Last year, I tried to paint all the perennials in my garden and I think I accomplished that. This year I'm sketching some of my annuals and other things around the yard.
I think I've become more comfortable sketching and I'm learning to simplify. Using a fine point pen and watercolour wash has made the process easier. Now I wish I'd used this technique from the beginning! Oh well, live and learn!
I have a short workday on Wednesdays, so last Wednesday afternoon I got the sudden urge to work on another Milkweed painting! I tried to take into considerations suggestions that I received here on my blog and on some art forums I belong to. This one is quite a bit darker, and I tried to incorporate a lot of texture. I wasn't as successful with the Epsom salts this time, and had to get out the handy-dandy Proxa -brush to lightly scrub back to white for some of the seed fluff. I finished this up yesterday morning. I happy with a lot of this: My experiment with granulating medium and India ink worked fairly well and gave a lot of interesting texture particularly in the bottom part. I also gave the whole painting a light spattering of iridescent gold acrylic paint which is easier to see in real life. I think I could have done a bit better at composition, that's something that seems to get away from me sometimes! Here is a closeup of some of the texture: I think I've got a few...
This is based on a photo I took of a very friendly rabbit that came to visit while I was staying at a cottage recently. He was very bold and at one point jumped right up on the deck with us. Okay, I screamed when that happened, I don't know why, but I've never seen a bunny do that before! This is watercolour and coloured pencil on the back side of Arches 140 lb CP paper, and the size is approx 8" X 10".
Haven't been painting much, but I started work on another mixed media piece the other day. While I was waiting for part of it to dry, I started playing with a piece of paper that I had brushed gesso on a while ago. Part of it looked good so I doodled these trees on the parts I liked and made a dyptych of it. Both are about 4" x 10" acrylic on paper. Just a little fun, nothing serious!
these are wonderful, paintings. I'm happy to see such a great new background to your blog. It fits very well!
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Thanks Melanie, I'm glad you like my sketches and the new background to my blog....I wanted something different.
ReplyDeleteA lovely idea to record all your garden flowers - I wish I could be as disciplined but my butterfly mind won't settle! Beautiful sketches!
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