Some time during my very important blog-browsing and website-wandering, I have discovered the Virtual Paintout. It seemed like a great idea and I put it in my heart to start doing it someday. Well, this here is my virtual paintout for February. Not as big and serious as I wanted it to be but at least it exists. I still have a couple of interesting shots that I would like to do but I don't think I'll get to them by the end of the month.

The blobs in the background are my attempt at using a stamp that Nita Engle talks about in her book. Basically, you take a piece of illustration board, cut stuff on/out of it (a tree, for example), make a handle out of a piece of masking tape, put paint on the face of the stamp and press it to the paper. And then you find yourself surprised, disappointed (try again!), intrigued, hooked up...

In this case, I made mine out of a piece of floor underlayment. It didn't work quite like I expected, but it also surprised me in a good way: those rounded areas of foliage were not planned at all.

And here's EDM 160: a trophy or award. This one belongs to our friend and says "XR80 Indoor World Champion 2002" - whatever that means :) I only know it has something to do with motorcycle racing

This is another side effect of my recent home remodeling activities. I toned the paper in my watercolor Moleskine with latex flat finish interior wall paint. The rest is pen and conte crayons.