Two more gelli mosaics

Koi pond

French bulldog

Since I like the way the last paper mosaic came out, I decided to try again.  These two are the result.  I am not as fond of these as I am of the first one, but I am not unhappy with them either.

I think the koi pond lacks enough depth, but I was only working with the failed gelli prints that I had.  I am not sure I want to go to the task of printing up some darker plates.  Still, I do like the composition and the water effect.  The French bulldog was just fun.  I am not really happy with the background.  When I chose it, I thought it would be a nice contrast, but now I see it is too close in tonal quality.  Live and learn.  Back to painting this week.

Final of Pond Painting Three

Lily painting three

Here is the finished painting of lily pond three.  I like the relative scale of water versus lily pads much better here because it allowed me to concentrate less on the individual pads and more on the overall texture and colors.  Playing with the varying tones in the water was a lot of fun and allowed for some freeform brushstrokes.  I was able to go with bolder application of color on the individual lilly pads too and create an almost abstract work that still had very identifiable objects.

I am thinking about the possibility of making reproductions of this series.  For almost the first time I think the work might be good enough and the subject matter generic enough for some sort of licensing on the drop ship websites.  I need to investigate what photography would be needed and the relative costs involved. What do you think?

 

A third lily pond painting

Pond pencil up

First layers down

I have enjoyed these pond paintings much more than I thought I would.  It is the first time I have been even remotely satisfied with what I have done with acrylics since college (low those MANY years ago).

Since I felt that the relatively bigger size of the lily pads in the previous painting was harder for me to deal with, I decided to go bigger in the canvas (14″x11″) and smaller again for the pads.  This is actually a rather large size painting for me, so that added its own bit of stress.

I put down most of the water before I moved on to the lily pads.  It seemed easier to place most of the background down first and then add the vegetation on top of it.  Then I could also shade under the pads and adjust the water to add depth and interest.  I was pretty pleased at this point, much more so than with pond painting 2.  Smaller pads were definitely the way to go for me.  Who knows where this will lead in my acrylic adventure.  It’s been fun so far.

Pour painting on canvas

Dirty pour

It’s called a dirty pour when you layer all of your colors into one pouring cup and then dump it all at once onto the art surface.  And that’s what I did for this one.  When I finished the tiles shown previously, I had a few ounces of each prepared color left over, so I put them all in one covered cup to store until my next class.  When I came back the next week, I proceeded to pour the whole cup onto the center of an 8×10 canvas and watch what happened as I tilted it back and forth until the paint mostly covered the surface.  By my good luck, there was just enough to reach most of the edges and spill over the sides.  Pretty interesting, huh.  You have less control over the color positioning this way (although you do have the option of what order colors are put into the cup and thus come out) but you can still manipulate the flow somewhat with popsicle sticks, straws, or a palette knife.

After it dried, I started painting the small amount of white space left on the edges and the top with the dark blue I had used to unify the canvas.  If you look closely, you can see it is almost done.  There is a small amount on the lower edge and the left side to finish.

As you will see, the next pours on tile were a bit more purposeful, but still had a wonderful unpredictableness about them.  I don’t do much abstract work, but this is pretty interesting and I might enjoy it as a change of pace from the more detailed pen and watercolor work.

 

Something new from my acrylic class – Pour painting

6×6 tile

4×4 tile

I am taking this new acrylic class mostly to find out about the varieties of acrylics currently available and what additional mediums and varnishes are being used.  There hasn’t been much emphasis on realistic work, but I am still happy with all the new things I have learned.

We moved from the Gelli plates to pour painting, something I had barely for even heard of before, much less tried for myself.  You put acrylic paint into a fluid medium, add a small amount of silicon, and then pour it over a substrate like canvas or commercial tile.  Some artists use it over built up mixed media, too.  The paint is rather like a thick lotion you pour onto your surface, but dries completely flat.  As the different color mix, the silicon helps them form into various shapes due to different specific gravities for each color.  You can do some manipulation to guide the formations, but I am rather limited at this point in my technique.  For these, I just poured 4 different colors on a 4″ and 6″ tile and then tilted them back and forth until the paints mixed and moved out to the edges.  Don’t ask me about the chemistry involved.  I rather like my first efforts, but I know there is a lot of experimentation to be done.  I am already happier with the pieces I have subsequently worked on.  Youtube pour painting and you will see some pretty incredible things.

Something different

Circles

My eyes and mind needed a break from the ink linework and here it is.  I decided to do something that required little conscious thought and was more free form.  I started with drawing the larger circles and went down from there until the page was filled.  (Do you know hard it is to draw and then paint little circles?  LOL)

Once I decided on the color scheme, I again started with the larger circles.  I tried to just go with the flow and not think about much of anything.  It turned out to be a kind of a positive/negative space exercise only with colors and circles.  I am actually rather pleased with the result and have listed it in my etsy store.

Fruit Paintings: Part 3

Pear

And lastly a tomato and a pear.  I think I like these two the best out of the six.  I am varnishing them right now and should have all of these 8×10’s listed in my shop sometime this week.  It has been a fun break from the precision of all of that ink work.

After that, I think I’ll go back to a little drawing of three calves that I started way back last fall before the Christmas rush started.

Tomato