate next to a coffee in an orange cup and saucer.

In front, a watercolor painting of a croissant on a blue plate next to a coffee in an orange cup and saucer. Behind it the plate and cup but the croissant has been eaten and the coffee has been drunk.

A preliminary sketch in light brown for a watercolor painting of a croissant on a blue plate next to a coffee in an orange cup and saucer. The subjects are in the background.

One of these days I’m going to paint the croissant, too, I kept thinking. Today was that day. I deliberately went a bit loose and interpretive rather than trying to get the contours perfectly. Croissants are hard to paint but fun. Hard not to eat them before the painting is done. #watercolor

Abstracted Sometimes watercolor doodles become their own thing

I pulled some of my recent watercolor abstractions into a blog post.

rinsemiddlebliss.com/posts/2026-0...

I have a friend who almost always comes to parties between 15 minutes early and on the dot. Also least judgmental person I have ever met, so he gets a pass. And sometimes an assignment to help with final party prep.

Yes! And for situations like parties where there is a wide window, the start time is like, the soonest you should arrive. Half an hour late is much better than half an hour early.

Unless you’re here to help me clean. Maybe.

(I sense the original post is more about appointments)

Realistically, the limiting factor is time, not money spent on watercolor paper. I would have to get stupidly wasteful before it made a difference.

Earlier this winter I was hanging out with a friend and showed her one of my watercolor sketches and she said, You should paint bigger.

I hate feeling like I’m wasting paper, painting something big that isn’t that good. But she’s right. I should paint bigger. It opens up possibilities.

I kind of think that’s what happened. But I actually love imperfect pots that are obviously hand made.

The pot is kind of funny shaped and uneven. I bought a big lot at a yard sale precisely because they were all tiny and funny shaped, like someone was learning to throw pots and instead of discarding the crooked ones into the slip, fired and glazed them instead.

A watercolor painting of a blue and brown pot with a tiny succulent in it.

I was thinking about Georgia O'Keeffe and her huge super closeups of flowers so decided to paint one of my tiny succulent about three times its size.

I’ve been using yellow ochre to sketch the general outlines before I paint, and I’m wondering if I should buy a water soluble pencil to do that with instead. James Gurney uses one often in his videos and I just saw someone post about that approach, too. #watercolor

I think not everyone is going to take to it to this extent but I think some people might end up in your position in a month or two as they figure out what they can make it do.

Welp! I just got set up with Claude Code CLI at work this week and then went on a tear to make sure everyone on my docs-as-code using tech writing org has access and get set up. This is the first time I’ve found an LLM genuinely useful as opposed to kinda cool I guess at best.

It certainly went against my naive intuition to realize that perfect color matching isn’t necessary, not even for realistic painting. But I had to learn this from experienced artists and books. It would have taken many years to find out on my own. Learning from tradition saves so much time.

“Local color” is what is the actual color on the object you’re depicting. My impulse is to get a perfect match. But it turns out that’s a choice, and you can even get the feeling of the color better sometimes by being more free with it. This whole concept was very radical when I learned it.

I go back and forth about trying to capture local color vs just going for values and vibes. Today I tried to be more gestural and loose and also to let go of my local color obsession a bit. Some of it was of necessity bcs it’s hard to paint the black mug and orange saucer together.

Watercolor painting of a fancy coffee next to the saucer and cup the coffee came in. The coffee has all been drunk.

Watercolor painting of a fancy coffee. It has latte art and the cup is black while the saucer is orange.

Here’s two still photos of that watercolor sketch.

#watercolor #LatteArt

I was back to the cafe today after a month away, and I painted my coffee again. @paulmison.bsky.social brought a mini tripod and suggested videoing the process. I agreed and this is the result.

#watercolor

Painting of the grounds of St John's College, Southsea probably done from the art room fire escape. Direct Grant schools don't exist now but it meant that it was state supported and children from low income families didn't pay fees.

A watercolour sketch from school in 1965 (most of my school artwork disappeared). This was St John's College, a De La Salle direct grant school in Southsea, now closed. Direct grant meant it was partly a state school. It was quite a bonkers place so it suited me. My father had been a pupil there.

A bird perched amongst branches against a blue sky with a rising moon.

Wood pigeon for #BranchBirds
#BirdOfTheDay

An expressive watercolour painting of a female northern cardinal

Here is the finished female cardinal. The original and prints will be available on Friday :)

#watercolours #birdart 🪶

The nice thing about that kind of baseline “am I any good” comparison is if it could potentially let me correct overestimating as well as underestimating, and also have role models to learn from.