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.

Behind on my Paintings

As you can see, it's getting harder and harder to finish a painting a day. I'm going to have to abandon the project. The rest of my life is becoming unhinged because I'm behind on so many things, and now it looks like we may have to move. I can barely keep up with the daily paintings in a stable environment.  And I want to finish all the paintings I started on my trip, some of which I'll show down below.

Unfinished abstract

Unfinished abstract

Unfinished abstract

Unfinished abstract

Unfinished abstract

Unfinished abstract

Unfinished portrait

Unfinished abstract

Roses Meet Darwin

I needed to do something simple for today's painting so I did some roses with a double loaded brush. They looked a little lonely so I added the lilacs.

Yesterday's painting was a mixed media affair with Darwin from a PBS special I was watching at the time.

Strange Gourds Still Life Painting

I tweaked yesterday's painting a bit. The right side Italian cypress tree was leaning too much.  I made some other minor improvements as well.
Then it was on to today's painting. I bought some of these strange ornamental gourds to paint before going on my trip, and sadly, one of them was already moldy.  So I tossed it and figured I'd better paint them today before the other ones get soft. It was more challenging than I thought. And I had a brown background which just wasn't doing a thing for me so I repainted it blue and white. When it's light out again I'll have to do some minor fixing, but it's as done as it's going to get tonight.

From the Train

On the train coming home I made some composite sketches of views along the train route.  This was a collection of images I saw between Simi Valley and Chatsworth. I used the sketch to make this painting tonight. And once again, cypress trees show up in my art.

Home From My Trip

I managed to start a new painting every day of my trip. Circumstances did not allow me to finish any of them, so I have my work cut out for me this week.  I postponed my Etsy shop opening until Dec. 15. 2011 so that I could get more descriptions written. I really need to get a laptop so I don't get behind on work when I'm traveling. My family just doesn't understand that I need at least 3 hours a day on the computer, not the 3 minutes they were allowing me while visiting them. I think I got photos of all the paintings except the one I did late last night.  I haven't had time to start a painting today yet.

Painting With Strange Shapes

I have spent many hours today on a painting that is still not finished. My hands, however, are finished, as well as my shoulders.  Time to give it a rest.  Sometimes it may not be possible to finish an entire painting in one day. I just have to accept that and not beat myself up for it, right?

And tomorrow I'm going out of town. I'll take my paints and stuff with me, but I won't be posting them until I get home in a few days.

Miniature Horse

I always thought if I could paint horses and people I could paint just about anything, but both are still a challenge to me. Next time I'll need to be careful not to get the nose so close to the edge of the paper. This is going to be difficult to frame.

100 Faces

All these daily projects are really ramping up my creativity.  So I starting a new face project here: 100 Faces
Every time I draw or paint a face I'll post it on that page until I reach 100. It won't be daily (I can't take on anymore daily projects), but I'll do my best to keep adding fresh material.

'Red Hat in Winter' Original Painting

"Without Meditation There is No Mediumship"

Here are yesterday and today's paintings.

Fletcher Painting

Today I got to paint outdoors, in public, from life. People mostly ignored me. So I didn't have as much performance anxiety as I expected.  I did get interrupted a lot so it took me most of the event to do one painting. And I didn't get to work on any of my other projects.  I like how it came out though. I'm learning more each day.

Girl With a Rose Painting

Trying to get the hang of this new style. New to me anyway.