Bundle Up #2

The second installment in my new series based on women's coats and accessories. Sorry for the lag in updates. After my last post I could not find traction for some reason and I hope whatever was going on with me has passed for a good long time.

Back to the Inks

Butterfly I

5" x 7"

April 2013 has not been a productive month for me. I managed to create more paintings than usual, all of which landed in File 13. It seems that not only trying a new style but also a new subject has proved folly for me. I had hopes of whipping up a Shirley Trevena style still life but that didn't happen. In the meantime a laundry list of to-dos was piling up behind me so I had to stop and take care of business. I didn't expect to lose Digby either but it happened and I've needed a few days to grieve. It really threw me for a loop to be honest. Maybe as I get older these things hit harder.

Art is good therapy so I got out the one medium that gives me the most pleasure at the moment and painted this butterfly using my faux batik technique .

Note: My reference photo was courtesy of Veronique on Paint My Photo.

Batik Dragonfly ~ alcohol ink on waxed paper

SOLD

Instead of using India ink, I thinned black Speedball printer ink with tap water to a heavy cream consistency and used that in it's place. I think I like the Speedball ink better and it's far more economical. One heaping teaspoon of Speedball made a lot of ink.

Cawcus~WIP Update

I have been working, albeit slooowly, on this project. I decided on a Venetian plaster look for the background. I wanted something predominately warm so I started with a little perm. yellow, then switched to DS Quin. gold, Quin. gold deep and D-R Warm Sepia applied with a sweeping cross hatch motion using a damp 2" synthetic brush. Since I'm using black Speedball ink (which is opaque) for the crows I transferred my drawing first and brushed on the background paint right over the unpainted crows. I've found painting with Speedball ink works very well. It washes off/out with water so I was able to use my good watercolor brushes and it's wonderful for producing a deep, rich true black. Today I finished painting the crows. I'll be adding some iridescent paint to the feathers, possibly some colored pencil, finishing the eyes and after a suitable amount of 'look time' I may tweak a few areas before declaring this complete.