Earth Yoga

My favorite UES hot yoga studio has been reincarnated as Earth Yoga. I'm so happy about this. I've always loved the space and have had many great moments of peace and reflection there...it has a beautiful bamboo floor and three large windows that fill the studio with light....


I had a wonderful class with my favorite teacher there tonight - Isauro Fernandez, whose Ki-Yoga style has everything that I love.....beautiful words, music, movement and meditation...in 100 degrees of heat.

Underpainting

A fellow illustrator, John Manders, has a great blog in which he demonstates his painting technique. John and I both work in gouache, an opaque watercolor that lends itself to a range of effects, from totally opaque to translucent.

John also utilizes underpainting, which is a first step in a layered painting style where a monotone color is used to establish the overall pattern of lights and darks. I particularly like this technique as it adds an important base to my usually haphazard way of working - underpainting creates cohesion and depth. This technique was widely used by Renaissance painters. For a more detailed look, check out John's blog.

Above is my underpainting and finished painting fom the book, "Abby's Asthma and the Big Race."