Double Koi

Well....I'm delighted to have finally completed a piece I've been working on for a while now. It's the first of my fish pieces to be done on the canvas.

My subject matter was drawn from photos I'd taken while visiting my friend Roc back in June. She has a wonderful little koi pond with some of the biggest koi fish I'd seen anywhere. I must have taken a hundred shots of them while standing on the little bridge that goes over the pond.

 

For this piece I combined fish from two different shots. I also decided that for this particular piece I would leave the underpainting in the upper left hand exposed since it seemed to add to the overall effect of the water.


Hope to make more from these lovely creatures. Roc....thank you for sharing your inspiration!



Paper prep

It was such a beautiful warm sunny day on Sunday that I decided to build up my stash of painted papers for future Torn Paper Painting pieces.

I took out rolls of rice paper and several old books as well. Sometimes I like to use text or music pages and it's always great if I've got some painted in just the color I need.

I spent the afternoon painting these papers and book pages in watercolors...twinkling H2O's...and acrylics!

As you can see....I've got lots of new pieces to use and didn't have to muck up my art room this time!

Watercolor vs Acrylic

I tried doing two similiar postcard sized painting in pretty much the same design but in different medium. (click to enlarge)

The one on the left is watercolor on watercolor paper and the circles done in ink. I love watercolor and the variations you can get with the wet in wet painting. There is a lovely glaze of twinkling H2O's all over her tail and wings as well...but the scan doesn't pick that up very well.

The one on the right is all done in acrylic on top of a book page adhered to bristol board. I decided to make the background paint layer cover the text and only have it show through on the body itself. With the more flat type of finish that comes from the acrylic, I think the text adds a nice variety and interest. The circles were done in acrylic as well this time.

I must say that I'm not really sure which one I like better now. They both have their fine points and things I like about each one. I just found this to be an interesting exercise and may do this more often. There is always something new to be learned each time.

A bit of art time

Seems to be getting harder and harder to find the elusive art time. With this brand new career I've started as a realtor, my time is becoming more and more tied up with the process of learning all I need to know for the job.
My left brain is getting quite a workout....while my poor right brain is feeling restless and neglected.
Today I made a point of going to my workroom with the idea that I would create "something"...anything!!!
This green eyed gal was the end result.
Only a small piece of art....but I am delighted to have at least accomplished something!

A new gal

to add to my paintings on book pages. This is another 4x6" done in acrylic and ink. I think this one came out looking a bit fairy-like with her wings and all her butterfly friends.
I may be having too much fun doing these, but while it is fun, I've got too many of them in my head now and guess I'll have to paint them till they're all out...lol

She looks like

autumn itself to me! I just love the way the colors worked out....and that little leaf on her head...perfect!
Book pages seem to add so much to these little folk. This one is a bit bigger that I've been doing. She's 51/2" x 81/2". Enjoyed working on the slightly larger size and was surprised at how much time this one took. Almost had forgotten the time involved since I'd been doing so much tiny art.
I'm hopeful that I'll work these up into an even bigger size pretty soon!
For now, I'll work on this size a while. Just added her to my Etsy shop!