Paco Panda

This specific journey is over, but a new one is coming. Here is a recap of the watercolor paintings I got to do during those past two months I was painting most of these pieces live, but only the background. I added the characters later. One of them was unfinished at the time of recording the video and I forgot to record it when I finished it, boo!) I really hope in the future I can do something similar or something also new and interesting, stay tuned here on this channel!

Last stop of this journey: New York City. In the middle of Manhattan, surrounded by noise, crowd, lights... It's a sensory explosion that can be overwhelming, but somehow I can still enjoy it. From quiet places where I can have conversations with myself, to places where there's no room to think and you can only keep moving with the flow of the other people around you. Despite all the surrounding chaos, there is still room for admiration of what we have managed to build as a civilization. However we choose to see it, it is our present and our reality, and in some way, it can be appreciated. As the same Chase and Samy are there walking on these streets, in front of the impressive Grand Central Station, and in the background one of my favorite skyscrapers: the Chrysler building What a good way to finish this journey, that started in a very quiet place and end up in pure chaos. There are two opposites that can coexist on the same trip with no problems. I'm truly grateful to have been experienced such months in my life, and this couldn't have been possible if I hadn't taken these commissions that helped funded this series of watercolor studies.

Watercolor Journey: Trakk in New York (19/20) From Europe to the Americas. After Anthrocon we spent a few days in New York City, walking among places that somehow already felt familiar thanks to countless movies and TV shows. One of my favorite spots was Brooklyn Bridge Park, under the Manhattan Bridge, with a beautiful view of the lower Manhattan skyline. This green friend,Trakk, seems to enjoy it too, making his way from one rock to the next one. Now we are arriving almost to the very end of the journey, New York City was the very last stop. Tomorrow I'll be sharing the very last one.

Travelling can be troublesome but also very rewarding 🐾 Little drawing for @panda_paco ^^

From Sweden to Switzerland. In my opinion and in my experience visiting many places, this is probably one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Don't get me wrong, each country has something beautiful to offer, even I'm in love with the beauty of my own country, Mexico. But there is something magical from Switzerland, not believing that so pretty sceneries exist, like taking out from a calendar from a tortilleria. I got some hours to be able to scout and paint something on Walensee, I was insisting to add the mountains on the background so I had a fixation on finding something pointing towards this specific angle. It was also very refreshing to get in this lake on the evening, after sunset (which was at 21:00) and there was still a lot of light. Randomly there was a trampoline floating in the middle of the lake. And here is Sparky, contemplating life. I was kind of doing the same while painting this, so many introspective thoughts were running through my mind, and this trip helped me a lot to be able to talk to myself much more, to lose the fear of listening to my own thoughts.

During their last camping, Pique was completely captivated by a tiny slug he found by the creek, while Rabid couldn't help smiling at how excited he was. A birthday gift from Rabid for Buckley. Happy birthday, buddy!!! :D :D Digital. Procreate You can watch the time-lapse process video of this piece that is on the first comment!

Watercolor Journey: Jinx in Stockholm (17/20) Now we are in Sweden. My second time in Stockholm, but first time in summer. Last time had been 2019 when NordicFuzzCon was held in there. This time everything was green and pretty, I spent many days in there but the only painting I did of Sweden was in Skansen, a very inspiring area with so many animals. Including this blue african wild dog, named Jinx, who was just chilling here on a bench. (And my friend was wondering what exactly was interesting on that bench. Adding these characters on my scenes was feeling like having imaginary friends)

Watercolor Journey: Ja-Sun and Randall in Tallinn (16/20) Walking in Tallinn, I crossed a very beautiful alley called Katariina Käik. I was finding so many spots to paint but I was there only for one day. I was not only looking for iconic but also some shades and colors that could bring me a feeling for a good composition, when I saw these stone arches I knew this was a spot. I included this door that at first I thought "this is too complicated, I'm not going to include it" and then "why not? let's try it!". And... I tried! And in the alley, we see Randall, the red fox, playing tag with Ja-Sun, the catsune (cat/fox)

Watercolor Journey: Bento and Shackle in Tallinn (15/20) From France now we are going to Estonia, this is Tallinn, outside the walls from the old city. I liked Tallinn more than I thought I was going to like it, and despite not making many paintings in this place, definitely it was one of my favorite spots I visited during the journey, especially because I didn't know what to expect and suddenly I was feeling like in the middle of a D&D campaign. But here is where Bento got to see Shackle, he has a little bit of crush on him, as we can see.

Watercolor Journey: Furzy in Paris (14/20) Keep walking on Paris, and me, choosing more architecture for watercolor paintings, it's like me wanting to complicate myself. I got to learn that it's fine to add more colors than the ones I'm seeing in my references, I was already aware that it was not about copying, but about interpretating whatever I had in front, which those are only references to turn it in something that tell more things, like a little tiger just riding on a bike, heading to the vegetables store, because some how tigers need to eat veggies as well. This cute white tiger is Furzy.

Watercolor Journey: Kazan in Paris (12/20) Ohlalá! I really like Paris a lot, many consider it overrated and overwhelming, but I always go there with another perspective, and I tend to enjoy my time in there. This time I was wanting to do many paintings, but the weather was not contributing a lot, first days there was still the heat wave, and now without any beach where to splash and refresh, it was knocking off very easily, and then it was the final of Paris vs Arsenal so streets went crazy, and after the crazyness went some rain. At least the golden hour after the rain (don't mix and twist that sentence), the streets offered heartwarming scenes that looked very nostalgic. And here we see Kazan, nomming a big baguette for himself.

Watercolor Journey: Flurrabell and Helios in Milan (11/20) If I thought the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele was complicated, oh boy, I hate myself enough to have chosen the Duomo di Milano as background. When I knew I wanted to paint that cathedral, intentionally I chose to only paint a small part of it, and I was better looking for some streets where lighting could be more interesting than just drawing a postcard of the iconic view. And when I said about simplifying and adding important elements of what I was seeing, of course a trash bin was very important (nothing to do with my hidden raccoon instinct) Flurrabell and Helios walking on streets of Milano, Italy

Watercolor Journey: Mica and porter in Milan (10/20) Now moving on from Cinque Terre to Milan, instead of nature I was facing a lot of architecture, very impressive buildings and such an adventure I got to live there due a train strike that I told on my journal. Here we are in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, overpriced coffee, and then me thinking why did I do that to myself at picking such a complicated spot to paint, but honestly it made me work a lot on simplifying structures on buildings, and after getting all the shapes figure out, then I can start adding all details. We can see Mica and Porter shopping, or better said... Mica shopping and Porter carrying everything out.

Watercolor Journey: Denali and Archer in Riomaggiore (9/20) My second day in Riomaggiore and this time I got ready for a splash. While swimming I was really looking forward to seeing a sea monster. The vibes from the movie Luca were too obvious that they got inspired on the place I was at that moment. The most challenging about trying to make this painting, more than not getting splashed by other swimmers, was to find some shade, the sun was too aggressive at that moment, I changed my spot so many times that I was worrying of changing too much the angle of my view, but for painting I had to leave it for later, I didn't want to get roasted. This was personally one of my favorite paintings from all Cinque Terre, I was not intimidated for watercolors anymore, not even for drawing and painting buildings, I had learned I didn't need to copy all single details but to choose what was important to include and then simplify scenes. I could notice very proudly how I was improving. On this picture, we see Denali and Archer, playing while cooling off from such a hot day. There was a lot of life like this in this place, it was so lovely!

Watercolor Journey: Repaki in Riomaggiore (8/20) Coming back to Riomaggiore the next day, because it was my absolute favorite village in all Cinque Terre, Italy. There was a sever heat wave hitting, and I was walking long distances, so I deserved my daily dosis of gelato. If I have a weakness, it would be for ice cream, and Italy is the best on it, and probably one of the best I've ever had in my life was that day in Riomaggiore: very soft, perfect amount of sweetness, very flavorish, you could feel the fruit on it. Repaki, this red panda/fox, was representing my mood completely.

A very long journal about all the adventures I was living on that trip for the Watercolor Journey, and also con reports of Furlandia and Anthrocon: FA: HERE Patreon (Open link): HERE Ko-Fi (Open link: HERE

Watercolor Journey: Dahan in Vernazza (7/20) Returning to Vernazza, this time to walk inside their streets, and I found this spot, perfect for another painting, also the time of the day was helping to create some cool shades. But then the person living in that house came out to see what was happening, they saw me like telling me "what are you doing?", our Italian - Spanish/English conversation was not going anywhere, he didn't seem upset tho, he seemed okay with I was doing but I'm so shy that I felt intimidated, so I left, and I had to finish that painting later, based on a picture of the place. Instead of the intrigued Italian, we have Dahan, appreciating the contemplative life, as cats tend to do.

Watercolor Journey: Zak in Corniglia (6/20) Getting from the train station to Corniglia requires physical condition. Corniglia is a village from Cinque Terre, Italy, up in a mountain, the only one in Cinque Terre without a direct beach. I saw there were many people waiting for a collective transit for getting to town, but I decided to walk, and it was during a heat wave so I got completely tired. After drinking a liter of water, I stopped to by a coffee and then to appreciate the beautiful views to the sea. I also found a great spot for another painting. While working on it, a whole bus tour got in town and I experienced a bunch of tourists treating me as part of the entertainment, taking me pictures and even putting their phone in front of my face to take the picture of whatever I was painting, no questions nor small talks to me, just pictures and speaking their own language among them. More than getting upset for how rude all that was, I was laughing so much for how unexpected it was what I had experienced. On this view, you can see Monterosso on the distance. And on the foreground you see Zak losing a sandal while seating on a roof. Watercolor painting for Backlash.

Watercolor Studies: Cappy in Manarola (5/20) Despite Cinque Terre (Italy) is very well known among tourists, because of course those villages are so beautiful, but in the afternoon when the sun is about to hide, most of tourists return to another towns around (mostly from Milan), they don't tend to stay, and the evenings feel more authentic, most of remaining ones are local people. One afternoon I made a quick hike around the hills until I found a spot where I could see the sunset, and it has been one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen, and there was nobody else in that place but me. It was a good moment to be reflecting about the world we are, the miracle that is to be alive in this universe, and be aware we are here, living the moment, but we are clouded by so many frustrations. We should be less capricious, realize that most of our worries are pointless. We're at such a tiny moment in our lives that we shouldn't dwell on what we lack. Sometimes we should stop, look around, and see what we do have. It might not seem like much, but we're here. I had started sketching this painting on the site, but I decided to finish it later, and better seize the moment. It was the first piece from my journey that was not made live, but it was based on a moment I got to live. And this was for Cappy, seeing the same sun I got to see.

Watercolor Studies: Koda in Riomaggiore (4/20) Riomaggiore was my absolute favorite from all the villages of Cinque Terre, all five are wonderful but if I had to make a top favorites, this one would be on my number 1. Labyrinthine, narrow, mysterious, where you turned corners and arrived at impressive and unexpected places, streets were only stairs, going up and down, suddenly the streets were tunnels that passed under the mountains, and suddenly you arrived at a beach. I chose many spots from Riomaggiore that you may see on upcoming days. And here you can see Koda, the wah, walking the narrow streets of Riomaggiore, with the ocean on the background.