Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas

ERN!!!!! look at how pretty that Buenos Aires one is with all it's colors THEY'RE ALL SO PRETTY *grabby hands* I also love all the bluuuuuuuuuuuues in this most recent set!

Loooooooooving Azerbaijan. Those architectural shapes are just some of my favorites and I really like how you did the plants to frame the top and the water is also really well balanced.

QUESTION with your inking! Do you draw in pencil first and then watercolor it up and the ink ooooor what is your process with order and such? :3 I imagine its more freeing to the line art after the color is down - I've only done this once with my markers because I saw someone on youtube do it and they felt more relaxed because the areas had already been defined by their colors and it was just something I'd never thought about before o.o

Also agree with Ariana about your Argentina piece. The perspective on it too is just

I'm in awe, as usual!!!!!

I know how you and your blues are. Nothing super bluey blue in this set, but I'm sure there will be more soon.

THANKS FOR VISITING. I LOVE SEEING YOUR FACE.

HI KATH. I'm always looking for interesting shapes/architectural elements that are unique to a country or area of the world. I was worried I wouldn't be able to free-hand those windows, but I think they turned out well enough (but very obviously free-handed).

As for inking, I used to pencil, then paint, then ink, but I found that I needed too many penciled 'support' lines that couldn't be removed after the paint but that I needed to paint... does that make sense? So I generally pencil in the general shape, ink over the lines I want to keep, erase the pencil marks, and paint. Then I can add ink detail where I need it - brick or stone lines, extra shading, etc.

MWAH.

HI NAT. I'm still thinking about your postcard idea!


Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados

I keep seeing these on twitter and not remembering to comment in here. here is my comment in here. THAT I LOVE THIS SERIES ERNLA.

I know I've said things about trees before BUT the barbados trees are my favoritest trees of all time officially i like how you incorporated browns in those leaaaaves. the Bangladesh one is also a major fave out of this set. LOOK AT THOSE LITTLE HUMANS.
i love u ern. i love ur art too.

HELLO K8! I'm glad you came to visit here. What's your favorite thing so far?

Every time I paint trees, I think "THIS ONE IS FOR ARIANA". Some are bad trees. Belarus has bad trees. Belgium has a tree for you to admire, though. FOR YOU.

And I love those little humans. I've never put them in any more pictures, but maybe I should! LUVU2.


Belarus, Belgium, Belize







I keep thinking I should put some sky into Belarus, but I never have. But maybe it's nice just floating out there in the white. I dunno.

Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia







Hi, so I recognize that Bolivia is different than the other things I've done so far, but it had such an interesting color story that I wanted to try to paint it. That's all.

Ern!!! you make it so hard to pick a favorite because all of your art is my favorite. and honestly, how DARE! how very dare.

Anyway, I really love the Belize one (it was un-belize-able), I think it's the pop of pink and the lil green shrubbery that caught my eye the most. shrubs are like little trees and i like them lots too. Benin and Bhutan are particularly impressive because of the SHAAAAPES you've got going on in those. and the details. and the shading. Ugh. I love them.

AND!!!!!! I'm a big fan of how you chose to showcase all the pretty colors for the Bolivia one *_* its so soft and inviting

I haven't been here in six years, but I do love this theme you're doing, Ern. Big love. It makes me miss going places outside my house and workplace.

ARIANA. I like that every post is your favorite, and it makes me so happy that you can't pick. Also super happy that you like Belize, because I'm a little underwhelmed by the image in retrospect.

I LIKE THE SHAPES AND DETAILS TOO OK OK.

You need to visit more often than every half decade in order to keep up! I definitely feel like this project came out of all the places I can't go right now. I'm almost a year past my cancelled trip to Greece and still feeling the sting. Let's go somewhere in 2022.


Bosnia Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil







So, true story, my Bosnia Herzegovina dome is one of my favorites that I've done - you have to do layering and negative space to do shading, so it's an exercise in patience that I don't really have.

And I feel like Brazil is a little too basic, but I'm still LEARNING HERE, GOSH.

Okay, sure, lol. My plan is to take my 2020 trip to the UK and push that to... 2022, but same plan as you basically. But also it makes me so nervous not to more thoroughly consider and reconsider the plan for 2022. But there are so many factors outside my control. But all this to say........ yes. I'd love to hear more about the trip you HAD planned TO GREECE (omg of all places)(the Mediterranean in me is jealous).

Back on topic: holy cow though, not coming in here in half a century means that your growth is increds to see all at once. I'm really liking how you used ink pens on these? Especially on the hut? But yes, the dome is amazing... is that Sarajevo? I like your handwriting also.

hello ern i am once again here to weep about how lovely your art is ;_;

Bosnia has SUCH A NICE DOME but also with this one i really love all the varying shades of bluuuuuuue. Do you use the same color and layer things to make the shades different in these instances or are they different colors all together? I'm not sure if my question made any sense.

Botswana ~~ i love how you did the roof on this one aND the background splotch of blue? the way you frame these with colors in the background is so well done ern. i love them.

and finally brazilllllllll i think my favoritest part about this one is how the colors look together. I especially like the golden shades uwu

I hope you come back to read comments more than every half decade (wait, is it half a century now? I can't wait that long!) The watercolor and ink thing is my aesthetic, apparently, and I"m sticking with it.

And yes, it's Sarajevo.

HELLO TINY FRIEND. Can you please stop crying all over my art, gosh.

Okay, so you have questions, that I will try to answer. Bosnia: the layering is the same shade of blue with more water and then with less, and then with some black added. Apparently the really good artists don't need black, but that sounds crazy. I need it to mute, at the very least, because sometimes tones are too VIVID, gosh.

Botswana: nope, no questions here to answer. Sorry. I'm all about the blue splotches instead of sky now, because gosh, I just think all that blue can be very overwhelming.

Brazil: I like that you can tell I'm going for gold instead of yellow. Metallics are SO HARD to impart.


Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso







Speaking of metallics, that Brunei dome is an attempt at gold... I think it turned out pretty well. When I do my dome retrospective someday, I should do my 'attempts at gold' retrospective too.

Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cambodia







So two notes here:

FIRST, I've been working on shading more with paint and less with ink. It's two different sort of aesthetics, and I'm moving more toward paint shading. Unfortunately, it makes Cabo Verde look a little muddy to me, but I'm getting better. I promise!

SECOND, I got new paint for Christmas, and Cambodia is the first painting where I used the new palette. So please let me know if you think the colors look more vibrant or richer or whatever going forward.

wowww. I love these. For the first one, the lines are sooo nice and I love it. I really like the look of the second one. It's like looking through a window at it, and idk what "muddy" means(I'm not great with art stuff lol the irony because Ash is a great artist) but I think that the art looks super pretty. And the last one is super vibrant and the colors are bright, and I really like that.

I guess by 'muddy', i just mean that the shadows I tried to add are sort of undefined. I wish they were a little sharper. But I appreciate what YOU appreciate about it - the colors and the sort of 'scenic' look to it. So thanks for your very nice words <3 <3 I'm glad you came to visit and took a second to comment.


Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic

Chad, Chile, China

ERN I HAVE MISSED THIS THREAD!!!! i think my big fingers accidentally unsubscribed from it and it was missing from my subscriptions, which is so sad because i like it being there!!! Something else I really like is all the vibrant yellows and gold tones you've got going on in that Cambodia painting !!! This new palette is so nice 'n bright. I'm also such a big fan of how ~serene~ and calm the Canada one is. Can we move there together? i was born there so maybe if u marry me we can both have citizenship. ALSO BACK TO COLORS. CHILE IS SO COLORFUL and so welcoming !!!! I especially like the purple/blue/gray/pink tones in the sidewalk. It gives off such an iridescent effect. Reminds me of when it rains and there's puddles and you look at the puddles and see RAINBOWS. Anyway. big fan of your work. h8 my big clumsy fingers for what they did.

I think you deleted that subscription on PURPOSE and I'm timing your visits to prove it. READYSETGO.

I would love to move to Canada with you! That picture is actually Prince Edward Island, where Anne of Green Gables was set, so we'll be Ariana&Erin of Green Gables. And we're apparently getting married, so there is A LOT TO FIGURE OUT. Wow, engaged and stuff.

I always try to pull colors from the rest of the painting into the pavement, since I find a flat gray surface SO BORING. I don't know how to feel about the fact that you think I'm painting pollution, but you like it, so I guess we're going with it!

***

Columbia, Comores, Congo (Democratic Republic of)

IT WAS AN ACCIDENT I SWEAR. I'm here now ok!!! LOVE ME PLS.

Ariana&Erin of Green Gables has a very nice ring to it and i'm filling out our paperwork as we speak. i know it's a lot, but we can figure it out TOGETHER. I also had no idea that rainbow puddles were pollution and now i am sad about it, but luckily I'VE GOT ERN PAINTS to cheer me up. ready set go. I love them all always. they make me feel weeping emotions, as you know. the columbia one feels so lively. i want to go skip around on that street. I'm always out here commenting about the blues but lately i've really been digging your yellow/golds. the skyyyyy / background on the second one is so dreamy, i love how those colors all look next to each other. its like cotton candy. I LOVE THE VEGETATION (is this the right word) IN THE CONGO ONE. i want to slide down those green hills

These would make such a beautiful little book. Or... postcards?

I'm shocked that you didn't realize that rainbow puddles are slicked with oil. But they're pretty, and so is pavement that is wet with rain. So if that's what you see, then go on with you and be happy.

Please stop weeping on the paintings. It makes the color run. But yes, i've noticed that I've had a lot of yellows and oranges lately, so I'm glad you pointed it out. The new palette makes yellows SO MUCH MORE FUN than the old one.

And I love the sky on this one too.

Aww, I bet they would make a very pretty little book of postcards. They're sort of better in the collective than they are one by one.


Republic of Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire

Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus







Just an interesting note here - I painted Croatia out of order and did it back when I was doing my streetviews. You can see how I relied more on the ink for shading in Croatia vs using the paint in Cyprus, for example.