Author: Anna

100 Tiny Paintings #16-20

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1/4 of the way through! (p.s. Actually 1/5; my math isn’t mathing.)

16. A pencil sharpener. I had the notion to try an underpainting of orange just to see what would happen. It gave me the shade of blue I wanted, but I regret putting it on the entire thing. I also overworked it a bit and wished I had left the table just white.

17. An amazon sword plant from my aquarium, I’m quite happy with this one! I let each leaf dry before wetting the next. I painted the shadows in purple.

18. This is my favorite one; a little mushroom stuffy I love.

19. After 16 I ran out of paper and the hobby merry-go-round rotated to cross stitching. Cutting paper isn’t the funnest thing. I kept wanting to paint, but not cut-up the paper. This one’s just a shell. I messed up and drew some of the pen lines in the wrong place. I randomly wanted to see what a blue background would look like.

20. Haha! Not my best work… but I didn’t say I was making 100 great tiny paintings! It’s supposed to be a Calathea leaf.

Adult Thrip Under Microscope

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I. Hate. Thrips. I ended up chucking half of my plant collection, fortunately a lot of them were duplicates, because I was overwhelmed treating that many plants. Especially because I was dealing with autistic burnout. It truly was a full infestation. I’ve now got the hang of it though, and can recognize the thrip damage and treat them before they get too comfortable.

This thrip below I found on my zebra Haworthia succulent and caught on a piece of tape. It got stuck in a pipette for almost 30 minutes while I was trying to get it on the slide without wrecking it. It doesn’t look like much zoomed out, and it would have helped if I had noticed my camera wasn’t focused.

An adult thrip under a microscope, you can see the whole body of the insect.
I think I smooshed it a a little bit by accident, it looked like a lot of air bubbles were coming out.

Eventually, I’d like to make some drawings and paintings of insects like this, be able to label the different parts, and maybe even identify the species.

Planted Aquarium Microorganisms #2

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These photos are from Jan. 18. 2025. This is still from my pre-proper equipment (aka actual microscope slides and covers) phase.

I’m wondering if these 2 photos are of a Stenostomum? When I was watching it, it looked like it was trying to tear itself into two pieces.

An empty shell

I think these next four might be of Vorticella.

Any help or suggestions identifying things is much appreciated!

100 Tiny Paintings #11-15

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11. My favorite lamp; I tried to make it look like the light is on. I mostly used broken nubs from my pencils like regular watercolours for this one.

12. My medusa air plant.

13. A daffodil, I used an old sketch from my pen sketchbook. I tried a wet-on-wet background.

14. My twisted lipstick plant. This one is my favorite! I love how the colours and slight shading turned out. I think I liked this one without the pen too.

15. Pteris cretica fern.

Overall, I think these paintings turn out a bit better when I put down more paint right from the start. My first batch I let each layer dry and then put more on, but I like this effect better.

100 Tiny Paintings #6-10

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6. Based on a little goose stuffy. I think I liked it a bit better before adding the pen.

7. A crochet granny square, I really like this one!

8. A leaf from my Philodendron Birkin.

9. A mug

10. A stem of my Begonia maculata, with the sun shining through the blinds behind it.

I switched to using a kneaded eraser for the last one, it worked much better for lightening my pencil lines before painting.

100 Tiny Paintings #1-5

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I’m trying to make 100 tiny painting this year. Mine are 2×3 inches on watercolour paper. I’m using Staedtler watercolour pencils, and a fine tip sharpie pen. I tend to make art sporadically and can be a perfectionist, especially when it comes to drawing lines. Which is why I like making digital line art; I can zoom in and literally make sure each pixel is where I want it.

With these paintings, I’m trying to go with the flow and not get too stuck up on the drawing aspect (I’ve frequently ruined paper by drawing and erasing too much).

1. This first one below is a leaf from my Pteris cretica fern. The leaves are a little crispy from the low winter humidity. I drew a pencil outline, painted it, then inked the lines once dry.

2. A leaf from my rabbit’s foot fern.

3. Some leaves and flowers from a vine of my Tradescantia sanna plant.

4. Philodendron brasil plant.

5. A field of clover and alfalfa. This is the only one I didn’t draw in pencil first, I just started with the watercolour pencils then tried to define with the pen.

Number 1 is definitely my favorite. I think I should have worked more on the colours for number 4; the variegation on the leaves isn’t quite showing and I don’t like what I did the pen. Overall I think I need to put down a bit more of the pencils before wetting it.