LATELY ON INSTAGRAM

4 hours by train to get from one city to another meant I had some time to do a quick painting of the Taiwan countryside. I definitely had to snap a picture and use it as reference. The train moves fast and this girl does not have a photographic memory! — I never realized that Taiwan had such a beautiful countryside and coastline. Take a look at my stories today if you want to see. I hope you’re all having a great week! . . . . #dailydoseofpaper #abmlifeiscolorful #acolorstory #lifeiscolorful #watercolor #watercolorpainting #watercolorlandscape #travelpainting #watercolorjournal #taiwan Bringing these along in my backpack just in case I feel like doing a little 📝🖌🎨. Although I may end up just binge watching lots of movies, reading and hopefully sleeping on the 14 hour flight from LA to Taipei. — We will be doing some sight seeing around the country and spending time with local family, but if there are any recs for stationery stores/cool cafes I should check out while I’m in Taipei, please let me know! Hope you have a great week ahead! It’s October and we’re getting the house and ourselves in order for our trip to Taiwan! I love leaving the house nice and tidy so that when we come back it feels welcoming and clean 🏡 — This October wallpaper will be up on the blog tomorrow if you want to grab it and get your desktop refreshed first thing Monday morning! Subscribers, you got this already 😉 — Have a great month! 🍁 I painted these herbs 9 months ago at the beginning of this year (if you scroll way back you'll find them). And now I can finally share them with you not only inside a little digital square, but as a real paper goods! 🌿 These are the first paper good products to be listed in my shop, so I'm a little nervous, to be honest! Happy Friday!! --- 🔖 Just a note: These won't be available to ship until the end of October (we're going on vacation soon), so thank you for your patience! --- To my email subscribers: I'll be giving away one roll of gift wrap to one of you (you'll get one of each pattern + an unreleased pattern)! But don't worry, even if you don't win all of you will get a coupon code for the shop (Check your inboxes tomorrow!) 😘 Because the colors of the trees don't really change in California, it makes me love autumn leaves even more. We got only a taste of a crisp fall morning last week - just enough to get me excited for the cooler weather to come. --- Working on October's free monthly desktop and phone calendar today! If you want to have it delivered to your inbox, make sure to subscribe to my email list - link is in my bio! 🍁🍂 Haven't been doing much brush lettering lately, but my best friend asked me to letter this quote for her office and I think it's something we all need to hear now and then. We will each read this with a different lens, but whatever it is that you need encouragement on, I hope this is a nice little reminder. --- You've worked hard to work towards that goal, whatever it is. Are you almost there? You didn't come this far to only come this far! --- Hope you have an amazing week! Swatched the newest additions to my watercolor paint collection. I'm adding a few more artist grade paint colors to build a core palette that I think will be just right. I have about 4 more colors to add. I'm being careful not to buy all the colors, since most likely you can mix them yourself given a good set of base colors! I'm thinking when I get my last few colors I'll hang out on stories and swatch them live! Sound fun? --- Colors: Daniel Smith Quinacridone Gold Daniel Smith Phthalo Blue (green shade) Winsor & Newton Burnt Umber --- I don't know about you, but it was a busy week for me full of calls, meetings, and a quick day trip up to SF. I'm so happy it's Saturday! Hope you have a great weekend! I don't do many commissioned pieces but I just couldn't say no to this one! --- I am absolutely humbled to have been asked to paint this. Thanks Emily, for giving me the opportunity to create a piece for your home. I hope it captures the happy memories you have of your wedding day and hike through the Oregon wilderness! Hi, it's me, susanchiang_ ! I did a little name switch here and on my website, in case you were confused by who this stranger was in your feed. Don't worry, I'll still be posting the same things around here - which means lots of watercolors! --- So let me explain who rae and lily are, because I know I'd want to know. So, in case you haven't seen her make appearances in my stories, we have a sassy rescue pup named Raven (aka Raven Rae). And my name, Susan, is of greek/hebrew origin that literally means 'lily'. Fun fact: My first screen name ever on AOL was 'snowlily1'. --- Even though Raven never hangs out with me during the day and prefers to spend it sleeping under the dresser, I still like to think of her as my furry sidekick. So there you have it, the name origin of rae + lily! --- I hope you all have a wonderful week and that it's off to a good start! So many samples and I'm not complaining. It's fun to see something you've painted become a paper product! I walk through my process of painting these exact clouds, how I digitize and make repeating patterns so you can print your work on paper goods just like this in my @watercolorbootcamp lesson. --- Enrollment in the course is open only until this Sunday 9/17 and after that it'll be closed until 2018. When you enroll in the course this week you'll have immediate access to all the online classes. You'll be able to take the classes at your own pace because as a student you will have lifetime access to all 14 lessons + bonus material in the bootcamp! Check out the link in my bio for detail and to enroll! Let me know if you have questions! --- Happy Wednesday, we are halfway through the week! I have an obsession with this kettle corn popcorn and it's a real problem. I can go through an entire bag in ✌🏼 days. I managed to stop long enough to paint a few quick kernels. Can I just say that if I didn't put a real kernel in this photo, it would be difficult to tell what these are. In conclusion, I think popcorn requires some extra time for layering and shading to capture all the nooks and crannies. #yum --- In other news: @watercolorbootcamp courses are live today for all the students that have enrolled! Even as an instructor I am looking forward to going through the course as well, because there's always something new to learn! If you still want to sign up check out the link in my bio! Last weekend we rearranged some of the furniture so that I actually have a workspace. I was working on our dining room table and yes, it was a hot mess. I'm still settling into my new space over here but it's starting to come together. It looks like this today - much cleaner when I'm not in the midst of painting. --- With my background as an architect I have so many ideas for great workspaces (and have designed them for others) but have always thought it's funny that I don't go "all-out" for my own. This is my humble, very simple workspace. The elements are few: a shelf, lamp and table top - but when it's filled with work and life 'stuff' it feels just right. 😊 Do you work on the dining room table or do you have your own space at home to do all the creative things? If I only had some real donuts to eat this morning, that would be 👌🏼! But sipping on some tea and painting with these colors isn't a bad way to start the day. --- Taking this small donut pattern and scaling it up to make a bigger pattern for gift wrap. I wasn't totally in love with the smaller pattern or the way the colors turned out on the samples, so I'm trying another approach! I have a feeling I'm going to end up with lots of extra sheets of giftwrap around here so keep an eye out for a giveaway + a small sample sale later this month! I think I'm still trying to recover from taking the long weekend off and trying to get back into the swing of things. I'm reviewing gift wrap samples for print quality and scale today and will be making some adjustments on these before they go out for another set of proofs. Final gift wrap will probably not look like this, so technically this is a little #behindthescenes peek! ---- But more importantly, who else feels like the week just started because the 3-day weekend messed with your schedule? Seriously - how is it Wednesday? #thestruggleisreal #whatjusthappened It's September and that means I've got free downloads for you! If you're new around here, I like making these every month just for fun and sharing them with you. There's a desktop version with a calendar, and 2 phone lock screens (one with a calendar and plain one that you can use all year round). --- I made this month's wallpaper using the flowers I painted earlier this week! Those on my email list got this in your inbox this morning, so if you're not on the list and still want them, check out the link in my bio and grab them by signing up there! Tag your screens and workspaces #susancwallpapers if you put these to use, I would love to see! 💛 --- I hope you have a wonderful weekend, let's get this month started off right! We're taking our dog to the dog beach this weekend! What are you up to? "The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best." - Epicetus --- I'm a better person because of the people that I choose to spend time with. They push me to think differently, encourage me to dream bigger, celebrate my successes and help analyze the failures. We all have those special people in our lives. Keep them close and thank them for sticking around. Because who would we be without them, right? --- Just a thought for today, because I'm feeling extra thankful. 💛 Sometimes there's only time for a quick watercolor journal session and today is one of those days. You know, the days where you're having lunch at 3:00 pm and wonder what happened between the hours of 9:00 am and 2:00 pm. 🤔 --- Practiced a loose travel landscape using a reference photo from our trip a few years ago to Maui. Swipe to see about 20 minutes compressed to 29 seconds. I am not sure if you can even tell what this is so let me help you out. 😬 It's a view of farming areas with the ocean in the background taken on our Road to Hana excursion. . . . . . #watercolor #watercolorpainting #dailyart #createeveryday #creativityfound #calledtobecreative #acolorstory #livecolorfully #travelpainting #watercolorlandscape #watercolorjournal #maui #travelmaui It's Monday and I totally procrastinated getting to work this morning. Instead I decided to garden for an hour before it got too hot. 🤷🏻‍♀️ At least the plants had a good start to the week! It's ok though, I got back on track and here's a sneak peek at some watercolor flowers and leaves that will be showing up in next month's free wallpaper download. (Can you believe it's the last week of August?) Going for some fall-ish vibes using these colors. I think this palette is very "I'm not quite ready to leave summer behind, but I'm kinda excited for fall". Most people I know are ready for the fall weather. Is anyone else in limbo like me, or am I the only one? 🍂 --- If you are on my email list, I'll be sending free wallpapers out to you on Thursday! If not, check out the link in my bio and sign up, so I can get them to you (only if you want them, of course!) Have a great week! Back at it again with speckled leaves today, but a different species! My mom gave us some small polka dot plants recently to plant in our yard, so I had these handy for reference! Yesterday I painted on a large scale, so today I switched over to a very small scale! Anyone else like mixing it up painting big and small versions of the same thing? I've been thinking of painting loose vs. detailed versions as an exercise too! --- Happy Friday and just a quick reminder that I'm teaching how to paint patterns and digitize them in the @watercolorbootcamp course! Early enrollment ends today at 11:59 pm EST so, head on over to the link in my profile or visit [http://bit.ly/bootcampsusanc] if you were thinking about signing up before the course goes up to full price! DM me if you have any questions! ❤️ Have a wonderful weekend everyone! . . . . . #watercolor #watercolorpainting #painting #creativityfound #calledtobecreative #cylcollective #thehappynow #flashesofdelight #handdrawn #originalart #dailydoseofpaper #watercolorpattern #surfacedesign #abmpatternlove #surfacepattern #patterndesign #botanicalwatercolor #polkadotplant #watercolorbootcamp Picked up a plant friend today from the grocery store and took a try at painting its yellow splashed leaves. First try is on the left, second try in the middle and third on right. #beautyintheprocess --- Painted on @legionpaper Stonehenge aqua Paints: @winsorandnewton @danielsmithwatercolor Swipe for a little process video! . . . . . #watercolor #watercolorpainting #watercolorleaves #createeveryday #painting #creativityfound #calledtobecreative #abmlifeiscolorful #plantlife #plantlove