Daisy Peeper Quartet ~ Complete

I started this painting last year, then ran into a snag so it needed some tweaking to save it which I put off until just recently. I finally put it back on the easel a few days ago, made some adjustments and hopefully it's now ready for framing. I'll have to do my 'sit and stare' time with it to make sure it all works. This is a full sheet and I rarely work this large so I was praying I could rescue it. The thought of wasting a full sheet of w/c paper makes me feel ill.:( Thank God for heavy body acrylics.

Daisytown Peepers ~ WIP 2

Since last post I completed the fourth frog and the centers of the flowers. When I started painting the petals I ran into a snag. Arches hotpress paper ain't what it used to be and I knew this when I began the painting. Foolishly I thought I could work around it and I still can but it will take longer than expected. The surface of this paper roughs up very easily when removing frisket film or masking fluid and no matter how careful I am I'm left with trouble. All the other elements of the painting were easily handled but the petals must be as smooth and pristine as possible and that's not going to happen with any water based or 'juicy' medium. I'll have to resort to heavy body acrylic and probably more than one coat to get the job done right. I will be working on this one here and there as my patience dictates but for now I'm moving on to something that hopefully will go much faster. I will post the final painting when it's complete.

Daisytown Peepers

I thought I'd post a quick update to keep things moving and to plug a product. Today I took a couple of closeups of my Daisytown frogs. I'm using a new(new to me)product, Lumiere by Jacquard. Lumiere is a light body acrylic paint similar to fluid acrylics although this paint offers more application options. Here I've used it as watercolor, applying it undiluted over a damp glaze of DS green gold and DR Vivid green. The color I chose was Halo Blue Gold, a mixture of pearlescent blue, green and metallic gold. I love metallics but I know how easy it is to over-do them. In this case they worked perfectly to make these frogs stand out. The gold shimmer makes these peepers look wet and sun kissed.

Daisytown Peeper Quartet ~ WIP 1

Apologies to all my visitors for the gap in updates. I've had some health problems this month and haven't felt like picking up a brush. I finally decided I needed to get off my duff and get to work so I started with this project.

I first protected the subjects with frisket film, then poured the background paint which consisted of DS Pyrrol red, DR Quin. gold and WN Quin. red. This painting is a full sheet so the pouring was done in my bathtub over a period of two days. Note: It was kind of disconcerting to see dried splashes and smears of red in the tub. I'm sure if someone had been visiting and saw that they would've feared the worst. LOL

I removed the frisket from the stems and the leaf, then started with a glaze of DS green gold followed by DS Perylene green. The current plan is to complete the frogs next, then the centers of the blooms and finally the petals. I have some cleanup work to do on those petals as I had some leaking under the frisket film during the pours. I will most likely use some white gouache to correct that.

Daisytown Peeper Quartet ~ sketch

I kinda like this palette so far. It's a smidgeon of Pyrrol red(poured) with Quin. red, Quin. gold and streaks of a green I mixed up applied with a brush. I glazed over the green with Quin. red to tone it down. I drew a little daisy with soft pastel on my trial sample to see how well the palette worked with my subject.

This is my current working title until something better comes to mind. I finally completed the sketch after adjusting the tall daisy on the right three times. At first it looked too imposing so I reduced the size of the flower. Too small.:( Then I enlarged it slightly and still too small. Wrong, wrong, wrong.}:( Spent all afternoon tweaking this flower until I felt it meshed with the rest of the composition only to find I had returned it to the original size! Apparently it just needed some refining. Oh well...I don't ordinarily work this large (full sheet) plus this is a compilation of five+ photos so I'm discovering all kinds of challenges I've never faced before.

At the moment the plan is to use Arches HP w/c paper for this project. I'll be saving the white daisies and frogs with frisket film and will probably be doing some pouring of paint unless I can find a really big brush. Hotpress can be so tricky to work with but frisket film works best on this surface. Even though the setting is in a garden I want to avoid using a lot of green this time so I've been experimenting with various reds. With the green frogs I want to be careful not to let it become Christmas-y looking, though.

Sizing Up A Comp ~ Part 3

The past few days I've been slooowly adding things to this composition. I compare prepping a comp for a full sheet painting to giving birth. Committing to a full sheet is a huge deal to me as all my supplies are precious. Wish that wasn't the case but it is. I want to take the utmost care in planning with the hope that the outcome will be a success and I will be rewarded with something of which I can be proud.

Taking my time and looking at each addition to see if it works in the overall scheme of things is crucial. The tall daisy on the right needed some tweaking. That long straight stem was too harsh and looked like the mast on a sailboat listing in the wind...with a flower on top. I softened the angle by curving it slightly. I also added another large daisy bloom in the lower left corner in hopes that would create depth. Surprisingly both large daisies look about the same size in the image even though one is over three inches wider than the other. Camera distortion maybe?

It has become obvious to me this will be a WIP for awhile so I'll probably start working on some other, smaller projects just to keep my brushes wet.

Sizing Up a Comp ~ part 2

I've added another frog to the picture and put a blossom on the end of that big stem on the right. I took numerous photos of my own shasta daisies and will continue to refer to them when adding additional daisies. The way it's going this will turn out to be a full sheet when completed.

Conclusion: This project was taking too long, using up too much tracing paper and looks like a crazy quilt. I finally broke down and called our local print shop. Kwikie Print has become Village Graphics(not sure when that happened..I need to pay more attention when I'm in town) and they now offer more services including enlargement of drawings. My tracing paper quilting days are over!

Sizing Up A Composition

I've got a new piece brewing already. One of the members of my Michigan garden forum posted photos of tiny tree frogs sitting on her shasta daisies and generously agreed to share them with me for a painting. I'd like to make this at least a half sheet, maybe larger. I'm trying to determine how large I want each frog in relationship to the others within the composition I have in mind. This is a compilation of two separate images so I will need to do some adjusting.

I used edge detection in Irfanview and traced my line drawing onto tracing paper. BTW, I use my PC monitor as my lightbox. I then taped the tracing paper to a scrap piece of foamcore and am posting a photo so I can size things up(pun intended). Pretty rough at this point. PSP is outside my budget and I've about given up on my Elements 6. I think it's been corrupted. Whatever it's malfunction, it's just too darn frustrating to try and put together a comp with it. I'll have to use some ingenuity or just do it the old fashioned way and make umpteen drawings until I'm satisfied. I'll also need to take some photos of my own daisies to complete the scene.

Frogs, Frogs, Frogs

My trusty #2 squirrel quill for those who aren't familiar with this type of brush, which I used for my painted frogs

These are my w/c sketches done with the quill. I numbered them in the order painted.

This one's got the look of desire...a desire for lunch!

He's got the look of love

The bullfrog


I've had frogs on the brain for days now. My oldest son requested I paint a few for him and I realized I've only painted one. Nothing makes me think 'frog' more than the good old bullfrog. To me, they're as American as apple pie only not as tasty. I went looking online and was amazed at how many websites there are devoted entirely to frogs and the people that love them!

I did a few pencil sketches trying to come up with a concept, theme....whatever. My first thought was to put a frog on the Moon. Afterall, I put cats on the Moon. Why not frogs? I shot that idea down and decided to try a few other ideas which I've posted above.

Today I was admiring Lian Quan Zhen's work(I have the link on my blog list)and decided to try my hand at a more loose, sumi e-style approach. I worked with my #2 squirrel quill brush which was a little large for the job but I think as I went along I began to improve. I've got another concept in mind now but I'm waiting for the gesso to dry so it will be a few days before I'll be posting my results if (big IF)I'm successful.