Sketchbook: Celosia “Cockscomb”
Posted on 18 August 2010 | No responses
Celosia head, page in my sketchbook. © Wrenaissance Art
The soft, velvety “brain” shape of celosia is a real challenge! Is it opera, alizarin, permanent rose?
Arches 88 a poor paper choice for watercolor
Posted on 12 August 2010 | No responses
Detail of watercolor brushstrokes on Arches 88 paper. © Wrenaissance Art
I wanted to paint an illustration of one of the butterflies we saw at Iguaçu Park and had a spare half-sheet of Arches 88 paper. I transferred the drawing to the paper, and then began to lay in the first level of washes. As you can see, the paper sucked up all the water and color in each brushstroke, not permitting the use of wet into wet technique at all. The paper also puffed and buckled in the shape of each stroke. Arches 88 remains a better option for silkscreen,which seals the surface of the sheet, or maybe as a support for acrylic on paper, which also seals the surface.
Current project: Continuing on the bromeliad
Posted on 12 August 2010 | No responses
In late February, the bromeliad illustration I was working on was packed away for the movers at this stage of completion:
Unfinished watercolor of bromeliad in February 2010 © Wren Allen
The external sides of the leaves were finished, but the root/earth and the internal leaves were still unmodelled. Yesterday I spent most of the day working on the internal side of the leaves. One challenge was that the green mixtures lifted as additional washes were laid on. To get around this, I layered fine strokes of water-soluble colored pencil over the green wash mix. Here is the result:
Bromeliad botanical illustration, stage 5, © Wren M. Allen
Groovy Link of the Month: Angry Paul Rand
Posted on 9 August 2010 | No responses
The Twitter account Angry Paul Rand features pithy, acerbic and often vulgarly worded thunderbolts hurled from Design Olympus by the shade of the great one.
Hilarious!
Today’s web-site progress
Posted on 29 July 2010 | No responses
Went through the site laboriously by hand yesterday and updated all the images, as suggested by the Host Gator help desk. The banner image of my watercolor palette is back, along with the use of Garamond and Optima as the primary type faces.
Check out my about page: I’ve added an old snapshot of me at work during the Amazon cruise and workshop I took in 2008.
Email is still spotty, so next step will be asking friends and family to use the address as a test. And, of course, now I need to retrieve all the groovy links of real-life friends and online resources.
Back in the saddle again
Posted on 28 July 2010 | No responses
I am in the process of moving to a new webhost and updating the blog to the new servers. Will be working on getting my old images online, as well as my personal banner.
Wish me luck! 
New day in Houston
Posted on 12 April 2010 | No responses
This was the sunrise seen from our short-term rental unit here in Houston on Sunday, our second day back in the US.
It is also the introduction to two new topics on this blog:
Surprisingly livable Houston:
Houston, Texas, gets short shrift from a lot of people, yet it has a great deal to offer. Without getting too boosterish, I’ll be posting cool, funky, or at least noteworthy events that could only happen here.
Expat Re-entry:
These posts will record the culture shock of returning to the US after 6 years abroad, while the contrast is still fresh in my mind. Tips and tricks for returning expats will also be posted under this category.
Our final sunrise in Rio de Janeiro
Posted on 9 April 2010 | No responses
Tonight we fly out of Rio to our next adventure—in Houston, Texas!
Corcovado in sunshine
Posted on 9 April 2010 | No responses
Corcovado shines in the returning sunlight
After the heavy rains earlier this week, the sunshine yesterday was a welcome relief. Corcovado sparkles with the Jardim d’Alah, the canal and park that separates Ipanema from Leblon, in the foreground.
After the deluge
Posted on 9 April 2010 | No responses
An uprooted ficus tree on Visconde de Albuquerque, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro was hit by three days of heavy rains and wind this week. Some 200 people lost their lives in the state, most in landslides. The landslides occurred in the mountainside favelas. Earth and rocks, already destabilized by illegal deforestation and unlicensed residential construction, were loosened by the vast amounts of rain and avalanched, burying residents in the debris. Another factor exacerbating street flooding was the high tide entering the canals and canalized rivers that drain the Lagoa and provide sea passage to both sewage and rain run-off and coinciding with the period of heaviest rain.
The tragedy highlights the need for both improvement to civic infrastructure and more importantly, for land reform laws that would make it possible for all of Rio’s residents to lease or purchase housing in the urbanized zones served by public utilities and construction safety codes.