Watercolor: Return of the Puffins

It’s been a hot minute since I last talked about the art I was working on over here on the main blog. So, I wanted to do that today.

Lately, I’ve been drawing a lot in my sketchbook, and I haven’t worked on as many paintings as I did toward the beginning of the year. However, on the 5th of June, I went back through some of my older pieces—the ones I did when I was just getting back into watercolor painting— and I came across the page of birds (I believe I mentioned it sometime in 2017?). I was in the mood to paint something different—not a portrait or one of my usual landscapes. I really just wanted to paint a puffin again. So, on the 5th, I worked on this painting.

The composition is a little off. That's mainly because I picked a few random plants I wanted to include, and I unfortunately didn't pay as much attention to the placement. However, this was just a practice piece. If I did it again, I would give more attention to where I wanted the eye to be drawn and would tie the elements in so that it didn’t look so odd next to the puffin. However, I did this for the process, and I accomplished what I set out to do. So, I’m happy with it. (Here's a closeup.)

Now, as far as Mermay...well, I thought about participating this year. However, I didn’t do as many individual pieces as I would have liked. I did a couple of marker sketches (not shown here), but the only completed ones are both in pencil. And the one in the corner is just a landscape I scribbled in because I had a sudden idea for it. However, after that, I got bored with the subject and went on to work on other things. It's a reoccurring theme on my end, which is often why I don't participate in month-long challenges. Since, I don’t have that much to show for Mermay, I thought I would share them here instead of on an individual post…

What have you been working on lately? Did you participate in Mermay?