Tallymarks

Inspired by Thao Nguyen's song 'Tallymarks.'

The chorus was what really caught me:

And we drop, drop tears like tallymarks

And it builds like snow

And it keeps us apart

And I drop, drop tears like tallymarks

And I'm keeping score so I keep us apart

But I think I might miss you enough to say so

And I think I already did

Well I think I might miss you enough to say so

And there you go, I just said it again

9 x 9" watercolor paper.
Acrylic, graphite, and digital.

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A bird, a flower, and a fruit

I've begun playing around in Illustrator lately, here's one of my efforts – a product label:

It was my first attempt at making my own pattern  :]

After doing a bit of research about boysenberries, I found out that they originated in California. You can read an article here discussing boysenberries. Even though it's from a couple years ago, the background information was interesting to read about.
I was a bit surprised about boysenberries' origin, so I included California's state bird and flower in the design.

The state bird is the California Valley Quail... I think this bird is so cute. When I saw it, I knew I had to find a way to include it.

The state flower is the Poppy:

I haven't tried the boysenberry preserves yet, but if they're even half as good as the boysenberry punch, I'm pretty sure I'll love it.

Summer

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! It was kind of strange having it in the middle of the week. I'm guessing traffic was a little bit better when I went driving around because many people took an extended weekend  :p
Sorry to the people that went to see fireworks in San Diego... you got an amazing, but very brief fireworks show (30 seconds or something, right?).

Since it's now officially summer, ice cream and fruit have been the first things I reach for when I want a snack.

I've become quite addicted to black cherry ice cream lately. Paired with blueberry + pomegranate juice, it's a lovely balance of tart and sweet. For now, black cherry ice cream has edged out green tea ice cream as my go-to flavor (!!!)

And of course, you can't go wrong with the above blueberry, cherry, banana, and honey combo.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend (extended or not)~

Portrait Set II

I've done a couple more miniature portraits:

Both are 4 x 5"
Acrylic + graphite.

This has turned into a bit of an ongoing little series continued from the previous couple of portraits, so now the set looks like this: