Norman & Shark

The art of Heather Karlsson, featuring Norman the Hedgehog and his pal Shark.

06/22/2026

TRIGGER WARNING: 4th GRADE MATH. This one is dedicated to all the people who got in trouble for drawing on their schoolwork back in the day. I even ended up triggering myself because the red pen I used for teacher comments is the same color of blood red that my fourth grade teacher used to use when she'd grade papers. It's been forty years, but my inner ten year old still shivers when she sees "See me!" and the ominous frownie face. Fortunately, Norman and Shark are not deterred by bad grades or scolding. The Queen Anne's Revenge is going on this pop quiz whether you like it or not, lady!

All this talk of long division caused a discussion between Mr. Karlsson and me about the different ways that long division was taught back in the '80s. Apparently, in Sweden they used some system that they called the laying down chair or something like that. After having a frank exchange of ideas over which system was better, we both agreed that neither one of us would be able to figure out common core math. 🧮📝

06/10/2026

WATERCOLOR WEDNESDAY PART 2! I thought I would share my process about that tree everybody liked from last week. This one didn't turn out quite the same, but you get the general idea. You'll notice that I didn't do any mixing on my pallet. What I did was use a base layer of burnt sienna, because Texas live oaks tend to have a warmer, reddish tint to them. While the paper was still wet, I added some phthalo blue for shadows. That automatically mixed with the burnt sienna, which forms a nice mossy green. Then I layered the hansa yellow light and more phthalo blue to get the effect of foliage reflecting sunlight. I used burnt sienna again for the trunk, and used washes of phthalo blue for shadows. Shadows. I layered in more burnt sienna for the sake of variety. Finally, I added a wash of phthalo blue for the shadows. You don't have to outline the tree if you don't want to. I just do that because that is how I roll. I hope you liked this video, and if you did, please share and comment and I will make another one next week! (I did a materials list in part one for those of you who are curious!)

06/04/2026

I've been playing with my QOR paints from . Storms are brewing outside, and there is a squirrel flopped over the tree branch near my window watching me. It's anybody's guess what he's thinking, but I would put money on something about the ridiculous humidity.

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Carrollton, TX
75010

Website

http://www.normanandshark.com/

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