Pear Family

Pear Family

Image Size 12" x 6"

Watercolor

I painted this on a saturated piece of paper.  It's fun to try to control the combination of water to paint when painting this way.  It's important to add less water and more paint as the paper begins to dry.  I put the paper on a piece of plexiglass while I was painting so the paper stayed super wet for a long time.  It's a challenge to keep adding paint without getting blooms from having too much water in the brush.  I've got a long way to go before I'll feel like I'm in control when painting this way.

When I wet this paper, I could tell that the sizing was gone.  The paper becomes translucent when wet if there is no sizing.  I didn't care about the lack of sizing because when the paper is saturated, it doesn't seem to matter if it's gone.  I like the fuzzy, ethereal look that this painting has because of the combination of wet paper and lack of sizing.

Little Plumeria Study

Little Plumeria Study

Image Size 3.5" x 6"

Watercolor on TerraSkin

It seems like forever since I've painted with watercolor and I've really missed it.  This is a small study on TerraSkin, which I haven't used for a long time either.  I had forgotten how much fun this surface is to paint of and definitely need to use TerraSkin more often.  It's challenging to layer color without lifting the under layers but that is part of the fun!

Encaustic Magnolia

Encaustic Magnolia

Image Size 5" x 7"

Encaustic

I painted this from a photo of the magnolia tree in our yard.  It was a close-up of one of the upper branches and it was vertical like this.  As I look at this finished painting, I think it would have looked more natural if I had placed the branch at a bit of an angle.  Also, the branch for the bud became much thicker as I was fusing.  It's just a small study so I'm using this as a learning experience.  As always, encaustic is a lot of fun and a great challenge.

Koi Pond

Koi Pond

Image size 11" x 14"

Oil

I started this a couple of months ago and finished it this week.  I really love painting koi.  I think this is the first time I've painted them in oil.  I'm getting more comfortable painting with oils although I still love painting in watercolor better.