The Life and Times

of Dana Martin, Artist, Illustrator, Watercolor Fiend. Can be lured from studio with tea and popcorn. danamartist.com

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Parodia magnifica I

Parodia magnifica II

Digital & foil, 6"x 6"

These are some nature studies of balloon cacti that I did based on my visit to the Volunteer Park Conservatory. The effect of the foil doesn't fully translate via photo, the full gleam really can only be seen in person!

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The reveal! Pulling up the foil from my latest cacti piece, Parodia magnifica II.

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WIP of these angel wing mushrooms.

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Getting so excited for Wicked: For Good! This sketch is based more on Broadway Glinda than movie Glinda, but still, can't wait to hear Ariana and Cynthia sing their hearts out!

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Happy haunting! Craigdarroch Castle provided some moody inspiration for this digital sketch; though it was delightful to visit, the family members who built it came to some pretty sad ends, so maybe there is something to the rumored curse.

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Progress shots of Graptopetalum paraguayense (known variously as the ghost plant or the mother-of-pearl plant). I discovered this lovely little plant while visiting the Volunteer Park Conservatory. This was my first time trying out Ampersand's aquaboard. The great thing is you don't have to worry about buckling, but the surface is a little tricky for washes, and definitely not as absorbent as paper.

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Cleaning out my desk drawers and was fondly reminded of the LGAL artists trip to Scotland I took a few years back. We all made stickers etc. to exchange with each other for souvenirs and these are a few I had left over.

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A process video of a little bee guardian drawing I did in Procreate.

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Folktale Week Day 7: Victory

This illustration was inspired by Women's Wiles, another story from the 1001 Nights, in which a foolish merchant decides to post a sign over his shop proclaiming, "Men's Wits Exceed Women's Wiles." A young woman plans an elaborate hoax to make him repent of this, change his sign, and concede victory.

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Folktale Week Day 6: Potion

Inspired by The Little Soldier, a complicated French fairy tale in which Princess Ludovine, cursed into the form of a snake, convinces a soldier to help her. Once she is restored to her true form, she tries various tricks, including a potion, to get out of her promise of marrying him. Though the soldier initially plots revenge, he eventually realizes he would be better off with someone who truly loves him and parts from the princess with a grace and maturity rarely seen in this type of story. He goes to live a simple life with a fisherwoman who helped him on his travels.

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Folktale Week Day 5: Costume

For better or worse, Loki was the member of the Norse pantheon who got things done. The gods would send him on various errands (often to fix what he'd broken), and he would usually ask to borrow Freya's falcon-feathered cloak so he could soar, disguised, through the nine realms. Here he is following the Bifrost back to Asgard.

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Folktale Week Day 4: Rebel

This comes from the English folktale, Three Valiant Lads. Set in the Peak District in Derbyshire, it's a clever origin story for the Blue John mines. When their village is under threat from a huge dragon, three lads rally the townsfolk to rebel against the dragon and chase it away. Once it retreated underground, it turned into the rare Blue John fluorite. Unusually, this particular fluorite formed with bands of purple and blueish purple and the mined crystals been made into striking jewelry, goblets, vases, etc.

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Folktale Week Day 3: Star

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Folktale Week Day 2: Tree

When I was in Scotland, I saw a gigantic tree, famous as the Birnham Oak, a relic of the Birnham Woods that inspired Shakespeare's famous moving-forest scene in Macbeth. These woods were ancient and legendary even in Shakespeare's time, and this last remaining tree is estimated to be at least 600 years old. It definitely has an aura of myth and magic about it.

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Folktale Week Day 1: Fool

Hi, everyone! This challenge is much more active on Instagram, but going to drop a few images here as well since my Tumblr is feeling sadly neglected! To learn more about Folktale Week as a whole, visit: https://www.instagram.com/folktaleweek/

This illustration was inspired by one of my favorite stories from 1001 Nights, The Caliph and the Merchant, specifically from the story cycle The Adventures of the Caliph Haroun Alraschid. (If you've seen the 2000 miniseries adaptation, you'll know this story as The Sultan and the Beggar, in which the Sultan gets a darker role and comes to a darker end). In this tale, the caliph, bored with his routine at the palace, decides to wander the streets of Bagdad in search of amusement. He meets Abon Hassan, a local merchant, and Abon invites him home for supper. Not knowing who his guest really is, Abon starts talking about how he would run the city if he were caliph, and Haroun Alraschid thinks it would be fun to give the merchant a shot at it. So he drugs Abon and then has his servants carry the man to the palace. The next morning, Abon wakes up in the royal bed, surrounded by servants and slaves who tell him he is the caliph. At first the merchant argues, but eventually he decides to enjoy his good luck. The story has its cruel points; when Abon wakes up the next day in his own bed, his ravings get him chained to a wall in the madhouse. Still convinced it’s all a game, the caliph later repeats the trick.

Though the Caliph plays Abon for a fool, Abon manages to get back at him. And though Abon is treated throughout most of the story like a pawn in the Caliph's game, this doesn't overcome Abon’s excitement over being king for a day. Often the moral of fool stories is that having a little fun is the best kind of payback.

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Sketch of the Falls of Bruar and bridge from my recent trip to Scotland. Wish I'd squeezed in more sketch time but I was running around like mad snapping photos.

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A little tomato and pink madder lake crab for this week's Colour Collective! Next time I decide to gif something, remind me to pick a subject that doesn't have 10 legs and a gazillion joints🤦‍♀.