Feb 25th: Acrylic Air Force Coin

I despise circles. And stars.As it happens, this painting has both. You can't just freehand a perfect, pretty circle. Not if you're me anyway. Even though I have a compass, I never learn. I thought I could use a dinner plate, trace a circle and freehand the rest. Nope. Nope. Nope. What an uneven mess! Not only did I set myself back about 30 minutes or so fixing circles, but I also had to paint over all the text. I hope I learn from this and save myself time in the future...

Feb 16-18: All Sorts of Painting

Blogging today as I wait for jury duty.  Whee. 

This past weekend and the week preceding it, I worked on a bunch of different stuff.

I stalled and did a random watercolor of Darth Maul.  By the way, watercolors should be blended while they're still wet.  I went to blend some things after it dried and well, there was some major correcting.  Maul is gonna be an extra piece to sell at a booth in the future.   I never have extra art to just sell.

I then tackled the oil painting for Mr. Rao.  It's a good thing I didn't ship it.  His eyes were way too far apart.  Way.  So I went in and moved them almost a whole inch.  Geez.  Added some shading, but mostly fixed his eyes.  Eyes should be an eye-width apart.  Any closer or farther,  their face will look weird. 

I also started a fairly large painting that'll eventually have 2 Air Force seals on it.  Did the background in acrylic,  pretty basic.  Glad to get away from oils for a while.

Lastly,  I began another piece last night.  It's Yoda...but he's made up of really tiny words.  All Yoda quotes. It's gonna be awesome, but it'll cramp the heck out of your hand!  Once done,  it'll also be an extra to sell.  It's nice to do some nerd art for a change.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.10

Feb 11th: The Dangers of Winging It

While I was waiting for Mr. Rao's oil painting to dry, I began converting my colored pencil anime drawing to a more final painted version.   Though I'm certainly not an expert on watercolor, I like the subtleties of it.  I knew I needed stars, so I went out and bought some masking fluid. 

If you recall, last time I tried masking fluid it was gloppy and horrible.  But it turns out that masking fluid that's not on sale is liquid and not gloppy whatsoever. 

So I set about painting the girl and loved, loved, loved how she looked.   Ignoring my husband's advise to test the masking on something else first, I painted it over my girl.  Once it was dry I painted my wash background...peeled off the masking and...ruined.  Oh ruined!  The masking had peeled off the paint underneath and some if the wash had gotten through!   Gah!  There was no saving it.

I knew the error was completely ignorance on my part, I remained positive and tried again.  But not before consulting some experts.  Turns out, you have to mask a clean, dry, unpainted area.   Mistake one.  Your brush must be dry.  Mistake two.  Then to ensure paint doesn't seep through,  2 coats. Mistake three.

My second try was a complete success!  I'm so happy about the tree and stars!  It might not be the final product, but it's close.  And I learned a valuable lesson in the process.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.10