Archive for the ‘Pretty Words’ Category
Unguiculate
Tuesday, April 5th, 2016
The actual taxonomy is anything that has claws or nails as opposed to hooves, but I couldn’t resist the shorter definition or the visual that went with it. Look out! Rawr!
I drew this live on Persicope; come join me some Wednesday around 2-3pm Pacific. Who knows what weird word I’ll choose next.
Categories: Pretty Words, Sea Creatures and Other Animals, Series and Books
Tags: pen and ink, pencil, word art, word art weds
Ullage
Tuesday, March 29th, 2016

Ullage: the amount that a vessel lacks being full
5″x7″ brush & ink and Primatek watercolor on paper – $45
This past Wednesday’s word is actually a term from beer and winemaking, yum! A cask or bottle of wine or beer requires a certain amount of ullage in order for the little yeasties to do the fermenting, but too much and you’ve shorted your measure.
I still wanted to bring that whole “glass half empty” metaphor into it, at least visually, so I went for a glass rather than a bottle or cask. I painted this whole thing live on Persicope; come join me some Wednesday around 2-3pm Pacific.
In the meantime, I hope your glass is just as full as you want it to be, of whatever suits!
Categories: Pretty Words, Series and Books
Tags: brush and ink, primatek, watercolor, word art, word art weds
Tmesis
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2016

Tmesis: a word or phrase that is split in two and another word is added in the middle
7″x5″ pen & ink and Primatek watercolor on paper – $70
Grammar words are the best words. Today’s fan-bloody-tastic example is “tmesis,” which is also the only word in the English language to start with ‘tm.’
I did the inks for this on Periscope, and then took a few days to pick a lovely Primatek palette of three beautifully granulating natural pigments to keep with the pointy goth theme. The rusty Minnesota Pipestone had a tendency to smudge and travel on me, so I went with that and added a “bloody” fingerprint over the tmesis in my tmesis.
Dreamt is the only word to end in ‘mt.’
Categories: Pretty Words, Series and Books
Tags: pen and ink, primatek, watercolor, word art, word art weds
Wimble
Tuesday, March 15th, 2016

Wimble: Any of several boring tools, such as a gimlet or an auger; to bore with.
7″x5″ pen & ink and Copic marker on paper
This was only the second Word Art Wednesday, and I’ve already resorted to terrible puns. I don’t think this bodes well for you all, but hopefully you’ll enjoy them anyway.
I’ll be doing another of these tomorrow on Periscope, probably around 2pm Pacific. Come join me! Or watch me. Or at least my hands. Something.
Categories: People, Figures and Faces, Pretty Words, Series and Books, Things I'm a Fan Of
Tags: copic marker, etsy, mycroft, mycroft holmes, pen and ink, sherlock, sherlock bbc, sherlock holmes, sold, word art, word art weds
Stirious
Friday, March 11th, 2016

Stirious: like or consisting of icicles
5″x7″ interference and duochrome watercolor, pencil, and pen & ink on paper – $45
Technically, this is last week’s word art, but I waited until this week to post it because reasons.
I’m starting a new art series, hearkening back to the daily project from last November and doing Word Art Wednesdays on Periscope. I’m usually going to be on around 2pm Pacific, if you want to come along and see what I’m doing — I’ve decided to color the inks from this Wednesday, so that’ll post next week in all its punny glory.
This particular bit of word art was painted in lovely shiny special effects watercolors, and you can see in my original Instagram post below how that looks when it’s not all flattened out by the scanner.

ooooh, shiny
Categories: Pretty Words, Series and Books
Tags: duochrome, interference, watercolor, word art, word art weds
Word Art, week 4+2
Monday, November 30th, 2015
November’s over, and I won at NaNoWriMo, hooray! I even managed a piece of word art every day through flu and freezing cold and fickle cats trying to sleep on my hands while I typed. So yay for finished projects!
I have had an inquiry about making a booklet of these — what do you think? Would you want a handmade book of weird words? It would be a lot of work to scan and format and print, but it might be fun to have the project preserved for posterity.
Categories: Pretty Words
Tags: brush and ink, calligraphy, pen and ink, sketch, word art, word art nov15
Word Art, week 3
Sunday, November 22nd, 2015
The days keep flying by, especially this week! I was sick and sleepy and pathetic, so I chose a lot of easy words. I’m feeling better now, though, and hope to get caught up on my NaNoWriMo words tonight (I’m about half a day behind now, a 100-word day really eats your lead).
Enjoy 7 new words – which one are you going to keep in your lexicon?
40404 words!
Categories: Pretty Words
Tags: brush and ink, calligraphy, pen and ink, sketch, word art, word art nov15
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