Month: February 2021

cityscapes, people, Places, street scenes

Raining in Old Town San Francisco

Michele B. Naquaiya

This is a scratchboard color engraving I did a while ago. I am feeling nostalgic these days and I love the way the old city’s lights shine the streets in rainy weather. People are walking around shopping and visiting, maybe getting hot chocolate or coffee at the local cafes. This is from a long time ago when there were horse drawn carts and a great old trolley car.
I wish I could have been there. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong time. Art and books give us a way to transform our everyday lives into something magic. See the art here on my Fine Art America site.

abstract (5) Ajijic (3) animals (28) black and white (2) cats (11) children (15) Christmas (6) city life (2) coloring book (5) culture (11) daily work (5) design (32) dogs (5) drawing (9) fantasy (6) fish (5) flowers (10) fonts (3) garden (14) horses (3) how to (6) humor (10) illustration (30) Illustrations (2) inspirations (3) kids (14) landscape (4) local artisans (4) mexico (17) musicians (3) Nature (4) pen and ink (2) people (18) plaza (2) red (3) restaurants (2) stories (11) traditions (5) travel (2) tropical (2) valentine (3) watercolor (19) weaver (2) wildlife (3) women (3)

alphabet, fonts, t-shirt design, thoughts behind the work

Working with Quotes WOMEN

Michele B. Naquaiya

I just ran across these lovely star brushes and wanted to practice using them. This inspirational quote is attributed to a few people but most seem to think it came from 1st lady Eleanor Roosevelt. I’m happy with that. It is certainly true.
There are so many quotes to play with, this is only one of many to come. I wanted to put a graphic in here so I did a quick line art of a woman’s face. It was hard to find a place to make her work in the composition. It’s funny how when you begin designing something with the background, the whole piece takes on a “painting” feel. This can be good and bad too because it’s just one more design element to consider. Painting elements take away from graphic elements. It seems like it should be an either or choice to make. That’s why I ended up putting here translucent face on top of text and she ends up being small.
Here’s a thought–if you look at the bottom 2/3rd of this artwork it is a square …and the words have an opposite meaning of what the quote is. It would be “women rarely make history”. Ha. Pretty funny. I think these colors work. check it out on tee public.

Uncategorized

I just wanna hang with my dog

Michele B. Naquaiya

I TOOK a picture of this amazing dog when I first moved to Mexico. He was sitting in front of a blacksmith shop; sort of halfway in and halfway out of the doorway. He was pretty darned big and he had an certain look on his face that told me he was a love bug. I’ve been wanting to draw him for more than a year and today I just decided the time was now.
Usually I start to tablet draw on a transparent background but today I chose white and when I put the floor tile color in, I accidentally colored the whole sheet so rather than fixing the error, I went with it. I discovered that I love painting this way as it’s a little like oil painting in that you can easily put lights over darks. what fun. I used a spatter brush, and ultimate chunky pastel brush. Laying the text was a little different too because the style of the font is casual and lining it all up to the left worked out great. Because of the short and similar length of the words it was appropriate and I chose the blue to connect to the shadows of the dog. All in all, I’m happy with this guy. I know that black line art is very dark but I still really enjoy its boldness. See the tee shirt here.

abstract Ajijic animals black and white cats children Christmas city life coloring book culture daily work design dogs drawing fantasy fish flowers fonts garden horses how to humor illustration Illustrations inspirations kids landscape local artisans mexico musicians Nature pen and ink people plaza red restaurants stories traditions travel tropical valentine watercolor weaver wildlife women

Continue reading “I just wanna hang with my dog” →
Uncategorized

Are We Different? What a question.

Michele B. Naquaiya

Two adorable critters are having a serious discussion on the subject of whether or not they are different. Seriously? They are like night and day. They are not people or goblins or menacing anythings. They are just critters wondering why they don’t fit in? So tell me who fits the norm if we can agree that they certainly are different.

When I was placing tags on this image it was very hard. It’s an abstract thought. The illustration is about prejudice and bigotry. It’s about purple and green skin on fantasy beings. It’s about a sky that has a spherical illumination in a world that is truly dark. I remember in the early 1980’s there were a lot of people writing about multi-culturalism and how we ought to be giving this a lot of focus in our schools for our future generations. The authors described this as a new focus on an inspirational world where mores would change. Peoples would be migrating north they said. I remember that quote specifically. That was then and this was now. What has changed? What have we accepted? What remains the same? So I think my new efforts in designing are moving to writing 4 lines of poetry with accompanying drawings. I’m liking that idea. Here’s the link to these guys on tshirts.

abstract imagination Ajijic alphabet animals birds calendar event cars and trucks cityscapes daily paintings dogs dogs, horses, cats endangered animals fantasy illustration flora and fauna fonts greeting cards Holidays humor Illustrations interior design kids landscapes of imagination mexico miniatures Nature Odd Little Stories patterns Pen and Ink Drawing people Places Plein Aire Painting Revising Old Work scratchboard drawing short stories simple photoshop step by step, how to storytelling art street scenes Sweden Design t-shirt design Tablet Drawing thoughts behind the work Uncategorized watercolor whimsy

Uncategorized

Picasso study woman in chemise with picasso bug necklace

Michele B. Naquaiya

After Pablo Picasso’s rose period style painting of woman in chemise, I painted this watercolor with her sporting the picasso bug from Africa. This bug really does exist and I wanted him to adorn our most beloved painter of the 21st century. Find her on my tshirt here