I really liked 5-minute Sketching - Landscapes by Virginia Hein. I like her style, the link goes to her IG page so you can see if you do, too.
And one I got just recently from the library that helped play around with the cool effects you can get with watercolor was “Go with the Flow Painting,” by Ohn Mar Win.
They’re both good if, like me, you tend to be too fiddly or overwork things.
Thanks.
The white pintor pens just came so I tried the kawaii panda again at lunch:
This is on black paper, then gray added with regular marker. I think the pintors are going to be pretty fun to play around with! Which colors will I get next???
My library has it too! Yay! Going to put it on hold.
Yellow? Seems like the use cases for those pens would be opacity with light colors. Of course, I would want (do want) all the colors. But discipline must prevail! I want to concentrate on the watercolor paints and pencils.
Ooh, yeah.
There’s a peach color that’s pretty intriguing, too.
I read something recently where an artist, when she’s putting together her travel kit, she likes to have a relatively limited palette, but be sure to include both wet (markers, watercolor) and dry (pastel, colored pencil) media to ensure a depth of the field sketches. I might try similar, but with varied levels of opacity instead of looking at wet/dry.
ETA: I found the blog post.
don’t have a lot of experience with water color, but I love plain charcoal for drawing because you can do everything (except color).
on white paper, you can just draw, but it’s helpful to lay down a bit of gray for contrast, just lightly rub the whole side of the stick over the center of the paper and rub it with a cloth or your hand to get an even tone. then you draw in the darker areas and shadows, and erase to make light areas and highlights. you can blend it with a blending stick or cloth to get the perfect tone and fades but I just use my fingers.
the white compound erasers are notably best. mars/staedtler are best but this pentel is ok.
you can bear down with all your weight and it won’t tear the paper, and the compound erases better than pink erasers etc. plus they come in pen shapes with is super useful.
you can also use white conté crayon or pastel. brown conté is also fun to use in place of black.
I haven’t used my white gel pens for art yet but they’re an awesome invention, I use them around the house all the time.
your drawings are great!
This sounds like an intriguing approach. I’d love to see some examples if you feel like sharing. 
I thought I had some pics when I started writing but I didn’t. I’ll take some pictures when I get home
I’ve been pretty inactive as far as making things or doing art so i haven’t had much of a reason to jump in here. Buuuuut that changes today.
Been wanting to put together some shelves for my office to go over my computer, the plan is to put some figures and some other things of mine on it that i haven’t been able to display elsewhere. I’ve been mulling it over for the last 3-4 months, and looking on Amazon they have all these shitty particle board type shelves that hardly have any capacity to hold weight, or the alternative is wildly overpriced shelves aimed at people with more disposable income than me.
So I’ve been thinking of getting some wooden boards cut to size and planed flat, but there’s no place i can get that done unless i want to pay a makerspace a membership fee, which makes the overall cost of the project much higher. Kind of been stuck with no great options, i inquired with several local businesses and kept hitting dead ends. Today i called up a place that specializes in all kinds of woodworking tools and selling wood, told the guy my project and he offered to even up and plane flat whatever boards i buy at his house and i can swing by and pick them up tomorrow when he’s working. So did just that! Bought some really pretty curly oak boards, texted him the measurements i need and he’ll have it ready for me to pick up at the store tomorrow. Pretty psyched and will also finally have a nice place to display my cat’s remains along with other things of mine that have been stashed away.
Takes a lot for me to build up inertia to do things so pretty proud of myself for having this started without any prodding from my significant other. Hope to provide a follow up with pics as i go along the install process.
I do have a question for the folks here and see if i can get some good recommendations. So i have a small Japanese glass wind chime that was gifted to me, and it has sentimental value to me despite it just being a standard item. However it has a rectangular paper tail to catch the wind but i would love to upgrade it to a cloth one. It looks like these but it’s clear:
But how should i construct the tail? Is there a particular way i can sew it to be rectangular and then slide a thin piece of plastic or stiff paper or thin wood to keep its shape? The alternative i was thinking to ask my brother who works at a signage company to laser cut some kind acrylic frame and sandwich those around a cut piece of fabric and glue it together. Not sure what would look best 
And i’m probably over thinking and over complicating this
Could you use starch or glue?
I can’t help with the making of the tails but I have a cheap laminator that would encapsulate the tails.
This is the one I bought, it works well, I mostly use the 3mil plastic but the 5mil might work better for your wind chimes. It’s only 33 bucks.
Scotch Thermal Laminator, 2 Roller System for a Professional Finish, Use for Home, Office or School, Suitable for use with Photos (TL901X), Silver/Black https://a.co/d/2QTyJ6P
A few questions- why won’t paper work? The look? The durability? Do you want the fluttering look the paper gives with the chime or just the look?
If it is durability, because the chime is exposed to the elements, you could try a few things
Keeping some clear thin plastic from some package and gluing a durable cloth to both sides
Painting a piece of paper with outdoor spray paint
Make several papers and just replace as needed. Water color paper with diluted inks or water colors could look very pretty. You could make 6 at a time and just replace monthly.
Using a wire or toothpick to make a small banner. It would flutter nicely but probably not make the chime ring the same way because of the weight.
If you don’t care for the flutter, a very thin but flat bit of balsa painted with something durable will work, like a western wind chime.
Partly the look but durability as well. Plus the original is pretty bent and i don’t love the look of it. You do make a good point of ensuring the least amount of weight, i do have a batch of fabrics that i can use as tests so i’ll try a couple of things that were suggested and see what works best
Maybe try some iron-on interfacing for the fabric if you end up going that route. It comes in several different stifnesses.
Ah, I had forgotten to list that! Interfacing with some light fabric might be light enough
do you sew? i might suggest sewing a double layer and insert a collar stay - a thin, stiff piece of plastic made to be sewn into a collar of a dress shirt. available at fabric stores or craft stores that have a sewing section.
Sew? A little Stitch Witchery and an iron and it’s done!
I don’t sew but my mom does, so i could ask her if i really needed to but if its doable to do by hand i wouldn’t mind having a go at it but that’s also a good idea
