Welcome to ROUA

Last year I wrote a blog post about 2019 being difficult and clearly I didn’t have the foresight to predict the shit storm that calls itself 2020.  This year has proven to be a new Super Saiyan that can’t decide on its final form should be so it tries everything at once. With everything that’s been […]

OH, HI. Let’s be frank: it’s been a cluster fuck of a year; emotionally and mentally (can’t say much for physically because I barely moved lol). There have been some wonderful moments that made me the happiest I’ve been in years and I won’t discount how fortunate I feel to experience them. There have also […]

This painting holds dear to me for several reasons. First is that this was the first time I tried to paint an original character, which posed to be a challenge for me because I had a horrible sense of anatomy (as you may notice from the exaggerated elongation of the girl’s neck). Second is that […]

Hurray! Huzzah! The 2 year anniversary of Serene Illustrations just passed not too long ago. To commemorate, I thought I’d share the 2 most important lessons I’ve learned on this journey: 1.) I have a ridiculous long way to go. As satisfied as I seem to be with my finished art pieces, I know I […]

This is probably the most whimsical painting I’ve done to date. If you’re familiar with my painting style, you’ll recognize that I sometimes enjoy mixing underlying touches of darkness with surrealism. Little kids being carried by little fluffy sheep among cotton candy clouds is  probably the farthest thing from dark. When I was brainstorming this, […]

I went to Hawaii last summer and visited a small, secluded island. What made this island such a hidden gem to me was that it was completely covered in black sand. Black sand is actually made out of tiny fragments of lava. It’s created when hot lava enters the water, cooling it down so suddenly that […]

Just a little disclaimer before I begin: The purpose of this blog post is not to be a whiny bitch about how things didn’t go my way. You’ll notice that my preliminary reaction wasn’t a, “Oh woopdie do, lets look at the bright side of the situation, where the rainbows and butterflies belong.” Failure can […]

Oh hello. It’s throwback time! If there was category for OG paintings, this one would definitely be in it. In fact, “Lush Forest” is the oldest painting on this website. Despite it be an oldie, it’s still one of my favorites because this is the first challenging painting I tried to take on. I remember […]

“I have fallen a long way. Clouds are flowering Blue and mystical over the face of the stars Inside the church, the saints will all be blue, Floating on their delicate feet over the cold pews, Their hands and faces stiff with holiness. The moon sees nothing of this. She is bald and wild. And […]

Under the Sea. Haha, get it? “Wait.. Serene, this looks like a spinoff of another painting you’ve made.” I won’t lie, I was craving to paint something similar to Hideaway for the Imaginative. Something about that painting just always feels like home to me. Since Hideaway for the Imaginative was done back in 2012, I […]