Back to the Drawing Board

Sorry for the lapse in updates. My flamingos fell by the wayside when my COPD flared again this Spring. Seems it's become an annual event. While recovering I needed to avoid the alcohol ink fumes so I completed a commission for a long time friend, a watercolor painting of a lady slipper I've been promising her for yeeears, and also a few pencil sketches for myself. I forget to simply draw something for my own pleasure. I enjoy it and don't know why I don't do it more often. I need to remedy that.

This gal is strickly from my imagination.

The receptionist at my doctor's office.
Lovely girl.
She has a perfectly oval face.

Pink Lady Slippers~experiment continues

Closeup 1

Closeup 2

I've been playing around with this painting, trying to see what effects would make this pop more. I toned down the red-violet in the background with some DS Iridescent blue, then added metallic gold ink. I used an oil based gold Zig Painty pen to outline areas of the flowers, leaves and stems, then applied some metallic gold ink from a stamp pad by tapping it through nylon window screening with an old brush trimmed flat to use as a stencil brush. I think it looks kinda cool!

Pink Lady Slippers~WIP 2

Cropped

I'm still considering this a work in progress even though it looks completed albeit kinda sloppy. I want to experiment further with it to see what effects I can continue to create. I tried various mixtures of greens (both cool and warm), making different marks with the brush, working wet into wet, wet into dry, spraying, etc. I'm wondering if acrylic inks would give me more vibrant colors, possibly using a mixture of both watercolor and ink to achieve the look I'm after. I'd also love to get some metallics into picture.

Pink Lady Slippers~WIP 1

I had a drawing all set to go, then decided after seeing a dyed silk piece that inspired me to such a degree as to send me in a whole new direction. I have no idea if this will turn out well nor do I care at the moment. I loved the effect of the dyed silk painting so much I'd like to try and create roughly the same effect with watercolor on paper. I know it's going to take some experimenting and I also know I'm going to have some failures. I'm currently working on Arches #140 CP w/c paper but I may switch over to hotpress paper if I don't like the outcome. I did do a quickie sketch to get things started but I want to keep this fairly loose and spontaneous for the first go.