Dreamwood Walking

Wasn’t much up for painting today (it is VERY hard to paint when every time you lean over you either start sneezing or get dizzy), but here are the progress pictures.  There are still many layers to do, but it is a start.  There may be more sketches to post later..

I am actually a bit ashamed of this, but, much to my chagrin, while I took pictures of Maddie’s mermaid, I did not take GOOD ones with the digi cam.  I took WONDERFUL ones with the slide film, but the digi cam, not so much.  The sad thing about the digi cam is that sometimes it takes GREAT pictures.  Sometimes, not so much.  And I think it is absolutely operator error on my part.

I really LOVE Maddie’s mermaid.  She did not come out the way I had planned because I realized that if I made her as blue as I had originally intended, she would be lost in the ocean.  So, she got warmed up and oranged and goldened, and I think she came out even better than I had originally planned.  I am only disappointed in myself for not taking many more pictures with the digi cam (as I had intended, and then got excited with wrapping her up and shipping her out, and so, forgot).

But we work with what we have, so, here is Maddie’s mermaid (posted with permissions).

Here is the mermaid that B commissioned, posted with his blessing:

And, because I thought that the first mermaid was too blurry for words, here is another shot of her:

Here she is:

And her close-up:

I am pretty pleased with her.  The camera shot is a little blurry, which is odd, because they are clear as a bell on the screen, but as it is not my camera, I am going to say that it is totally operator error, and I will figure it out in time to shoot her for websites.  I will shoot her with my camera for slides when I get home.

More to come, stick around.

I am working on the mermaid that B commissioned (that one will be up AFTER it is done and he sees it as I think it is INCREDIBLY rude to put something of someone elses up before they get the chance to see it and/or post about it if they want to.  This goes for gifts, birthday cakes, pretty new *insert new thing here*’s, etc and so forth), and this little one: 

This is just the first few layers, and, like I said, she is a small one (the smallest that I have of the mermaids, actually, but I had to bring small ones to work on while traveling or risk bending them up), but I LOVE the way the paint swirled in her hair.  I hope it stays like that when it dries (sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t).  Given the properties of the two colors (American Journey brand Coastal Fog and Renzetti Pthalo Blue) I think that it will stay swirled, but if it doesn’t, I can always go back in and add it back.

Waiting for these two to dry enough for the next layers, and so I will go work on sketches for a Gargoyle commission for B and Spacie (that is actually more of a veryvery late Christmas gift that I promised.  The first one got destroyed by cats, and so now I am working on the second).

More paintings as the come, I promise.

Yes, that is a tool box in the first picture.  It, and the plate at the top are being used to prop the painting up at either end so that the drips will drip down from the top, and up from the bottom.  The drips on the bottom might be too dark, but I think, in the end. it will look good.

All the sparkling, again, comes from the paper being so wet.  There is an extra layer that I hadn’t counted on having to add to make it dark enough, and the salt wash on top is doing wonderfully, but because it is so dark the camera might not ever be able to catch it.  I will drag the piece outside tomorrow when it is all dry (if I am awake) and finished and try to take pictures in the natural light so that that wash will show up.

Only things left to do is wait for it to dry enough that I will be able to do some dry work on top and finish up the figure and some turtles that will be  swimming in the dark outer part of the tunnel.

Still not sure if I like it, but it is coming along.  It will probably be one of those pieces that I never like or that I like only after it is completely done.

The painting that I am doing from last night’s (*coff*-thismorning-*KAFF*) sketch is NOT done.  Not by any stretch, because, well, something seems to  be wrong with the air conditioner (or I am having hot flashes, but I am betting air conditioner) and it is hot in the house, AND I am tired, so I didn’t take into consideration that while wet mediums are wonderful and lovely to work with, they are not the most cooperative when it comes to drying quickly.

So, at this point, I have the base color of Coastal Fog (from Cheap Joe’s American Journey collection, WONDERFUL WONDERFUL paint) down (but you can’t tell because it is very close to being white and I have now painted over the parts of the paper that DIDN’T have Coastal Fog down, so you will just have to trust me), I have my figure covered in Elmer’s Rubber Cement (liquid resist DOES work a little bit better, BUT it is tons harder to remove and always gives me blisters on my fingers from removing it, so I use rubber cement when I can.  For things that have to be pristine, I use liquid resist, but for things that I am going to make darker, it doesn’t really matter, it is more so that I can see the lines), and I have my wet into wet work done.

I’ve added a couple of more techniques to this since the photo was taken, making some parts darker to make it more balanced and to add a bit of contrast to what is going to be a lighter background (you’ll see), and, well, let’s face, to make it look better.  Once the wets really dry (all the bits that look like they are sparkling or shimmering are where there is either water standing or the paper is wet enough to reflect the flash, and yes, there are four places where water is standing on the paper.  If you know what you are doing, you can do that, and when the water dissipates, the pigment doesn’t go with it.  It is really easy to learn that one though, the pigments generally want to stay where the water is and not go into the dry parts, so you just have to allow for the drying without moving it around) I will be able to add the darker tunnels and drips that are going to make up the foreground.  AND I will be able to take the rubber cement off of the figure and paint it, then I will be done.

I am not sure I am going to like it to be honest, this is a bit off the path of how I usually paint, but it is fun, so I am hoping that it will come out the way that I like it.  There are not going to be more than 3 to 5 layers over the entire thing, which is a BIG difference for me, but a good exercise for me at the same time.

Now, if the thing will just DRY.

I didn’t like the detail photo of the cowboy on bronco, so here is a better one.

I wanted to see the little detailing on the boot since I worked so hard to put it there.