Big Fish, Small Pond

I've painted koi fish so many times because they are really pretty and fun to paint.  I had this incredible piece of textured mulberry paper that I purchased well over a year ago but I'd never used it because it seemed almost too special.  I thought a watery subject would be perfect for it.  Of course, when I think water, I think koi.  I used acrylics thinned down like watercolor for this.  I knew I wanted some intense darks and didn't think I could achieve them with watercolor because this paper needed to be sealed before painting on it and in the past, when I've used watercolors on sealed paper, my darks are pretty weak.

This paper had no sizing in it at all and it acted like a blotter so I used acrylic matte medium to seal it first.  I guess I didn't seal it enough though because the paint creeped and seeped all over the place.  As I added more layers of paint, that became less of a problem because each layer of acrylic sealed the paper more.

Having so much texture in the paper was fun and frustrating at the same time.  Once I relaxed and let the paint do what it wanted, I enjoyed the process.  Below is a close-up of the paper to show the texture.  I shot this photo in the sun because I thought the texture would show better but because of the shadows, it looks like there are deep grooves in the paper when actually the areas next to the shadows are raised.

Using acrylics very thin like watercolor is really fun.  It's nice that I don't have to worry about disturbing previous layers (because once they dry, they are permanent) and I can still get the interesting effects of glazing.  Watercolors are still prettier and more interesting in my opinion because of the sedimentary qualities of many of the watercolor paints.  Acrylics tend to look a little more flat.

Big Fish, Small Pond
Image Size 22" x 30"
Acrylic