Two Mixed Media Paintings

More about my two latest paintings.

For the Love of Shapes and Colors

I spent today working on a new painting. You can see from the top down the different stages it went through. It's acrylic on Bristol stock. I was painting outdoors, which has the best light, and about sunset I had to quit for the day because I couldn't see the colors as well. Mostly I just have more of the aqua background to do.

I hope to turn this design into fabric and then cut it all apart for A.C.E.O.'s. Of course if someone wants to buy it before I cut it apart, they better speak up fast.

Words of Wisdom

Source: talk2thetrees.blogspot.com via Theodora on Pinterest

I'm planting my own garden and decorating my own soul.

Angel Painting

For Mother's Day I gave this angel painting I did to my boyfriend's mother. She seemed happy enough to get it and found a spot for it in her bedroom. It's acrylics done in a folk art style.

Illustrating Children's Books

When I was younger I wanted to be a children's book illustrator. That never happened, but the interest never went away.  So when I found this awesome book on the topic at the library I grabbed it.  If you ever get the chance to buy a copy, do it. I would like one for my permanent collection. It's called Illustrating Children's Books Creating Pictures for Publication. Click on the photo to see the larger size.

Mermaids

I've drawn and or painted a lot of mermaids in my life. So tonight it was really surprising that I chose to draw a mermaid with my new mechanical pencils from Target. Twelve for a dollar, can't really go wrong there. And the eraser works good. The sketchbook also came from a dollar store.

When I was doing caricaturing, I loved to draw my subjects with mermaid bodies. My weakest area was sports. I could never quite remember how to draw a soccer ball or a basketball. I really should round up some kids and get back into caricaturing. I want to show you the mermaid here but she's topless and I don't want to offend anyone. We'll see. I don't really want to put a black rectangle over her torso either.

Drawing tutorials?

A while back I was thinking of making some drawing tutorials. And then I got busy and it slipped my mind. But someone just commented on one of my articles that I should do tutorials so people could learn to draw the things I'd done. I'm surprised no one has asked me before but I'm definitely considering it now. I was watching a cartooning show yesterday on TV and I couldn't help thinking, 'I could do that.' We'll see.

Cutting Mat Board

One of the purposes of my blogs is to help other artists to learn from my mistakes.
Today I needed to cut two pieces of mat board for my square foot paintings.  So I carefully measured my mat board using a 12" x 12" blank canvas board for my template. Remember, the window in the mat board must be slightly smaller than the piece of art, so it doesn't fall out of the frame. Well, I knew this of course and measured very carefully.  And that black mat fit that 12" x 12" board perfectly.  So I went ahead and used the same measurements for the gray mat board.

The problem came when I took my painting, and laid the mat board on top of it. I had forgotten that every painting has a 1/2" white strip around it from the tape.  So now, a smidgen of that white margin shows no matter how I place the mat board. It's things like this that make me want to run screaming into the night.

Painting Oops

Yesterday I was painting on the lawn.  I picked up the easel to put it away and the painting fell face up on the grass. So I lunged for it and bumped the folding table.  The palette fell off on top of the painting jelly side down.  Oops. I wiped it off the best I could. I think I can save it. We'll see.