Practice Koi Tile Mural II

"Practice Koi Tile Mural II"

Image size 18" x 36"

Glazed Ceramic Tile

I decided that my tile painting had too many middle values, so I overpainted a lot of the background to give it more punch.  I'm much happier with it now.

Here's how it looked last week:

Which do you like better?

I've been painting the small side of the tile mural for my backyard.  I have painted the background color for the water as well as the lily pads and most of the fish.  I won't add the other colors in the water until the big side is painted up to this same point.  I want to paint the added colors in the water on both sides at the same time so that they will read well together.  

All of the pieces for the large side are scrubbed (to get all of the clay dust off of them) and laid out (again) on the paper pattern.  That takes a while to do just that!  I'm excited to finally be ready to paint the big side.  It will probably take another 3-5 weeks to finish that.  Then, after I paint the extra colors in the water on both sides, I will add a layer of clear glaze to all of the pieces (about 550) and start the firing process.  I can fit about 50-60 pieces in my kiln for each firing.

Practice Koi Tile Mural

"Practice Koi Tile Mural"

Image size 18" x 36"

Glazed Ceramic tiles

I finished painting the practice painting that will lead me into painting the huge tile mural for my yard.  I was really nervous about finally painting the clay because I didn't know how it would turn out.

I don't know if you can see in this photo, but two of the lily pads have the dark green veins oozing and they look really bad.  Also, I added a dark green around the edges which doesn't show because the glaze that I used was too transparent.  I wasn't sure if I could add more glaze and refire but decided it was worth it to try.  

I used my Dremel tool to grind the dark green glaze that had oozed out of place by the veins on the lily pads.

Then, I repainted the same background color over the areas that I ground. These are two different lily pads.

You can see how different the color looks before it is fired.  I also painted a different dark green around the edges but didn't take a picture of that before I fired it.

Here is a picture of a portion of the painting showing the newly fired lily pads.

I'm also not entirely satisfied with the color in the water.  I think it needs to have more really dark areas and also some greenish color.  This week, I think I will add some glazes to the water and see what happens.

Knowing that I can add glaze and change things really reduces my sense of anxiety about painting the real mural.  I'm very happy that I had this smaller version to use for practice.

I've started painting the small side of the mural.  It will take a while!

ACEO Fuchsia

ACEO Fuchsia

Image size 3.5" x 2.5"

Watercolor

I've been working all week on painting my "practice" tile mural so I just painted this ACEO for my weekly painting.  I haven't painted flowers for a long time and I thought it would be fun.  The background in person is a warmer color that looks better than this picture.

I'm almost finished with the practice tile painting.  I'm both excited and scared to see it once it is fired.  I've painted the fish and lily pads as well as the base color for the water.  Now I will add more colors in the water and over the fish so that they look like they are under the water.  That should be a really fun part to paint.  Then, I will put a clear glaze over each piece and fire everything.  Hopefully, that will all be done this coming week.  Fingers crossed....

View From Heisler II

"View From Heisler II"

Image size 20" x 16"

Oil

A couple of weeks ago I posted a painting from this same reference photo, but it was on a long, skinny canvas.  It had been done as a palette knife painting using acrylics.  This is also a palette knife painting, but I used oils.  It was much easier to paint since the oils don't dry quickly.  The first one looked a bit more abstracted because I had lots of specks of the black underpainting showing.  Below is a picture of the first one.  Which do you like better?

Also this week, I finished the bisque firing for all of the tile mural pieces.  As long as I don't break any, I can start painting.  I will first paint the 'practice' mural that I made from the first pieces I cut that were too small.  If that turns out well, I can paint the real thing.  If it doesn't turn out well I guess I will just sit down and have a good cry....