Chinese New Year ACEOs, Black and white Wedding Picture for PPF

Watercolor, Chinese or Lunar New Year ACEOs

For sale in my Ebay Store, done for a challenge

 

Every week we change the topic and Feb is the start of the Lunar New Year, so these are my interpretations of the symbols and festivities of the holiday.

I made twofers out of a larger watercolor painting, and these are the matted pictures ready for framing in a standard 8x10 size. For sale in my Etsy Shop.

Another challenge this week, this one on Daily Paint Works, to forget about color and paint using only black and white. I took a photo of my daughter's Victorian style wedding many years ago and did it in watercolor, using only black paint and the white of the paper.

 

The exercise helped me to see the values in the picture.

Mardi Gras ACEOs and Heidi's Dogs for PPF

Bright, Colorful Miniature Watercolors

It's a Mardi Gras theme this week in my Facebook ACEO 30/30 group. I love the bright colors after a week of painting dull presidents! All of these were done with watercolor and pen.

 I painted my friend's Dog three times in Watercolor, Pen and ink.

6x6 above and 5x7 below 

and 8x10 below

She gets to choose her favorite, and then the other two will be listed for sale.

An Apple or two a Day. Failed Watercolors, Cropped for Sale as ACEOs

An Apple a Day

Do you have any watercolor paintings that are duds? I sure do, and sometimes I find a little portion of the art that is worthy of saving. I do a lot of ACEOs, 2.5 x 3.5 inches, more than 850 as of this writing. These two apples were part of a failed 9x12 exercise done in my weekly watercolor class. As a large painting, it was unremarkable. So, I used a mat with a cutout made for ATC cards to find the paintings I wanted to preserve. I like the still life food paintings as miniatures.

With a little line work and chopping, I have two apple paintings to sell

and

Since I have so many art cards in my inventory, I have a section in my Ebay Store where I offer over 50 Artist Trading Cards for $5 each. That way people can buy art at a reasonable price and become a collector of my art. 

Past Her Prime, A Real Old Doll

"Past Her Prime: A Real Old Doll," 12x16 Acrylic

This was a fun one! I was inspired by a contest on EBSQart.com to paint a doll. I searched the internet and found a free reference photo on morguefile.com 

The hair was done with heavy body white structural acrylic paint impasto style and the cracks in her arms and face were done with Crackle Medium. I used an old 12x16 canvas board that I had painted on before, so it had lots of texture. I added more brush strokes with heavy acrylic and then painted the doll on top of that. It gave the whole thing lots of texture.

Horse, Birds, Presidents and Flowers for PPF

Some WC Birds and Flowers, a Horse and a couple of Presidents!

4x4 Robin, Watercolor, SOLD

5x7, "The Odd Couple, Lovebird and Budgie"

9x12 Impressionistic Purple and Pink Flowers in a Vase, Watercolor

ACEO, Challenge on Facebook, from a horse photo reference, above and 3 Impressionistic Floral ACEOs below.

30/30 ACEOS Group, for Feb, Week 2, President's Day Theme

Dogs, Rodents and Tulips, PPF

Playing with Paint

9x12 Watercolor on Yupo Paper, loose style, with lots of drippy wet paint. If you haven't tried painting on yupo, it will be an experience to loosen up and let the paint do the work. I like yupo when I feel like playing. It reminds me of fingerpaints. But be careful not to touch the paper because the oils from your hands will prevent the paint from sticking. You can see where I held the paper on the lower left side, my thumb print is there.  But I usually leave things like that because somehow it feels like a happy accident.

ACEO sketch card, Field Mouse with Flower, a little 2.5 x 3.5 inch painting done in watercolor with a little bit of pen linerwork. He has a bid already. Just a little sketch card for the mouse collectors.

English Springer Spaniel 5x7 mixed media on 140# cold press

painted three times from different photos but one dog. I think this one is sold.

5x7 Same dog, watercolor on 140# cold press paper

and the same dog below, 

8x10 Watercolor and Higgins White Ink on 140# hot press paper