Matted and colored for number 3

Matted

Watercolored

Spritzed

Third time success. Overall, I think I like this series of paintings. It took me a bit to remember what I was doing (LOL), but I did manage to contol the water induced bleed. I like the jewel/stained glass quality of the watercolors and the black mat helps unify it all.

A third try

Inked

Pencilled in

Maybe third time is the charm. Or maybe too much, too little, and just right. Here is number three for the Speedball Elegant pen.

Second try

Matted in black

Watercolored

Spritzed

A little too little this time. I went back in and added more ink which helped. I need to get the spritzing better too. All in all though, it’s not bad with a black mat.

Elegant Writer attempt number 2

Much less ink

Smaller drawing pencil up

Let’s try this again. Last time I had too much in the inking. I’m going for somewhat less this time around. I have not done this for many years and I have just forgotten what happens and why. Here’s to number two being better than number one. (Although I did like how number one turned out after I fussed with it.)

It looks a bit batik-y

Matted in black

Too much of the spritz

After the mess of the spritzing above, I just hoped to salvage the previous work I had done. And I think I did! All of that excessive flow from the over spritzing (I had forgotten exactly how it was done LOL) was quite mess. I had nothing to lose at that point and decided to just put on the watercolor overlay. I thought if it didn’t do the job, I could try some acrylics, too, but I am actually pretty happy with this. It has a bit of a jewel quality to it and now that it has set a few days, it looks batik-y to me. How about you? The black mat helps set it off.

Lily pad linos

Linocut with color added

Hand pulled linocut

I tried something different with my lily pad photos last week. What do you think of these? I like them, especially the watercolored one. I do like to mix things up a bit once in a while so my brain doesn’t turn to much and I hadn’t done a new linocut in a while. They are now available in my etsy shop.

Three mini paintings done.

All done

I finished these three 4×4 mini pond paintings and will probably list them this week after I varnish them. I’m not sure how much I will list them for yet, but there are more hours in them than you might think.

I kind of like the way they turned out and think they would look very nice on a little easel on an end table or framed as a set on a wall.

Maybe it’s done now

Is it this one

Or this one

There are only a few subtle changes in these two. Can you tell which is the final? Look for the little bit of change in the blues and whites, especially around the flowers.

Okay, it is the top one. I took out a bit of the reflections. Not a big deal, but it made a difference to my eyes. I am taking all of my pond paintings to a photographer to have really good color quality pictures for marketing them. I got accepted into the on-line art print dealer Turning Art and I want the absolute best representation for them. Don’t get me wrong. I like what I have done for my Society6 shop on my own. I certainly would not put up something I was unhappy with, but I think it is time to up my game.

I think out of all of the pond paintings I have done these last two years, this is my favorite. What about you? I think if you search for pond paintings here, they should come up.

Mostly done

More paint on

Subtle changes

Is this is mostly done? What does it still need? A lot, actually. I know it is hard to see, but the bottom one is a later version and I still think it needs a lot of work. It is still quite flat looking and not enough tonal difference. I changed the photo to black and white and it definitely showed that the tonal balance was off. The good thing is that the more I do these, the less afraid I am of making alterations. I think you will like it when it is done.

Pond painting number 9!

Pencil up

Two days in

Can you believe it? I counted up the pond paintings I have done since I started in 2019 and there are now nine of them. Although frustrating at times, I have learned a lot about acrylics and enjoyed every minute. I am running out of photos of the pond at the Boise Train Depot and will have to go back for more. And visit family. Too bad for me. LOL

I really just use the photos for a basic reference on placement of the lily pads and minorly for some of the colors. Once I get going, I just let it flow and the picture tells me where to go. I will just tell you now, though it took a lot of tweaking (just like the stream painting) it has turned out to be my favorite one.