Lazy Sunday

Hello! I hope everyone's been having a good couple of weeks. I haven't been painting as much as I would like to, since I'm so busy with other stuff right now, but I just wanted to upload some pieces I finished.

 Giraffe

Ram

Figs and avocado (I realized while I was painting this that I have actually never had a fig... and honestly they are a bit creepy looking)

Various kinds of mushrooms you can find in the wild

All paintings are mine and cannot be used without my permission.

I hope everyone has a pleasant and productive week!

-Gyyoung

Happy Hump Day!

Here's a little piece I just did of some cereal milk soft serve available at Milk Bar. No, I am not advertising for them or anything, I was just bored and figured I would paint one because I love these so much. Seriously, every time I go into DC I try my absolute hardest to stop by Milk Bar because they're SO FREAKIN GOOD.

Watercolor on cold press 300gsm paper.

Kombucha!

This is a personal project I've been working on for what seems like forever now, since I haven't been so good at time management the last few weeks and I was working on other things too. But I finally finished! I was sitting and wondering what I could paint, and I happened to be drinking some kombucha that I made, so I decided to do a little series on the probiotic drink to teach people about what it is. I also realized later on that it's pretty freakin' popular now judging by how readily available it is in grocery stores, so this may all be pointless... but oh well. I just wanted to do something educational and artistic.

I don't even remember the first time I tried kombucha, but all I know is that I love this stuff. I also got tired of paying almost $4.00 a bottle every time I wanted some, so I looked up how to make some at home. It's suprisingly easy! I'm not going to go into the minute details but you can look it up yourself at http://www.foodrenegade.com/how-to-brew-kombucha-double-fermentation-method/ (this is the website I used when I was figuring it out).

First, you will need to brew some black tea. Kombucha is essentially fermented tea, and it has all kinds of probiotics, so it's good for you. And it's very low in calories (as long as you don't add too much fruit juice to adjust the flavor to your liking)! I use English Breakfast, and I just boil 1 gallon of water and steep 6-8 bags of tea in the pot for 20 minutes and add one cup of plain white granulated sugar (don't worry, the culture will eat all of the sugar) Once the tea is fully steeped and the sugar is dissolved, you can throw away the bags and wait for the gallon to cool COMPLETELY!! You can stick it in the fridge if you're impatient, like me.

Next, you'll need a glass gallon jar (you don't need the lid). Whatever was in it before needs to be
cleaned out completely with the hottest water you can stand, and about a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Let the inside of the jar dry out so that it's totally clean and ready for some fermenting. The reason you don't need the lid is because you'll be covering the top with a coffee filter and some rubber bands so the tea can "breathe" while it ferments for about a week.

Once the tea has cooled completely (I need to start using synonyms of completely) you take your SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast - This is what ferments the tea and turns it into kombucha. I bought mine off Amazon for $6.00 and I've probably brewed about 4 gallons of kombucha so far, and it's still going strong!) and place it in the glass jar. 

Once the SCOBY is in the jar, add about 4-5 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. I forgot to
mention, whenever you're handling a SCOBY with your bare hands, you need to rub apple cider vinegar onto them because it forms a kind of protective layer for the SCOBY (prevents infections). I am not a kombucha expert by any means, so I'm not totally sure why the vinegar is important... I think it maintains a healthy pH for the SCOBY. Apple cider vinegar is really good for you, by the way! Whenever you buy it from the store, make sure you get the ugliest and murkiest kind there is, because that means all the stuff that's good for you hasn't been filtered out of it. I think you can actually grow a kind of SCOBY out of just apple cider vinegar, but don't quote me on that.

After the apple cider vinegar, add about half a cup of "starter tea". This is just store bought kombucha that will kickstart the fermentation process. Oh, and it has to be room temperature as well. Then pour in the COMPLETELY COOLED brewed sweet tea, clean off the rim of the jar with a paper towel, seal it off with a coffee filter and rubber band. Wait about 7-9 days, depending on how tart you like your kombucha, and you can mix it with fruit juices (I like cranberry and apple) once it's finished fermenting. And then you're done! That's it! It seems complicated and intimidating the first time around, but once you understand the steps it's really easy. 

If you read through all of this, I'm really impressed and thankful :) Let me know if you have any suggestions for how to run my blog, and if you want me to do a painting of anything in particular.

Hello 2017

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Wow, it's actually been a whole year since I've posted anything on here. It's really cliche of me to say, but this is the most hopeful and excited I have been about a new year. I know 2016 was a total mess, but I also graduated from college and have been working full time while I'm figuring out my next steps in life and creating some artwork in my spare time, so I'm not doing too terrible.

As some of you may know, this used to be a blog that I used while I was studying abroad in Barcelona. Sadly, that is over, so I decided to revamp this site and change it into an art blog (yep, I know the header still says "in barcelona" but I will create a new one sometime soon). I could just post all of them on instagram, but I would like to add lengthier captions and mini blog posts in between my artwork. I think it's pretty appropriate that I'm doing this on January 1st, after a workout at the gym (which was actually pretty empty). 

I've recently gotten back into painting, and I have completely fallen in love with watercolor. I actually avoided it in high school/college and only worked with acrylic because it was easier (and cheaper), but I find that watercolor is much more rewarding if you practice enough. It's absolutely beautiful and there's so many more techniques you can play around with.

By the way, I use Windsor & Newton Cotman watercolors and 300gsm cold press paper. I like watercolor paper with a rougher grain because it contains the colors a lot better and keeps it from running everywhere.

I think one of the hardest things about all of this is figuring out what to paint (BY THE WAY: I am taking commissions! If you want a painting of something for a gift, or just to have, Email me, @ me, Facebook message me, whatever) the best thing is to paint from direct observation but that's not always a feasible option so I do a lot of flipping through magazines to find vibrant, large photographs. If you haven't figured it out by now, I really love to paint food...haha. 

I met someone recently who is a nature photographer in her spare time and she takes really beautiful photos of birds in her backyard. This is from one of her pictures that she took of a blue jay!

Okay, and here are the paintings I am NOT proud of... I'm usually embarrassed of these and try not to show anyone except Daniel (only to complain to him about how bad it is lol) but whatever, one of my resolutions is to have more confidence in myself and to not be afraid of showing my worse pieces, as long as I'm using them to learn from my mistakes.

This painting... oh jesus. As soon as the brush hit the paper for the first time I knew I was not going to like this one. Why? Because I was an idiot and decided to get the cheaper, not-as-nice watercolor paper because it was on sale. I had a feeling I wasn't going to like it, but I got it anyway, and I was right. You can really see in the blade of the cleaver that the paint just soaked straight into the paper (which it's not supposed to do) and it made it really hard to layer and mix colors. Note to self and others: Just pay for the nice stuff, it's worth it.

This is the very first watercolor painting I did, and I actually did this one while I was in Barcelona. I think the only complaint I have about this is that I mixed too much water into my paint and the whole thing came out looking flat...

Anyway, this was just kind of a tester post to see how my images look on the blog. I really hope everyone has a happy and healthy new year, and I hope to upload many more paintings on here!